Baker Mayfield and Bucs eat their own words against Falcons and it looks like they don’t even want to make the playoffs
The Bucs are a bad team and all they’re doing is talking. Talk is cheap. Winning teams make plays and they aren’t doing that.
Baker Mayfield and Todd Bowles made it 100% clear what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ mindset would be after losing to the 2-10 New Orleans Saints in Week 14.
“We should be frustrated about this loss. We should take it out on Thursday night,” Mayfield told reporters after the loss.
Todd Bowles add some of his own flavor, as well.
“Our biggest thing is: We can’t let one loss turn into two, because we [have] to turn around and play Thursday, and we [have] to come to work tomorrow — as bitter taste as this is and it’s very bitter for me and everybody else, we [have] to turn around tomorrow [and] not let one loss turn into two,” said Bowles.
Well, it’s safe to say the Bucs are eating their own words. Not only did they lose to another subpar team in the Atlanta Falcons, they managed to do so on a night where the Falcons made mistake after mistake after mistake.
It’s official: The Bucs are a bad team and there is zero guarantee they make the playoffs this year. In fact, they look like they don’t even want to make the playoffs, at this point. What else explains the atrocious football that’s been on display the last two weeks?
Bowles’ words continues to haunt the Bucs after the Falcons loss
After the Saints game, Bowles tried to send a message to the Bucs the following Monday, but it obviously didn’t resonate.
“We’ve got be big boys, we’ve got to get over it and own what we did, and we’ve got to get better at things we need to get better at,” said Bowles. “We’ve got to look in the mirror – we understand that as a group we’ve been through this before, but it’s different every single year and every time [we] do it. Nobody likes to lose, and you’re coming on a short week, [we have] a chance to get the bad taste out of your mouth, but they should be upset. They should own what they do, we as coaches own what we do, and as a team own what we do, and we’ve got to come out Thursday and we’ve got to correct them.”
Mayfield added even more on top of that Tuesday.
“It’s that playoff mentality,” said Mayfield. “[When you’re] looking at it, we’re playing a divisional opponent, they would love nothing more than to beat us and screw up our chances. So, you go into it expecting, ‘Okay, do they really have a lot on the line? Yeah, because they’re trying to knock us out of the playoffs,’ so that’s the mindset. It’s playoff mentality for us, and we have to expect to get their best.”
That “playoff mentality” didn’t show up when it mattered most, especially for Mayfield, who’s missed throw on third down to an open Emeka Egbuka and subsequent fourth quarter interception paved the runway for the Falcons’ eventual comeback.
“It falls on my shoulders,” Mayfield said of the interception. “And then [I] just got to hit ‘Mek in stride on that third down. “Listen, you can say what you want about being up two scores and the defense right there, but we have to be better on offense. And it comes down to how I played this one. This one’s gonna haunt me.”
The Bucs don’t have a playoff mentality. They don’t even have a winning mentality, right now
This team simply cannot make plays when they have to make them. That is the simplest baseline when it comes to winning football games – much less making a playoff run. If the Bucs can’t stop a freaking third-and-28 and then subsequent fourth-and-14, how in the world do they even expect to win games?
The Falcons committed 19 penalties for 125 yards and one turnover in this game, yet still won. Read that again – 19 penalties for 125 yards. They had 10 for 70 in the first half and still managed to pull off a one-point lead after the first 30 minutes. That’s just absolutely insane to think about.
This isn’t a good Falcons team, either. It’s not a team capable of making this many mistakes and still having the margin of error to win the game. It’s a bad team and Thursday night should’ve put it six feet under.
Instead, the Falcons are dancing on the Bucs’ graves.
Where do the Bucs go from here?
Frankly, who knows? It’s hard envisioning a win in Week 16 against the Carolina Panthers, at this point. Much less the Miami Dolphins in Week 17, either.
The wheels are officially off the wagon and it’s about careen off the side of the cliff. I wrote earlier in the week that Bowles’ job is safe unless total catastrophe hits and we are definitely on the brink of that.
If the Bucs lose these next to games and fall to 8-9 or 7-10 on the season, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Bowles is let go. The Bucs are relatively healthy at this point and are healthier than they’ve been all year – the injuries are no longer an excuse.
This is all on the coaching staff and players, at this point. And if they don’t get corrected then we could be looking at a slew of changes during the offseason.
