TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Baker Mayfield is playing more like a quarterback trying to justify his contract.<\/p>\n
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are off to their first 0-2 start since 2014 after making Mayfield the highest-paid player in franchise history.<\/p>\n
Mayfield received a $165 million, three-year extension earlier this month and seems to be trying to do too much, leading to mistakes.<\/p>\n
Emeka Egbuka had a step on the defender and was open in the end zone for what would\u2019ve been a go-ahead score in the final minute but Mayfield fired a pass out of his reach and the Buccaneers lost 23-19 to the Cleveland Bowns on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, just gotta trust that \u2018Mek\u2019 is going to come out of that break a little slower with conditions and give him some air to run under it,\u201d Mayfield said.<\/p>\n
He threw a fade to Ted Hurst earlier in the drive but the rookie couldn\u2019t make the catch in a driving rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, obviously, not an easy catch,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cTed is somebody that I trust, that\u2019s not going to change anything for me going forward, but yeah, tough play. I don\u2019t know, I didn\u2019t get a real good look at it, but I know he had a chance at it. The ball is going to keep coming back to him, going to keep finding him. We just gotta be able to make the plays in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield forced a throw in the first half that was picked and turned into three points. He took three sacks, had several negative plays and finished 21 of 34 for 182 yards with one touchdown and one interception.<\/p>\n
In Week 1, Mayfield lost three fumbles against the Bengals. He has 28 interceptions and 27 fumbles since 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s shooting ourselves in the foot, not making the plays when we need them, knowing that these are fixable things, but that also makes it more frustrating,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201c(We) just gotta get it corrected. We gotta be hard on ourselves, watch the tape, get those things fixed, flush it and move onto the next. (We have) another home game next week against a good opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Minnesota Vikings (2-0) visit Raymond James Stadium this week after shutting down Chicago\u2019s high-powered offense in a 9-3 win.<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers are 2-9 since a 6-2 start last season. Coach Todd Bowles was on the hot seat entering the season and it’s only getting hotter.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s working<\/p>\n
The run game was effective at certain points. The Buccaneers rushed for 137 yards, averaging 5.5 yards per carry. Bucky Irving had 89 yards on 17 carries, including a 38-yard scamper.<\/p>\n
What needs help<\/p>\n
The offensive line struggled. The unit allowed three sacks and had critical holding penalties. Two holding calls on third down negated first downs and derailed drives. Another holding penalty on the final drive moved the ball from the Cleveland 13 to the 23 and the Bucs couldn\u2019t overcome it.<\/p>\n
Stock up<\/p>\n
OLB David Walker, playing his second game after missing his rookie season, had one sack in nine defensive snaps.<\/p>\n
Stock down<\/p>\n
Linebacker Alex Anzalone struggled for the second straight week. The veteran has had a rough time replacing Lavonte David. He\u2019s missed tackles, struggled in coverage and had an unnecessary roughness penalty.<\/p>\n
Injuries<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the lone bright spot. The Bucs are healthy for the most part.<\/p>\n
Key number<\/p>\n
16%: Over the past five seasons, that\u2019s the percent of teams that made the playoffs after an 0-2 start.<\/p>\n
Next steps<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers host the Vikings in the middle stretch of three straight home games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 Baker Mayfield is playing more like a quarterback trying to justify his contract. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1009288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[2910,211,380,7,88,6,11374,9,209,704,250,15556,2597,2596],"class_list":["post-1009287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-associated-press","tag-buccaneers","tag-florida","tag-football","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-professional-football","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-bay-bucs","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117324813669077988","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1009287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1009287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1009288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1009287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1009287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1009287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}