Don't blame this one on Baker Mayfield or the Bucs offense You can't blame this loss on Baker Mayfield. Or offensive coordinator Dave Canales. Or even Rachaad White and one of the league's worst rushing attacks. Mayfield completed 21 of 30 passes for 265 yards and two touchdowns with zero interceptions while earning a 119.4 passing rating in Sunday's 39-37 loss to the Houston Texans. Both tight end Cade Otton and White scored a pair of touchdowns. In fact, the Bucs tailback had a career-best 119 yards from scrimmage Sunday: 73 rushing and 46 receiving. The 37 points were as many as the Bucs had scored in their previous three games, all losses. "He gave us a chance to win," Todd Bowles said of Mayfield. "They did a good job giving us a chance to win. Defensively, we've got to play better. It was bad all the way around." The Bucs offense wasn't perfect. Far from it. They got a huge forced fumble by Lavonte David on the opening series of the game that was recovered by Antoine Winfield Jr. at the Houston 42-yard line. One play later, Mayfield connected with Otton for 24 yards. But from there, the Bucs went three-and-out, settling for Chase McLaughlin's 35-yard field goal. "You have to do your job on every snap, every play," Mayfield said. "There were a few times on offense we didn't do that, so we had to have some longer field goals. Obviously, Chase was perfect (Sunday). That was good, but we should've been in a better position to score in the red zone and score more touchdowns. There was improvement in the run game, but it just wasn't good enough. It's a team sport. It's the greatest team sport on earth. You win as a team and you lose as a team." The Bucs had some breaks in the game. Mike Evans pounced on a loose football fumbled away by rookie Trey Palmer on the Bucs' final drive following a 15-yard reception at the Houston 14. Evans finished with four catches for 87 yards, including a 57-yarder that was originally ruled a touchdown but overturned by an instant replay review. "We just get into a good rhythm," Mayfield said. "They did a good job of adding some pressures on. They played better in the second half coming out. Made some adjustments. We've just got to keep the rhythm going. We were running the ball well. We've got to continue to do that, improve on that and see where that takes us. "There's still a lot of ball left. I still have a ton of faith in this team. This is not me getting down. We've got to learn from this tape moving forward and see how we can help this team win any way possible." Rick Stroud, The Tampa Bay Times, published 6 November 2023