When the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced they'd be wearing the classic Creamsicle uniforms, it didn't mean for the offense to morph into the downtrodden Bucs teams of yesteryear in a 20-6 loss to the Detroit Lions.
Baker Mayfield not only donned the Creamsicle, but he also wore the loss on Sunday.
"We sucked today," Mayfield said following the game, via the team's official website. "I sucked today, we sucked today, it was awful from the get-go. We can't play like that. We didn't start fast, we didn't pick it up in the middle and we didn't finish strong. Plain and simple, we have to be better. The Lions are a good ballclub, but if we play like that we're going to lose every time. I think the defense and special teams did an amazing job yet again."
Mayfield went 19-of-37 passing for 206 yards and threw an interception while taking one sack. With zero run game to speak of, the Bucs offense was an amalgam of inconsistency Sunday, unable to stack good plays. They had just one three-and-out on the day but didn't have more than two first downs on a drive until the final desperation possession down two scores.
Mayfield couldn't find the mark deep, missing rookie Trey Palmer twice, and his INT could have gone for a big gain to Mike Evans had it not been tipped at the line.
"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."
Mayfield has been solid much of the season, but he's come up short against the NFC contenders, Philadelphia and now Detroit. The Bucs proved they can beat the downtrodden teams (Minnesota, Chicago) and battle rivals (New Orleans), but with a chance to show it against potential heavyweights, they've gotten beat by 14 points.
Mayfield shouldered the blame for Sunday's loss, but it was a collective effort. The defense held Detroit to 20 points but also gave up 9 of 16 third down tries, including several of third-and-10-plus, and didn't create a turnover. The offense's lack of a run game is crippling the operation. And Todd Bowles' decision to punt on a fourth-and-2 from his own end down 14 points in the fourth quarter led to a clock-bleeding Lions drive.
Still, Mayfield said it's the offense's job to put up points, which they're not doing with any frequency.
"At a certain point, we gotta get pissed off as an offense," Mayfield said. "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."
