Key Baker Mayfield challenge revealed.
Joe doesn’t believe in coincidences in the NFL. So Joe is convinced there is a connection between Baker Mayfield and the Bucs’ offense becoming stagnant.Ke
Please do not misunderstand. Joe is a big Mayfield guy. One of the best things that has ever happened to the Bucs was his signing. And no, Joe is not saying Mayfield is the reason the Bucs have stunk on offense the past three games. This team would be royally screwed without him.
Since the Detroit game, Mayfield’s been neutered.
Mayfield would run maybe three or four times a game for first downs. The plays were not designed runs. Mayfield ain’t no Michael Vick. But when the offense broke down or receivers weren’t open, Mayfield took matters into his own hands and got key first downs.
That has vanished since the loss at Detroit. Mayfield later admitted the Lions put a spy on him to prevent him from hurting them with his feet.
Yesterday, Bucs coach Todd Bowles was asked again, like he was on the Ira Kaufman Podcast over the bye week, about Mayfield no longer running and he basically brushed off the question as a non-issue.
“If they’re taking [Mayfield’s scrambles] away, we’ve got to get open and we’ve got to block better,” Bowles said. “It’s not about Baker being a runner. He’s not a runner – he can make some plays with his feet, but he’s a passer.
“We’ve got to block it better, we’ve got to coach it better and we’ve got to play it better.”
The same thing happened in New Orleans, where Mayfield wasn’t his normal self. Mayfield didn’t say if the slimy Saints were spying him or not. Per the CBS sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson, who worked yesterday’s game, Mayfield told the CBS broadcast team he was playing at 50 percent health in recent weeks. Officially, he’s been battling knee and oblique issues but has been practicing.
Either Mayfield is still a bit injured, defenses are spying him, or the Lions put out something on tape to lasso the Bucs’ offense that the slimy Saints and the Patriots have copied.
Mayfield’s feet were a key reason why the Bucs were scoring points and extending drives. That’s gone now. And so too, is the Bucs’ offense.