The Buccaneers blew a key game on Thursday night. After the loss to the Falcons, quarterback Baker Mayfield accepted the blame for it.
“It falls on my shoulders,” Mayfield told reporters following the 29-28 defeat. “Can’t turn the ball over, can’t have that interception. And then, just gotta hit [Emeka Egbuka] 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 play. And this one’s gonna haunt me. This falls on my shoulders.”
Asked whether the issue related to decision making, Mayfield was clear on what he needed to do: “Make the throws. Make the throws.”
Up eight in the fourth quarter, Mayfield threw an interception to Falcons defensive back Dee Alford.
“It wasn’t even a disguise, you know,” Mayfield said. “It’s quarters coverage. He’s playing outside leverage, which is really not what he normally does on tape. You gotta go through the reads and if it’s not there, take the damn check down. And it’s plain and simple. This one’s, like I said, it’s gotta beat me up for a little bit.”
Mayfield also was asked about coach Todd Bowles’s message to the team.
“He hit the nail on the head, saying and questioning does it mean anything to the guys?” Mayfield said. “Like, ‘Does this hurt enough for you to actually make changes. To come in, do the work that you need to do, to do the things that we need to do as a team to get better, fix these things and win ball games?’ And he repeated it, and it really is as simple as that. We have talent. Talent doesn’t get you shit though. Doing the work and executing on game days does, and that’s — we didn’t do that today. Like I said, I did not do that.”
Mayfield said it’s not an issue with preparation but execution. He also acknowledged the possibility that it’s a matter of concentration in crunch time.
“I don’t know if it’s losing focus late in games,” Mayfield said. “You know, mine was just lack of execution. But I don’t know if it’s losing focus late in games. I mean, I can’t speak for the defense, but I can speak for the offense. I can speak for myself, and that was that was just execution on my part.”
The end result is that the 7-7 Buccaneers are not happy.
“We’re pissed off,” Mayfield said. “We expected to win that game. We want to win that game. Should be pissed off. And, like I said, when you’re up two scores and your offense has a chance to put the game away, and you don’t — obviously, people are gonna blame the defense, but it’s not the defense’s fault. It’s our fault. It’s my fault. And that’s that’s how I view it, and that’s how I’m gonna handle it.”
They can still get to the playoffs, if they handle their business.
“We have to win out, and we know that,” Mayfield said. “It’s — that’s as plain and simple as it is. We put ourselves in a position to have to do that. So if guys don’t handle that the right way, then we have a much deeper issue. But I don’t believe that we have a culture issue. We’ve just got to be able to translate the stuff that we prepare, we talk about, and do on a consistent basis. We’ve got to translate it to game day.”
The next game day comes in nine days, when they face the Panthers for the first of two meetings in the final three weeks of the season, with a visit to Miami in between.
Win them all, and tonight’s outcome will become a faded memory. Fail to deliver, and the Week 15 Thursday night could be haunting a lot more people than Baker Mayfield.
Falcons Clips
Todd Bowles is gonna end up with soap poisoning.
After Thursday night’s loss to the Falcons, during which the Buccaneers blew a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead to lose their second home game to an eliminated division rival only four days apart, Tampa Bay’s head coach let the expletives fly during his post-game press conference.
Asked what he tells the team in the locker room after a game like this, Bowles was blunt. And repeatedly profane.
“It’s inexcusable,” Bowles said. “We don’t make excuses. We — you gotta fucking care enough where the shit hurts. You gotta fucking care enough where the shit hurts. Gotta fucking mean something to you. It’s more than a job, it’s your fucking livelihood. How well do you know your job? How well can you do your job? You can’t sugar coat that shit. It was in-fucking-excusable. And there’s no fucking answer for it. There’s no excuse for it. That’s what you tell them in the locker room. Look in the fucking mirror.”
He’s right. The problem is that, the buck for the Bucs ultimately stops with him. Salary-cap consequences limit the number of players that can be dumped after a given season. There’s no cap charge for changing coaches.
