Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans collectively held their breath on Sunday when quarterback Baker Mayfield, who made some Bucs history earlier in the game, was sent to the sidelines after a hard sack levied by the Carolina Panthers in Week 13, per JC Allen of Sports Illustrated.

Backup signal-caller Kyle Trask entered the game, but that didn't last long. Unfortunately, on his first play back in the game, Mayfield threw an interception collected by Xavier Woods.

With 8:53 left in the fourth quarter, the Bucs hold a slim 17-16 lead. Mayfield is having a difficult game, completing only 14 of 25 passes for 149 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions.

Buccaneers must capitalize in wide-open NFC South

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) throws against the Carolina Panthers during the first quarter at Bank of America Stadium
© Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

With the Atlanta Falcons' 17-13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers dropping their record to 6-6, Tampa Bay has to capitalize on this opportunity to equalize the NFC South standings. Atlanta is in freefall, having lost three straight games. Meanwhile, it appeared the Buccaneers got back on track in Week 12 by taking down the New York Giants, 30-7, after overcoming their four-game losing streak.

Ahead of their Week 13 game against the Panthers, head coach Todd Bowles paid compliments to Carolina's Bryce Young.

“He's (Young is) just getting comfortable with the offense, making great decisions,” Bowles said, per the Buccaneers' official website. “If it's not there, he can thread the needle and he can use his feet to buy time, or he can run with the football — he has a lot of options and he's using them.”

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Bowles also spoke about what makes Mayfield special and how he can lift Tampa Bay's spirits on any given play, per Zac Wassink of YardBarker.

“The blocking play he made on Bucky’s run was probably the best play I’ve seen him do this year, regardless of anything else,” Bowles said. “That’s impressive for a quarterback to run the down the field that far and say, ‘Follow me,' and still get a chip block off that way. That means he’s all-in. The team’s all-in. Everybody sees he’s out there doing everything else. It just hypes the team up more.”

Irving added to that by speaking highly of Mayfield as well.

“I love Baker, man. He's a guy that wants to win football games,” Irving added. “He's competitive. Them the type of guys you want around you.”

Mayfield and the Bucs are going up against their former offensive coordinator, Dave Canales, who is the Panthers' head coach. The signal-caller looked back fondly on his season in Tampa, per AP.

“Dave, being the optimist bully that he is, just always ‘the sun is going to shine again’ and has that belief in the next play,” Mayfield said. “It was weird. It was rare that you see a coach that actually embodied that ‘next play is the most important one’ we’re-never-out-of-the-fight type mentality. He took that literal, day to day, so it was a different kind of energy than I think anybody had been around, but it was good for everybody.”