Baker Mayfield shines plenty of light on a key problem in the Bucs' bad loss to the Falcons
Just to be 100% clear: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense was the primary reason the Atlanta Falcons won the Week 5 matchup in such dramatic fashion.Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins torched the Todd Bowles' defense all night long and the end result was not only a win, but Atlanta's 550 yards of total offense are the […]
Just to be 100% clear: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense was the primary reason the Atlanta Falcons won the Week 5 matchup in such dramatic fashion.
Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins torched the Todd Bowles' defense all night long and the end result was not only a win, but Atlanta's 550 yards of total offense are the most the Bucs have allowed since Bowles has ran the defense.
It was not pretty, at all. Despite some plays from guys like Lavonte David, Logan Hall, and Vita Vea, the defense couldn't stop almost anything the Falcons were doing.
At the same time, however, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs offense deserve some blame for a poor second half that resulted in just six points on the board.
"We have to find a way to finish that game out on offense," Mayfield told reporters after the game. "I think about the first half, missing that shot to [wide receiver Sterling Shepard] 'Shep' should have been a touchdown, but it ended up as three points. I'm just replaying that one over in my head that maybe [the game] shouldn't have even been an overtime situation. So we have to make the plays when they're there, and then in the second half, we just got to take care of the football and then got to finish on offense…
"… I think that offensively, we'll look back at the tape and realize that we didn't exactly execute in the second half."
The Bucs finished the second half with eight first downs and 111 total net yards after finishing the first half with 13 and 222, respectively. Mayfield and co. averaged just 4.4 yards per play in the second half compared to 8.9 in the first half. They also scored 24 points, of course.
The Falcons really changed up their game plan at halftime and the changes clearly affected Mayfield and the passing attack. The TV broadcast showed the Falcons blitzed the Bucs on 60% of dropbacks, yet yielded a grand total of zero pressures. That is absolutely horrid and never a combination of numbers you want your favorite team's defense to produce.
So, the Falcons played coverage. And it worked. To the point where it allowed the Bucs' injured, yet still porous defense to slowly let the game slip away.
"They definitely weren't playing as aggressive," said Mayfield. "They weren't pressuring as much, kind of dropping back and making us work our way down the field. But just like I said, we have to capitalize, have to keep the momentum going and then find ways to end up in the end zone."
Sure, the no-call on the Bucky Irving facemask on the Bucs' final drive doesn't help things. That pushed the Bucs out of field goal range since the Graham Barton holding call was upheld. But even then, the Bucs offense could've called better plays and/or executed effectively enough to where it got back into good enough range from the 41-yard line.
As we all know, Chase McLaughlin is as automatic as they come from 50+, so six yards over the course of second and third down would get him into about a 52-53 yard range, which is certainly makable for him. Hell, he had two 50+ kicks on the night, already.
Instead, it was a two-yard loss on a Rachaad White pass and a one-yard gain on an Irvin run.
"I did," Mayfield said when asked if he thought the Bucs had won after David's fourth quarter interception. "But like I said, we have to learn how to finish that four minute offense. They know we're on the ball. We know we're on the ball. [We] got to find ways to make it work."
"We had the ball in our hands, twice, to finish out the game [and] we didn't do it," Bucs left tackle Tristan Wirfs told reporters after the game. "So, that's really all there is to it. Because if we won, we wouldn't be asking these questions, we'd be celebrating. So, yeah, it's tough to put up 30 points both sides of the ball are flying around, you know, [it's a]back and forth game.
"Twice now this year, we haven't been finished with the ball in our hand on offense, so we have to get better at that."
Consider it another learning lesson for the Bucs. It's best to take the lumps, now, than later in the year when every win and loss is magnified even more. And, the fact that Mayfield is willing to say the quiet part out loud gives faith in the idea they'll get things turned around.