But there’s still hope, for the Buccaneers and for Bowles. They can wake up, win out, secure the division, and get to the playoffs for the sixth straight year. Bowles’s ability to keep his current job may indeed be hinging on it.
The Falcons could not get out of their own way for most of Thursday night, but they somehow pulled out a 29-28 upset of the Bucs on the final play. Zane Gonzalez’s 43-yard field goal was a dagger to the Bucs’ playoff hopes.
The Panthers are in the driver’s seat in the NFC South after the Bucs lost for the fifth time in six games, this one a heartbreaker. Tampa Bay fell to 7-7, with Atlanta improving to 5-9.
It was a night of star-studded performances. Kyle Pitts, Kirk Cousins and Bijan Robinson had big nights for the Falcons, and Mike Evans returned from his fractured collarbone for his best game in almost a year.
In a game that meant nothing for the Falcons, who already were eliminated from playoff contention, they overcame their own mistakes. Robinson lost a fumble that led to a 25-yard Bucs’ touchdown drive and a 28-14 Bucs’ lead in the fourth quarter, and the Falcons had 19 penalties for 125 yards.
The Falcons erased the Bucs’ 14-point, fourth-quarter lead with two touchdowns — one by Robinson and one by Pitts — followed by two missed 2-point conversions and Gonzalez’s kick.
Atlanta trailed 28-26 with 3:34 left when the Bucs got the ball back. Tampa Bay, though, couldn’t close it out.
Atlanta used its final timeout with 2:24 left in the fourth quarter. The Bucs then threw an incompletion on second-and-14, and Baker Mayfield was sacked for no yards to take it to the 2-minute warning. The Falcons got the ball back with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter, needing only a field goal for the win.
Bucs edge rusher Haason Reddick had a strip-sack of Cousins for an 8-yard loss, and officials ruled Cousins had simultaneous possession of the fumble, allowing the Falcons to keep the ball. On the next play, left tackle Jake Matthews was called for holding to set up a second-and-28 that turned into a third-and-28. Pitts caught a 14-yard pass on third down, and David Sills, who dropped a potential touchdown pass earlier in the game, caught a 21-yarder on fourth-and-14.
That led to Gonzalez’s game-winner.
The Falcons outgained the Bucs 476 to 338, with Cousins going 30-of-44 for 373 and three touchdowns. Pitts scored all three of the touchdown receptions on catches of 8, 17 and 7 yards. He finished with 11 catches for 166 yards. Robinson had 19 carries for 93 yards and a touchdown and eight catches for 82 yards.
Mayfield was 19-of-34 for 277 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Evans caught six passes for 132 yards. Chris Godwin and Devin Culp had touchdown receptions.
Kyle Pitts is having a career night, keeping the Falcons in Thursday Night Football.
The Falcons tight end scored his third touchdown on a spectacular catch that has drawn the Falcons to within 28-26 of the Bucs after a failed 2-point play.
Pitts has 10 catches for 152 yards and his three touchdowns tonight are only one short of his season career-best four touchdowns in 2024. His touchdowns have covered 8, 17 and 7 yards.
Dee Alford’s interception of Baker Mayfield at the Atlanta 33 set up the 10-play touchdown drive.
The Falcons caught a rare break on the drive when Darnell Mooney had the ball punched out by Lavonte David. The ball was surrounded by Bucs, but it somehow squirted back into the arms of Falcons offensive lineman Ryan Neuzil.
Atlanta has 18 penalties for 115 yards and a turnover tonight.
After Bijan Robinson fumbled on the Falcons’ previous possession, he scored a touchdown to get his team back in the game.
Robinson’s 6-yard run, followed by an incompletion on the 2-point attempt, has the Falcons within 28-20 of the Bucs with 9:37 to play in the fourth quarter.
The Falcons went 65 yards in eight plays after the Bucs had converted Robinson’s fumble into a Chris Godwin touchdown and two-point conversion.
David Sills had a 20-yard reception and Kyle Pitts an 18-yarder on the drive. Pitts has eight receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
Robinson has eight catches for 82 yards and 15 carries for 76 yards and the touchdown, but the fumble looms large.
