In what was an awful first half for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday afternoon against the Philadelphia Eagles, it ended up haunting them in what was a 31-25 loss. While the connection between Buccaneers' Baker Mayfield and Emeka Egbuka was on full display on Sunday, the quarterback was less than pleased after the game.
By the end of the game, Mayfield had thrown for 289 yards to go along with two touchdowns and an interception as Tampa Bay excelled as the game went on. However, when facing off against the reigning champions in the Philadelphia Eagles, the team facing them has to play near-perfect football.
Tampa Bay didn't do that as they had a slow start, which Mayfield expressed should ‘piss off' the entire team since that was a focus going into the contest, according to The Pewter Plank on X, formerly Twitter.
“This group is too damn good to start slow, and until we take accountability, it should piss us off,” Mayfield said. “Even though it's Week 4, this should piss us off. We've talked about starting fast … we did not do that today.”
Baker Mayfield on the Buccaneers' slow start
Though star wide receiver Mike Evans was out for the Buccaneers on Sunday against the Eagles, the goal for the team was to start fast against the Super Bowl champions. Both sides of the ball for Tampa Bay would be disappointing as the offense had six points in the first half, while the defense allowed 24 points to Philadelphia.
“Baker Mayfield says the Bucs never stop fighting, but the flip side is that they knew they needed a quick start against the Eagles and they didn’t get one,” Scott Smith wrote on X.
It would be a tale of two halves for Tampa Bay, as in the second half, the Eagles would be held to just seven points while the Buccaneers would score 19 points, but it wasn't enough for the win.
At any rate, Tampa Bay would get its first loss of the season and look to get back in the win column next Sunday when the team takes on the Seattle Seahawks.
