Just to be 100% clear: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense was the primary reason the Atlanta Falcons won the Week 5 matchup in such dramatic fashion. Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins torched the Todd Bowles' defense all night long and the end result was not only a win, but Atlanta's 550 yards of total offense are the most the Bucs have allowed since Bowles has ran the defense. It was not pretty, at all.
Despite some plays from guys like Lavonte David, Logan Hall, and Vita Vea, the defense couldn't stop almost anything the Falcons were doing. At the same time, however, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs offense deserve some blame for a poor second half that resulted in just six points on the board. "We have to find a way to finish that game out on offense," Mayfield told reporters after the game.
"I think about the first half, missing that shot to [wide receiver Sterling Shepard] 'Shep' should have been a touchdown, but it ended up as three points. I'm just replaying that one over in my head that maybe [the game] shouldn't have even been an overtime situation. So we have to make the plays when they're there, and then in the second half, we just got to take care of the football and then got to finish on offense.
.. ".
.. I think that offensively, we'll look back at the tape and realize that we didn't exactly execute in the second half.
" The Bucs finished the second half with eight first downs and 111 total net yards after finishing the first half with 13 and 222, respectively. Mayfield an.
