TAMPA, Fla. – The Bucs didn’t live up to the hype, and the Lions did, as Detroit, behind Jared Goff’s 353 yards passing and two touchdowns, beat Tampa Bay 20-16 to go to 5-1 on the season.
Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield put it bluntly:
“I sucked today, we sucked today,” Mayfield said. “It was awful from the get-go. Can’t play like that.”
Detroit’s defense completely shut down Tampa Bay’s offense, picking off Mayfield once and holding the Bucs to just 251 yards of total offense.
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“It didn’t start fast; we didn’t pick it up in the middle,” Mayfield said. “We didn’t finish strong. Plain and simple, we have to be better.”
The Lions have now won four in a row after an overtime loss to the Seattle Seahawks, while the Bucs were coming off a win and a bye week.
“At a certain point, we have to get pissed off as an offense,” Mayfield said. “We should be putting a lot of points up on the board. We need to be accountable for that.”
Tied at 3 in the 2nd, Detroit went 75 yards, capped off by a Jared Goff 27-yard touchdown pass to Amon St. Brown to go up 10-3 and never looked back. Lions QB Jared Goff completed 30 of 44 passes with two touchdown passes and no interceptions. The TDs were 27 yards to Amon-Ra St. Brown and 45 yards to Jameson Williams.
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles was asked why, in their two big games this season, against the Eagles and this one, it hasn’t been close. Bowles took issue with that assessment.
“I felt it was close”, Bowles said. “It was 10-3 halftime. We felt we made two busts in the second half from a defensive standpoint. Offensively we can do a lot better from a scoring standpoint. The mistakes we made put the game to 20-6 and we couldn’t recover.”
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The Bucs offense normally has been slow-starting but has been productive in the second half. Not in this one.
“It is hard when you can’t find your rhythm whatsoever,” Mayfield said. “We had a few plays that should have sparked us, should have been able to get us going, get us in a rhythm, we just didn’t continue it.”
The Lions have won for the seventh time in eight games away from home dating back to last season.
The Bucs host the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday at 1. The Falcons lost to the Washington Commanders 24-16. Falcons quarterback Desmond Ritter was picked off three times.
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