What Tampa Bay QB Baker Mayfield, coach Todd Bowles said after losing to Dallas Cowboys

After the Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost 26-24 to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Sunday Night Football on Dec. 22, coach Todd Bowles and quarterback Baker Mayfield met with the media. Here’s everything they had to say:

Coach Todd Bowles

On his gut reaction right now and how things happened.

I mean, we lost. It’s disappointing. All three phases, plus coaching. We’ve got to coach them better. We’ve got to play better on special teams. We’ve got to play better offensively and defensively.

On the primary reason why the 20+ yard pass plays were allowed.

Fundamentals. It happened in the first half. It was fundamentals. In the second half, we kind of calmed it down some. Fundamentals and technique. That’s all it is.

On why tackling was such an issue tonight.

It’s fundamentals. It’s fundamental. Tackling in the first half was not very good. It was better in the second half.

On what allowed them to slow down CeeDee Lamb in the second half.

We didn’t tackle well in the first half, obviously. In the second half, he wasn’t in half the time, but we kind of settled down and played our type of ball game where we were getting them off the field.

On if there was miscommunication in the first half in the secondary.

It wasn’t any miscommunication. We just didn’t make any plays.

On if there is an injury update for Sterling Shepard:

Not at this time.

On how much they missed Cade Otten, who has been very consistent for them the last couple of years. You always miss a starter, but that had nothing to do with the ballgame. We had more than enough guys over there to win the ball game.

On what they can do to correct the lost fumbles.

You’ve got to hold onto the ball. You’ve got to hold onto the ball. Ball security is the number one thing.

On whether fumbles are due to players (e.g. Rachaad White) trying to do too much.

It’s a matter of holding onto the football.

On hit message to the team after the game:

We lost. We fell back in the pack. We’ve got to eat it. Can’t spend too much time on it. We had our chances just like everybody else. But it’s a long season. We have two more games to go. We’ve got to take care of us and let everything else take care of itself.

On the defense allowing underneath passing plays.

No, that’s something they do all the time, anyway. We understand the ball’s going to be thrown underneath. We’ve just got to tackle better.

On the pass rush not quite getting to Cooper Rush and allowing him to step into throws. We were in some zones, and we got close enough, but we should’ve had coverage on a couple of them.

On the middle of the field being vulnerable. It was a problem earlier in the season but it seemed to rear its ugly head, tonight. Was that due to miscommunication or something else?

I don’t think it’s ugly head in the middle of the field. In the first half, we gave up two over-routes. A couple of missed tackles. We missed a tackle on CeeDee down in the red zone for one touchdown. I think it was two or three guys who missed him. We shored it up a little in the second half.

On finding positives in second half adjustments. Was there a silver lining in correcting some of the first half errors?

There’s no silver lining. We didn’t win the ball game. We’ve got to play better in all phases.

Quarterback Baker Mayfield

On his conversation with Rachaad White at the end of the game:

“He had two hands on the ball. Obviously, you’ve got to be careful...The same thing happened to me earlier in the game. I got it ripped out of both my hands. [Dallas] made some plays when it mattered. It’s all about the ball. They did a good job taking it away.”

On the wide receivers:

“Those guys stepped up in a huge way. I say that because there were a lot of two-minute situations where getting lined up quickly, guys had to know what they were doing. So, those guys executed for the most part really, really well.”

On the offensive successes and the fight in this team:

“I’ve said it all along, this group will not quit. I’ll be damned if anybody does. That’s the standard we try and set. It’d be nice not to be in that situation if we had taken care of business earlier in the game, but it comes down to little things late in the game and we try to execute. We gave ourselves a chance. The defense gave us a chance as well. So, we’ve got to execute.”

On what he learned about the team tonight:

“We didn’t learn anything new about the fight that we have. That’s never been in question. I mean, it’s the next-man-up mentality. Overall, it’s about the ball. I think everybody needs to learn that. It’s obvious, you know. But when you have two hands on the ball, you have to be protective with it. That starts with me too.”

On what Dallas did to limit Mike Evans:

“Some of the shots, they were covering him up – some of the down the field explosive plays that we tried to dial up for him, they were covering him pretty well. Obviously, he made a great catch on the one-on-one go ball earlier in the game. But yeah, they were typical on what teams do with the safety up top trying to press him up a little bit and take two guys to take him away. That’s why the other guys had good opportunities.”

On their mindset going forward:

“We’re in playoff mode. We’ve got to take care of business or else we have no shot. This one, we’ve got to take it on the chin. It’s a short week. It’s Christmas week. We’ve got to focus on Carolina and figure out a way to win.”

On Payne Durham:

“I thought Payne did a great job. Obviously, he took one gnarly shot which sucked because I had to get it over a defender, I had a little too much touch on it and kind of set him up for that shot. But he got up and fought. Payne is a tough guy. So, I thought he was able to showcase his hands and what he’s really capable of doing. It’s sometimes overshadowed with Cade (Otton) in there.”

On overcoming the turnovers:

“Just overemphasis on it. Even when you think you got it, that’s in your mind. You gotta have it locked up. So, its all the little things. Unfortunately, the ball didn’t bounce our way today.”

On how the offensive line did with the pass rush:

“I thought they did a great job. That last play -- [Dallas] did a good job with their blitz looks and taking a safety down, they can force us to get into a certain call, and that last play, they brought the guy from the other side. Zimmer’s been calling that defense for a long time. I think he set that up for that drive. But those guys handled it really well for the most part. I just have to get the ball out of my hands.”

On what they have to do to get ready for Carolina next week:

“We just have to step up. Young guys have to move on, learn from this and it’s on to Carolina. If we don’t take care of business, we won’t be in the playoffs.”

On what the Cowboys were doing that made the deep balls more challenging:

“Just a lot of split safety coverage, which was taking it away. Sometimes, the angles on whether it was a post route or a lear route down the middle, sometimes the angles would get a little bit misconstrued. Just slight miscommunication there. But we just have to execute.”