The Falcons have 17 penalties for 110 yards.
What can go wrong has for the Falcons tonight, much of it their own doing.
The Falcons have 16 penalties for 110 yards, with A.J. Terrell cited four times for defensive pass interference, including one that was declined. Terrell’s most recent penalty came against Mike Evans at the Atlanta 5-yard line, with the 10-yard penalty helping set up Chris Godwin’s first touchdown of the season.
Godwin caught a 3-yard pass from Baker Mayfield for the score and then had the 2-point conversion reception to give the Bucs a 28-14 lead with 13:34 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bucs needed only four plays to go 25 yards after safety Christian Izien forced a Bijan Robinson that Jacob Parrish recovered.
Mayfield now has 257 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Evans has six catches for 132 yards.
Welcome back, Mike Evans.
The Buccaneers’ No. 1 receiver, who is playing his first game since Week 7 when he broke his collarbone, has four catches for 102 yards. It is his first 100-yard game since Week 15 of last season.
He was instrumental on the Bucs’ go-ahead score, with a 45-yard reception to the Falcons 12.
The biggest play, though, was Dee Alford’s penalty for illegal contact on an incompletion on third-and-13. The Falcons also have penalties for a facemask and for tripping on the nine-play, 90-yard drive.
The Falcons have 14 penalties for 90 yards.
Tight end Devin Culp, who had only five catches for 88 yards and no touchdowns in his career, caught a 6-yard touchdown from Baker Mayfield to give Tampa Bay a 20-14 lead with 6:22 left in the third quarter.
Buccaneers cornerback Zyon McCollum had arguably the biggest play of Thursday Night Football thus far.
He was called for being offsides on a chip-shot field goal by Zane Gonzalez, giving the Falcons a first down that they converted into a touchdown on the next play. Atlanta leads 14-13 early in the third quarter.
McCollum now is out of the game with an injury.
He injured his hip on Kirk Cousins’ 11-yard pass to Kyle Pitts with 6:37 remaining in the second quarter. The Bucs initially listed McCollum as questionable to return but ruled him out in the third quarter.
He left with no stats.
If the Bucs are going to stop the bleeding on their season, and get back in control of the NFC South, they will need a comeback. And, they will need to figure out how to slow Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts.
Pitts has six catches for 110 yards and two touchdowns, and the Falcons have a 14-13 halftime lead.
Pitts has touchdown receptions of 8 and 17 yards, with the latter coming with 38 seconds left in the half to give Atlanta its first lead of the night at 14-10.
The Bucs hurt themselves on Pitts’ first touchdown. They had the Falcons stopped on third down and settling for a 31-yard Zane Gonzalez field goal, but Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum was penalized for being offsides. The 5-yard penalty on fourth-and-4 allowed the Falcons to take the points off the board.
On the next play, Pitts scored.
The Falcons have outgained the Bucs 222 to 185. Kirk Cousins is 12-of-16 for 155 yards and two touchdowns, and Bijan Robinson has three catches for 25 yards and 10 rushes for 64 yards.
If not for 10 penalties for 70 yards, the Falcons might lead by more.
Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans has returned from his broken collarbone, which kept him out most of the season, to catch three passes for 57 yards. Baker Mayfield is 9-of-19 for 145 yards.
Sean Tucker had a 1-yard touchdown run, and Chase McLaughlin kicked field goals of 49 and 52 yards, with the latter coming on the final play of the half.
The Buccaneers, who led 7-0, stopped the Falcons on third down in the red zone. Atlanta seemingly settled for a 31-yard Zane Gonzalez field goal, but Bucs cornerback Zyon McCollum was penalized for being offsides.
It was close whether he got back out of the neutral zone before the snap. The 5-yard penalty on fourth-and-4 allowed the Falcons to take the points off the board.
On the next play, Kirk Cousins found tight end Kyle Pitts for an 8-yard touchdown.
The game is tied 7-7 with 12:11 left in the second quarter.
Cousins is 8-of-10 for 83 yards and a touchdown, with Pitts catching three passes for 47 yards. Bijan Robinson has six carries for 33 yards.
