Baker Mayfield angrily calls out Buccaneers after 28-23 loss to Patriots

What Baker Mayfield needed the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to do on Sunday and what ended up happening couldn't have been more different. Earlier in the week Mayfield implored the team to not come out of the bye week flat, which is exactly what happened against the Patriots.

Rather than ride a hot start to the game, one that saw the Bucs score with relative ease on the opening drive, Tampa Bay wasted all of its momentum and dug a hole it couldn't climb out of. It's been an unhelpful pattern so far this year, and it resulted once again in the Bucs not measuring up in a game where the team could have made a statement.

Needless to say, Baker was throughout unimpressed with the effort he saw.

After the loss, Baker stepped up to the podium and got as angry as we've seen him during his time in Tampa. He didn't yell or curse, but the stern tone with which he called his teammates out with spoke volumes.

Baker Mayfield calls out Buccaneers lack of accountability after loss to Patriots

While he placed a lot of the blame on himself, Baker refused to shield teammates who also let the team down. He didn't name names, but he didn't hide his anger when speaking with the media after the loss.

“You have to have some pride," Baker said, sternly. "The fear of messing up for your teammates when we talk about something, you have to have that responsibility and accountability for the guys around you and get it fixed.”

He's not wrong, and something needs to change before it's too late.

We've seen the Bucs fall into midseason slumps in each of the last two seasons, and the ingredients are there for it to happen again. Tampa Bay heads up to Buffalo next Sunday for a tough matchup against a beatable but angry Bills team, before heading cross-country for a Sunday Night Football showdown against the Rams.

Those two games could easily result in losses, which would keep the midseason slump streak going for a third straight year. Worse yet, it would mean the Bucs drop to 0-4 against high-caliber playoff contenders, which is not the message to be sending as the team attempts to climb back up the NFC standings.

One of the biggest knocks against the Bucs over the last few years is that they leverage being in one of the worst divisions in football to look better than they are. So far they're failing to beat those allegations and it's pretty clear Baker is sick of letting games the team should win slip away.

He's right in that he deserves a share of the blame, but how the team responds to both another embarrassing loss and Baker calling them out will be very telling to how the rest of the season goes.