Getty Baker Mayfield, Bucs quarterback
You never know what you’re going to get with a Buccaneers Baker Mayfield press conference, do you? Give Mayfield credit. He was somewhere between refreshingly honest and painfully obvious in his interview on Sunday following the Buccaneers’ rough showing against the Lions in Week 6, which ended in a 20-6 loss.
Mayfield was asked a question about third down efficiency and instead, he just verbally crumpled up the whole game and chucked it in the wastebin.
“We sucked today,” he said. “I sucked today, we sucked today. It was awful. From the get-go. Can’t play like that. Didn’t start fast, we didn’t pick it up in the middle. We didn’t finish strong. Plain and simple, we have to be better.”
“I sucked today. We sucked today. It was awful,” Baker Mayfield says, owning a 20-6 loss to the Lions.
Mayfield threw for 206 yards on 19-for-37 passing on Sunday, with no touchdowns and an interception. It was the first time this season he had failed to throw for a touchdown and, at 56.3, it was by far his lowest quarterback rating of any game since he arrived in Tampa.
“The Lions are a good ball club but if we play like that, we’re gonna lose every time so …,” Mayfield said. “Defense and special teams did an amazing job yet again. And offense, we just need to pick our sh** up. It’s really, no other way around it.”
Bucs Running Game Fails Again
More than anything the again-anemic ground game of the Buccaneers was a massive disappointment, logging only 46 yards on 16 carries, with an average of 2.9 yards per rush. The team entered Week 6 with the worst yards-per-rush record in the league (3.0) and somehow performed worse on Sunday. The Bucs did not get a single rushing first down and the team’s longest run of the game was for eight yards.
The lack of a Bucs running game allowed the Lions to dominate time of possession, controlling the ball for 36:30, compared to just 23:30 for Tampa Bay.
Coach Todd Bowles laid the blame on post-bye-week rust.
“I thought it was a hard-fought game,” said Bowles after the game. “I thought the mistakes we made put the game to 20-6 and we couldn’t recover, I thought we made a lot of mistakes and it looked like we came off a bye week. We don’t compare who we play and how we play; I think each game is different. I do think we have a good football team. But I think we’re young. I think it felt like we came off a bye week and we looked sluggish and we played like that.”
Bucs Baker Mayfield Press Conference Always Entertaining
Mayfield was a bit worse for wear after the game. He had the index finger on his right hand stitched up, and took a blow on his left arm, too. When he came in to give his weekly autopsy, he was holding his left arm, as if it still hurt.
He offered no excuses for mistakes, though.
Mayfield made some poor throws, including one that was tipped at the line for an interception, a play in which he had Mike Evans open on a blown coverage and nothing but green grass ahead of him. He also missed two deep balls to rookie Trey Palmer.
Man, Mike Evans had a wide open TD on that INT
“Not only those two to Trey but the tipped interception, Mike was going to score a touchdown,” said Mayfield. “It was just one of those days. I had everything we wanted but didn’t execute, so it’s frustrating as hell. We have to find ways to make it work and it starts with me. We’ll fix it.”
And we’ll look forward to the Buccaneers Baker Mayfield press conference when they do.