A six-point showing had Baker Mayfield steaming on Sunday.
He believed that a slightly aggressive strategy would benefit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers offense. His head coach concurred.
“In some situations, it’s appropriate for us to be frustrated every week,” said Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles on Wednesday, according to the team transcript. “I believe we are frustrated. However, we need to play intelligently and more disciplined football, understanding our roles and ensuring everyone does their job. We need to improve our coaching and our performance – all of this involves dealing with frustration.”
Mayfield’s message appeared to be that the Buccaneers offense should not only be disappointed with their performance, but they should also be motivated to improve.
“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 gearing up for a crucial early season game against Atlanta (3-3), with the aim of not only sustaining their NFC South lead in the rankings but also creating some space to progress.
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.
Shortly after the loss, Mayfield quickly showed a hint of the fiery spirit he’s known for.
“On Sunday, he expressed his frustration, “There comes a time when we, as an offense, must get angry. We ought to be consistently scoring high. We always discuss the standard of winning here, but we need to be more introspective offensively. We should be scoring far more than we currently are, and accountability for this starts with me. We’ll rectify this issue.”
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.
In Mayfield’s opinion, and similarly in the mind of his coach, it’s time to channel a bit of anger towards achieving success.
