TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield has continuously preached about being a great leader on and off the field — his leadership has even landed him the role of captain for the team.

After Tampa Bay (3-2) suffered its second loss of the season, falling 20-6 to the Detroit Lions, Mayfield took the opportunity after the game to address his and the teams’ mistakes, taking accountability for the frustrating loss. He also assured those same mistakes would not be made come Sunday afternoon.

“I don’t know, but we’ll fix it. I’ll fix it, I’ll fix my mistakes, I’ll fix what I was doing wrong and we’ll get it going,” Mayfield said after the ‘Creamsicle’ game Sunday. “Zero excuse for our offense to come out and lay an egg like that – that was horrible.”

Mayfield threw one interception, going 19 for 37 with only 206 yards on the day. But he’s not fully to blame. The Lions’ defense did its part by limiting the Bucs to 251 yards of total offense, forcing them to settle for field goals.

“We sucked today. I sucked today, we sucked today, it was awful – from the get go. I mean, just – can’t play like that. We didn’t start fast, we didn’t pick it up in the middle, and we didn’t finish strong, so plain and simple we have to be better. The Lions are a good ball club. If we play like that, we’re going to lose every time. I think the defense and special teams did an amazing job yet again, and offense we just need to pick our [play] up –there’s really no other way around it,” Mayfield said.

“At a certain point, we gotta get pissed off as an offense. We should be putting a lot of points up on the board. It’s gotta be – we talk about the standard about winning around here, but offensively we need to look at it in a smaller picture. We should be putting up a lot of more points than we have been, and so we need to be accountable with that – it starts with me and we’ll get that going,” the quarterback added.

Bucs’ head coach Todd Bowles also agreed that the offense started slow, calling it “sluggish,” partially due to the team coming off an early bye week.

“I thought our squad matched up pretty good today. I thought we made a lot of mistakes. It looked like we came off a bye week. We don’t compare who we play, and how we play,” Bowles said. “I think each game is different. I do think we have a good football team; I think we’re young, I think it felt like we came off a Bye Week. We look sluggish and we played like that.”

On the bright side, the Lions are a really good ball club, and the Bucs defense was able to limit them to just 40 rushing yards – Detroit’s fewest rushing yards in a game since Week 6 of the 2021 season when they logged 36 rushing yards against the Cincinnati Bengals.

Nonetheless, the Bucs have work to do heading into their Week 7 divisional matchup against the Falcons, who have star running back, Bijan Robinson, on their roster.

INJURIES:

The Bucs have yet to release their injury report for this week. However, during Sunday’s contest against the Lions, Mayfield suffered a contusion on his left hand after taking a “nice metal facemask right to the hand.” Head coach Todd Bowles said the quarterback’s X-rays were negative and he should be okay.

• OLB Anthony Nelson missed the Week 6 matchup with a concussion.

WHAT’S NEXT?:

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on the Atlanta Falcons (3-3) at Raymond James Stadium on Sunday, Oct. 22. The two will face off with the Bucs first place standing on the line.

Kickoff is set for 1 p.m.