Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers missed a golden opportunity to make a statement to the critics that they are the "same old Bucs" (that is to say, closer to average than a Super Bowl contender) by beating a very good New England Patriots team. The Bucs fell short, and Baker Mayfield's own MVP odds took a serious hit, as he was outdueled by fellow MVP candidate Drake Maye on Sunday afternoon.
Mayfield didn't play his best game, but even his haters have to admt that he was dealt a tough hand in Week 10. Starting running back Bucky Irving was out injured, and so were superstar wide receivers Chris Godwin and Mike Evans. On top of that, Mayfield's offensive line was banged up, which certainly didn't help matters.
As if all those injuries weren't enough, Mayfield has been dealing with another enemy from within that's been holding him back, and this individual has been even more responsible for Mayfield's downtrending numbers over the past couple of weeks than anyone else.
He may be only 35 years old and growing into the role, but offensive coordinator Joshua Grizzard is performing so poorly as a play caller under Todd Bowles that many Bucs fans are already losing faith in his competence as the leading man offensively.
The Bucs offense operates with no rhyme or reason
Grizzard has navigated the losses of Irving in the backfield and the wide receiver duo of Godwin and Evans so woefully that the impact of those injuries are no longer valid excuses for the Bucs play on the field.
His insistence on taking away Mayfield's intermediate and deep prowess by going for "safe" screens has prevented the Bucs from winning shootouts against quarterbacks Baker can easily go toe to toe with and beat. And then on plays when he should be throwing a screen when the Pats are clearly selling blitz, that's when he goes for a playcall that forces Mayfield to stand in the pocket and wait for deeper routes to develop. Grizzard's conservative play calling is really cowardice disguised as sensibility, and it is paradoxically less safe and less conducive to winning.
Against the Patriots, there were multiple occasions in which Grizzard held Mayfield and the Bucs offense back, including in key situations. For example, not running the football on third and three was a huge misstep that proved costly in the result. All game long, Grizzard was making basic mistakes like this, abandoning the run when it was working and stressing Mayfield further, to then taking the ball out of Mayfield's hands when appropriate.
There's no rhyme or reason to what Grizzard is doing as offensive coordinator. He is all over the place, disrupting his quarterback and putting the team in no win situations by down and distance. Grizzard has to step it up, and to any Bucs fan watching, it's rather obvious that he's even more affected by the injuries than Mayfield and compounding those losses further as his play calling deficiencies get exposed without the get out of jail free cards on offense available now.