A six-point showing had Baker Mayfield steaming on Sunday.
He was of the belief that a bit of a pissed-off approach would do the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense some good. And his head coach agrees.
"In certain instances, we should be pissed off every week," Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said Wednesday, via team transcript. "I think we are pissed off. I just think we have to play smart and we have to play more disciplined football, as far as understanding what we have to do and going out and everybody has to do their job. We have to coach it better and play it better -- all of that includes and entails being pissed off.”
It would seem Mayfield's message was that the Buccaneers offense needs to not just be upset with its performance, but that it needs to be fired up to do better.
“Just fundamentally executing," Mayfield said Wednesday when asked what he would like to see from his team in terms of being motivated and focused ahead of their Week 7 tilt with the Atlanta Falcons. "Just watching film -- the good games or the bad games -- the film is never as good as you think it is and it’s never as bad either. So, a few of those things -- it’s a lot of fundamentals. Like I mentioned, get pissed off but it’s also taking pride in your work. It’s about executing and doing your job each play. Today we had a good practice. There wasn’t any ‘rah-rah’ speech. The guys know what we need to get done."
Tampa Bay (3-2) is headed into an important early season matchup with Atlanta (3-3), looking to not just maintain its NFC South lead in the standings but create some breathing room to build on.
For that to happen, the Bucs are likely to need more production than the two field goals and 251 yards of offense they got in their 20-6 loss to the Detroit Lions in Week 6.
Not long after the loss, Mayfield didn't hesitate to belch a little bit of the fire he's been known for.
"At a certain point, we gotta get pissed off as an offense," he said Sunday. "We should be putting a lot of points up on the board. It's gotta be -- we talk about the standard about winning around here, but offensively we need to look at it in a smaller picture. We should be putting up a lot of more points than we have been, and so we need to be accountable with that -- it starts with me and we'll get that going."
Tampa scored just 11 points in a Week 3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. A 26-9 win over the New Orleans Saints sandwiched in between two losses was a positive, but the 353-yard showing in that one wasn't exactly cause for jubilance, either.
So it's time to get a little angry for success in Mayfield's mind and words, and his coach is of the same thinking.