Nobody on the Bucs was in a good mood after they blew a late lead to the Falcons and lost 36-30 in overtime on Thursday Night Football. Quarterback Baker Mayfield was among that group, dwelling on what he could’ve done to get the Bucs to a 4-1 record instead of sitting at 3-2.

Baker Mayfield actually played pretty well in the game, especially in the first half. He completed 19-of-24 passes for 180 yards and three touchdown passes while rushing for 42 yards on six attempts. The two halves were drastically different, though, as Baker Mayfield was on fire in the first half going 12-of-15 for 131 passing yards and all three of his touchdowns. The second half saw a major decrease has he only threw for 49 yards as the Bucs struggled to move the football.

Baker Mayfield Reflects On Performance

Up at the podium following the game, Baker Mayfield didn’t think at all about the success that he had, but focused on the few throws that he didn’t make, including an overthrow on a deep ball.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

“All I care about is wins,” Baker Mayfield said. “That’s it. So, I’ve got to find a way to finish that game out on offense. I was thinking about the first half, missing that shot to Shep [Sterling Shepard]. Should have been a touchdown, ended up with three points. I’m just replaying that one over in my head that maybe it shouldn’t have even been an overtime situation. I have to make the plays when they’re there. Then in the second half, just got to take care of the football, and got to finish on offense.”

The missed throw was unfortunate, but what stung the most was the Bucs’ inability to close out the game late. Twice they had the ball in field goal range with a chance to finish the Falcons or at least extend their lead to six, which would’ve forced Atlanta to score a touchdown instead of kicking a field goal and forcing overtime.

In the first drive, Bucky Irving fumbled as the Bucs were pouring it on in the ground game. Tampa Bay’s defense, who had a rough night, found a way to get some stops and Lavonte David eventually intercepted Kirk Cousins on fourth down, putting the Bucs at the Falcons’ 28. A controversial holding penalty on Graham Barton that should’ve been negated by an Atlanta face mask penalty that wasn’t called knocked Tampa Bay 10 yards back. Then some backwards runs pushed the Bucs out of range for Chase McLaughlin.

Not finding a way to win that game give the late game situations was another point of focus in Mayfield’s responses.

“Just back and forth,” Mayfield said when describing the game. “Obviously, every time we got the ball back in the fourth quarter, trying to hit the mindset and tell the guys, ‘We need to finish this, finish the right way, end with points and put this game away.’ Once they were driving in the fourth quarter, just realizing that we need to hit the reset button, get ready for overtime. Obviously, not getting a chance to go out there, just based on the rules. But yeah, not ideal for us.”

How Do The Bucs Bounce Back?

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

The Bucs will have 10 days before they play their next game on Sunday, October 13 on the road against the New Orleans Saints. They still have the whole season ahead of them and are embattled in a three team race for the top of the division.

Tampa Bay should take their minds off of a tough loss with the extra time away. But they have another high stakes divisional matchup once they return. How do they regroup? Getting some players back that were injured would be a start.

“I think first and foremost, everybody needs to take this time to get healthy,” Baker Mayfield said. “We had a lot of guys go down tonight. We were already a little banged up, so everybody needs to be pros, take care of their bodies and just regroup. Get back to the basics and just execute. I think that offensively, we’ll look back at the tape and realize that we didn’t exactly execute in the second half.”