By JEFF WALLNER<\/p>\n
CINCINNATI \u2014 Baker Mayfield lost a season opener for the first time in his four seasons with Tampa Bay.<\/p>\n
His three lost fumbles were a key reason why in the Buccaneers\u2019 33-27 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Mayfield, who agreed to a three-year, $165 million contract extension on Tuesday, nearly rallied the Bucs from an 14-point halftime deficit but his three lost fumbles and another by running back Bucky Irving proved too costly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis one falls on me,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cThey had 17 points alone off my turnovers. Turns out to be a one-score game, six points. It\u2019s frustrating when you do something like that when you\u2019re moving the ball downfield.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield lost three fumbles in a game for the first time in his career. He completed 23 of 28 passes on Sunday for 216 yards. He also rushed for 30 yards on five carries with a touchdown.<\/p>\n
The Bucs had won six straight season openers, including three with Mayfield as the starter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, obviously, you can\u2019t turn the ball over,\u201d coach Todd Bowles said. \u201cWe had four turnovers and lose by just one touchdown.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield was sacked four times.<\/p>\n
He fumbled in the first quarter while being sacked by Barrett Carter and Myles Murphy. Demetrius Knight Jr. recovered and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown putting the Bengals ahead 7-3.<\/p>\n
It was the Bengals\u2019 first fumble return TD since Sam Hubbard\u2019s 99-yard return in an AFC wild-card game on Jan.15, 2023 against the Ravens.<\/p>\n
On the Bucs\u2019 next possession, Irving fumbled after catching an 8-yard pass from Mayfield.<\/p>\n
Boye Mafe recovered at the Buccaneers 33-yard line leading to a 2-yard TD pass from Joe Burrow to Mike Gesicki making the score 14-3.<\/p>\n
The third fumble of the half occurred when Mayfield scrambled and was stripped by Carter. Bryan Cook recovered in the end zone for a touchback.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always teach keep it high and tight,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to keep it high and tight.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bengals drove 80 yards following the fumble and Chase Brown\u2019s 5-yard run made the score 21-3 with 5:32 left in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
Cincinnati led 24-10 at halftime.<\/p>\n
The Bucs trailed 30-20 with 10 minutes left when Mayfield fumbled again, this time while being sacked from behind by Mafe.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust got to know there\u2019s somebody behind you at that point,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cThe internal time clock is going off in your head. Just keeping two hands on the ball in the pocket, you know. Ball security is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayfield\u2019s 9-yard scramble for a touchdown cut the Bengals\u2019 lead to 33-27 with 3:19 remaining. But the Bengals were able to run out the clock.<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers didn\u2019t punt on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was either turnovers or points,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cOne or two of (Mayfield\u2019s fumbles) was a scramble. The one in the pocket, already held a little bit too long. The one behind him he didn\u2019t see. He was running to try to make a play, but we got to hold on to the ball. Bucky (Irving) as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JEFF WALLNER CINCINNATI \u2014 Baker Mayfield lost a season opener for the first time in his four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10575,119,110,135,137,136],"class_list":["post-399013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-cleveland-browns","tag-nfl","tag-sports","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}