TAMPA, Fla. — First place in the NFC South is at stake Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-2) hosting the Atlanta Falcons (3-3).
For those of you concerned about quarterback Baker Mayfield’s hand, no worries. He said, ‘It’s golden.’
Mayfield whacked his left hand on a Detroit helmet last Sunday and had it bandaged up during Wednesday’s practice.
More concerning for Mayfield is the lack of points the offense is scoring. Through five games, Tampa Bay is averaging 18 points per game, which ranks in the bottom third of the league.
“As I mentioned, get pissed off, but it's taking pride in your work about executing and doing your job each play,” Mayfield said. “(Wednesday), we had a good practice; there wasn’t any rah-rah speech. The guys know what we need to get done. That’s why this is a veteran group. Everybody needs to understand what we need to do to get it fixed. And, like I mentioned after the game, I will get my stuff fixed; everybody else is doing the same thing. I’m not worried about it.”
It comes down to execution for the Bucs. Part of that is catching the football. The normally sure-handed Mike Evans is tied for second in the NFL with four drops.
“That’s football. There are a lot of unfortunate plays that have happened throughout my career. I got a lot of lowlights as well,” Evans said. “It’s football, and those things happen. I had opportunities to get the ball last week. I know I missed the one. Other than that, teams do a good job game planning against me.”
“Obviously, he is one of our better guys,” head coach Todd Bowles added. “He is seeing double and triple coverages. You got to go elsewhere. When they are keying on that, you’re not running it very well. It makes it very easy to double-team the guys. We got to do other things to free him up.”
“We need to have a complimentary offense,” Mayfield said. “You got to be able to run the ball, too. But also, in the red zone, we just need to score touchdowns instead of field goals. That’s the biggest thing.”
Bowles and Mayfield both mentioned being better at running the football. The Bucs were terrible in the run game last season, and this year, they’re at the bottom of the league at 78 yards per game.
The Bucs and Falcons kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
