It seems Baker Mayfield had his Sophie Cunningham moment last night — football-style.
The Bucs had five false starts last night in their loss at Chicago. That’s inexcusable.
Mayfield seemed to want to blame the Bears rather than his veteran offensive line or lack of adjustments.
“To be honest with you, I don’t know,” said Mayfield about why the team had so many false starts.
“The last one, I know they’re barking out the cadence, which you can’t do that. So it’s tough for the refs to call that because they’re not right there at the line of scrimmage. But yeah, I think they called that on Tristan \[Wirfs\], but that’s, you can’t do that.”
Yes, a defense barking to disrupt a quarterback’s cadence is against the rules. It happens. Referees can struggle to enforce it in a loud stadium. Some call that a home field advantage. Adjustments can be made.