Tampa Bay Buccaneers answers are 'in the locker room' amid recent skid

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 4-4 heading into their next two games – a brutal stretch that includes the last two teams playing in the Super Bowl, the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers. The Bucs were a team that was largely praised in the media after a blistering 3-1 start, but just like last year when the team started with the same record, it could find itself with a losing record very, very quickly.

Tampa Bay’s offense is firing on all cylinders, but it is now missing its two biggest playmakers in wideouts Mike Evans and Chris Godwin and quarterback Baker Mayfield has thrown seven interceptions in three weeks. Nothing seems to be going right on the defensive side of the ball, as the Bucs are a bottom-five defense in numerous metrics and have given up 27 or more points in the last four games.

Things are looking bleak in Tampa Bay. But for head coach Todd Bowles, it’s no time to panic; it’s time to identify what’s wrong and figure out a way to fix it as quickly as possible.

“I said we have to solve our problems,” Bowles said. “The problems are not in the dressing room, but in the
The answers lie in the locker room. From coaches to players, we must stick together,
we need to fix ourselves and we need to get moving.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield echoed the sentiment. Last year, the team got off to a 3-1 start, but eventually fell to 4-7. The Bucs eventually climbed out of that hole to 9-8 and eventually won a playoff game, and Mayfield wants the players who were there last year to remember that.

“Come together as a group,” Mayfield said. “The guys who were here last year understand what happened mid-season and it is – do the little things right. That’s how we came out of it and so you just have to do your job with this group that we have now.”

Tight end Cade Oton was one of those players. And while things look bleak, he said the most important thing was to take each match as it comes and let the rest take care of itself from there.

“We just have to take it one game at a time. It’s obviously not what you’re looking for, losing two games in the division, but we still have everything in front of us,” Oton said. “Like I said, we’ve just got to take it one at a time, do everything we can to win next week and go from there.”

Otton also said that there is still plenty of time left to play football. And even with two heavyweight fights on the horizon for Tampa Bay, Mayfield agrees. Despite losing tiebreakers and no longer controlling their own destiny, the Buccaneers still have some football to play in a league where anything can happen.

“(The) season isn’t over yet,” Mayfield said. “We’re not even half way yet.”

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