TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-4) are looking to get off to a faster start on offense on Sunday against the Houston Texans.
In seven games this season, Tampa Bay has scored only one touchdown in the first quarter. But the biggest issues holding the Bucs back are penalties and failing to convert on third down.
“It’s really frustrating, I keep saying it, but it's the truth,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “You look at the film on some of these first drives and the slow first halves overall. Just shooting ourselves in the foot, whether it's a penalty, one guy off in the run game, having a penalty in the run game, not hitting a third-down conversion on my part."
Mayfield continued, "It’s all things in our control. There’s a positive to that. It’s also frustrating that you go through the whole week you should have the game plan down.”
At the midpoint of the season, the Bucs are the second-most penalized team in the NFL. They’re coming off a Thursday night one-score loss at Buffalo, where they committed 11 penalties.
“We have to address them,” wide receiver Chris Godwin said. “We can’t let them go by the wayside and act like they’re not happening. Nobody is going out there and trying to commit penalties. We understand that.”
“We don’t see teams beating us or demolishing us,” running back Rachaad White added. “We feel like for us, it’s on our side, what we can clean up. In the league, it’s hard to get wins. It’s definitely hard to get wins when you have as many penalties as we had last game and setbacks.”
The Bucs may have fallen out of first place in the NFC South, but they haven’t fallen far. Win this week, and they could be back on top.
“Nothing like a three-game losing streak, go on the road, backs against the wall, against a team that has played better than everyone’s expectations,” Mayfield added. “It’s going to be a fight for us.”
The Bucs and Texans kickoff Sunday at 1 p.m.
