Following their 24-18 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday Night Football, the Baker Mayfield-led Buccaneers have now lost three straight games.
Tampa Bay came increasingly close to pulling out a miracle win, but wide receiver Chris Godwin couldn’t get turned around in time for what would’ve been a game-winning Hail Mary. Of course, Chase McLaughlin would’ve needed to nail the extra point, but they would’ve already completed the difficult part.
Since the team’s 26-9 win over the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 1, the Bucs have been outscored 60-37 in three straight losses. They also have three offensive touchdowns over that same period, which doesn’t seem like it’s sustainable in the long run. And certainly hasn’t been over the past 12 quarters of play. Todd Bowles’ defense is also good, but not good enough to carry the team’s lackluster offense to victories.
The team needs more out of Mayfield. And he knows it.
“Losing three in a row sucks,” Mayfield said postgame, via The Tampa Bay Times. “There’s no way around that…But we showed fight tonight. That’s the one thing we can hang our hats on. We gave it everything we had late there, but we’ve got to play better early on. You can’t hurt yourselves.”
Mayfield and the offense’s play has hurt the Buccaneers. While he only has two interceptions in his past three contests, he hasn’t played well enough to make up for the mistakes, even if they aren’t turnover-worthy plays. Mayfield has completed 71-of-121 attempts (58.6 percent) for 718 yards with three passing touchdowns.
Losing may suck, but the Bucs are going to need to show a little bit more than just “fight,” if they want to get back into the race for the NFC South divisional crown.
