The quarterback explained what he believed happened in that crucial moment.
The Buccaneers fell to 7–8 on the season on Sunday after a loss to the Panthers, who have now taken over at the top of the NFC South. And though a defeat is bad enough on its own, the L was made even worse in how it happened—off a game-sealing interception late in the fourth quarter.
The Bucs were trailing by three at Carolina's 40-yard line with 48 seconds left in the game. Quarterback Baker Mayfield was up against a second-and-9, and tried to get the ball into the hands of stud wide receiver Mike Evans. But the pass was quickly and easily intercepted, thus handing the ball back to Carolina and sealing the game, 23–20.Mayfield opened up about the miscue after the game and weighed in on what happened in that moment—that he was "It was going to be a bang-bang play, but I trust Mike in those situations to make that, and that really would've put us in field goal range at that point," Mayfield said. "At that point, you're really evaluating time on the clock. Let's go score to win the game, no negative plays to knock us out of field goal position, so that was what was going through my head. Give one to our best player. I'm never going to question his instincts. And that's the thing, you can look and say, 'Should have done this. Should have done that.' But it's just the timing of the play, and it happens in a millisecond, and, unfortunately, today, it wasn't on the right side for us." "It looked like a miscommunication. I'll wait until I go back inside and talk to them and see. Mike turned in and the ball went out. It's unfortunate for us," the coach said. Whatever the scenario, it was an unfortunate note on which to end, especially considering the playoff-hungry squad has now lost three in a row.More NFL on Sports IllustratedBrigid Kennedy is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, she covered political news, sporting news and culture at TheWeek.com before moving to Livingetc, an interior design magazine. She is a graduate of Syracuse University, dual majoring in television, radio and film and marketing managment . Offline, she enjoys going to the movies, reading and watching the Steelers.
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