TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 As the final seconds ticked off the clock, a frustrated Baker Mayfield lingered on the bench for a moment before standing and making his way to the Tampa Bay locker room.<\/p>\n
Sunday\u2019s 24-20 loss to lowly division rival New Orleans dropped the Buccaneers (7-6) into a tie with Carolina for first place in the NFC South. The veteran quarterback, who refused to cite steady rain as a factor in a subpar offensive performance, didn\u2019t try to mask his disappointment.<\/p>\n
The Bucs don\u2019t have a lot of time to dwell on what\u2019s gone wrong during a stretch in which they\u2019ve lost five of seven following a 5-1 start. The four-time defending division champions host Atlanta on Thursday night before facing the Panthers twice over the last three weeks of the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be frustrated about this loss,\u201d said Mayfield, who\u2019s no longer a contender for MVP after Tampa Bay\u2019s recent swoon. \u201cWe should take it out on Thursday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield threw a first-half touchdown pass to Bucky Irving, but his third-quarter interception \u2014 Tampa Bay\u2019s only turnover \u2014 led to Tyler Shough\u2019s 34-yard TD run. The Saints\u2019 defense also frustrated Tampa Bay by stopping the Bucs on fourth-and-short five times.<\/p>\n
\u201cGot to be able to get a yard in those short-yardage situations. That\u2019s just flat-out,\u201d said Mayfield, who finished 14 of 30 for 122 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe couldn\u2019t make a fourth-down play,\u201d coach Todd Bowles concurred. \u201cThat\u2019s disheartening.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the Bucs\u2019 woes was a key drop by rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka, who was terrific during Tampa Bay\u2019s fast start and leads the team in receptions (54), receiving yards (806) and touchdowns (six) with injuries sidelining Mike Evans, Chris Godwin and Jalen McMillan for much of the season.<\/p>\n
Egbuka was targeted nine times Sunday, finishing with two catches for 15 yards. A potential game-tying TD pass glanced off his hands in the end zone late in the fourth quarter, with the Bucs later settling for a field goal that trimmed New Orleans\u2019 lead to 24-20 with just under five minutes remaining. <\/p>\n
\u201cDidn\u2019t execute. When you don\u2019t do that, it\u2019s hard to win, no matter who you\u2019re playing. … I can\u2019t help but feel like I let (the team) down today,\u201d Egbuka said. \u201cI\u2019m on this team for one reason, and it\u2019s to catch the ball, and I didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield didn\u2019t point fingers.<\/p>\n
\u201cMek is a professional. Obviously, he\u2019s going to beat himself up about that. Afterwards I went up to him and told him: \u2018The ball is going to find you again … when we get it back, so we\u2019re gonna need you,\u2019\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cIt\u2019s just the nature of the game. Telling people to catch the ball doesn\u2019t do anything. They\u2019re not trying to drop it.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NFL: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nfl<\/p>\n
Fred Goodall, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 As the final seconds ticked off the clock, a frustrated Baker Mayfield lingered on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331337,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-331336","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}