Why Did The Bucs Take The Ball Out Of Baker Mayfield’s Hands?
December 21st, 2025
Why, Josh?
Joe needs to know, and Bucs fans deserve to know. The Bucs need to come clean on this.
Is Baker Mayfield so hurt the Bucs are trying to limit his throws? Or have the Bucs lost trust in Mayfield?
It absolutely makes no sense to Joe why, when the Bucs’ running game bogged down in the second half, with the Bucs having a full stable of healthy, elite receivers, the Bucs still continued to ground and pound running behind two (awful) backup guards?
The Bucs ran the ball 33 times. They averaged five yards a carry, thanks largely to major runs by Rachaad White and Mayfield.
Why was Grizzard so scared to throw past the sticks until late in the game when he had little choice? Was Grizzard ordered to by Todd Bowles? There has to be a reason for this.
This clearly was not done by accident? The way the Bucs ended the game reinforces why Grizzard may have felt more comfortable with the ball in Bucky Irving’s hands instead of his franchise (?) quarterback.
Either something isn’t right with Mayfield or the game is over the head of a certain play-caller.
Coaches like to say that in December, rookies are no longer rookies because they’ve now had so much experience they’re veterans. Does the same philosophy work for a first-year playcaller?
Grizzard can no longer use his rookie status as a shield.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:18 pm
Dean giving up that Td just before half is totally unacceptable. Panthers had no timeouts and 17 seconds from the 25 yd line. Any catch before the end zone would have resulted in end of half. At worst a FG. How is it possible you get beat deep?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:18 pm
I wondered the same thing on the couch with my daughter the entire game. But is it Josh, or is it Todd? I blame Todd!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:19 pm
A miserable offensive game plan!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:19 pm
Todd Bowels told him to
December 21st, 2025 at 5:19 pm
He’s inaccurate and when they did put the ball in his hands, he threw it to the Panthers.
Baker Bros, are you paying attention? A new HC usually gets a new QB. Bakers last year with the Bucs is next season…if hes lucky.
Why would a new HC risk his job and the jobs of all his coaches on Baker Mayfield?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:19 pm
Because…..Moonball is his replacement. Bowles best blunder.Hurt Bake you have a chance. Put Moonball in and head for the locker room
December 21st, 2025 at 5:20 pm
He has thrown INTs that’s lost lost the game the last three games!!!!
He’s Winston 2.0. We’ve lived through this before. Come on!!!!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:20 pm
Joe. Please put up an article on that dean play before half and ask Todd about it.i had a feeling that was going to be the difference in the game.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:20 pm
Something has been dreadfully wrong for weeks now……throws behind the sticks….very few downfield, even when they have proved successful.
Far too many 1st down running plays that are getting stuffed.
Baker needs the opportunity to throw on 1st downs….
It seems he is rushed…..has very little time to throw…..pocket collapsing too soon. Oline not protecting.
Need to use Rachaad White more in running game……
December 21st, 2025 at 5:21 pm
Maggs zero blitz not only didn’t make sense in that situation.. like seriously just cover deep, maybe bring one.. but if you’re going to bring everyone they better get their fast, it liked like vlizters all delayed and spotter him a second.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:22 pm
Imagine Baker throwing 45 times a game right now to push the ball. He’d throw 3 picks a game
December 21st, 2025 at 5:23 pm
Uhhh, Maybe because Baker sucks!?!?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:24 pm
Baker is streaky. He’s either really hot or ice cold.
No consistency and that’s the kiss of death.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:24 pm
They should have kept the ball out of his hands
Maybe they win the game
December 21st, 2025 at 5:24 pm
I don’t see the mystery
It makes COMPLETE sense if you KNOW that the line is beyond bad. You try and see if you can win enough to make the playoffs without getting your QB killed
December 21st, 2025 at 5:26 pm
Blow it up!!! Starting with the HC!!! He has this team of winners playing as losers! Not a good look at all!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:26 pm
Bring in Klint Kubiak
December 21st, 2025 at 5:26 pm
Because Bowels is putrid as a HC!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:26 pm
All I want for Christmas is a new coaching staff.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:26 pm
Just imagine if they move on from White, Godwin, and start parting ways with some of our better players only to keep Bowels. I will be livid!!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:27 pm
Baker had the ball at end of Pats, Saints, Falcons and Panthers games how did that work out ?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:27 pm
Something happened at Detroit Bucs never recovered from that game. It’s been a downward spiral spiral ever since. I truly believe Miles 1k affected the team, and Todd leaked his retirement.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:27 pm
Baker is off. All WR healthy and you pond the ball.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:27 pm
There’s no logical explanation. It’s just bad, overreactive playcalling and game planning. It’s just bad all around.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:28 pm
@bee
Imagine Baker throwing 45 times a game right now to push the ball. He’d throw 3 picks a game
—-
I could imagine a world in which you knew maths. If bakers was as error prone as a pick per 15 attempts his ints would be much higher.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:29 pm
Baker was let down again today.
I’m not blind, he has not been good but why is Evans stopping on that route!?
Why isn’t Chukwama in at G? Telling me they will put LT Mauch at RG and RT Goedeke at LG in their rookie years and Chukwama can’t shift to the inside!?
Baker was allowed to throw 15 times in 2 hours. How you gonna get in a rhythm? How you gonna perform when the OC puts you in 3rd down passing situation every series and then have no counters to the blitz!?
So many people are in over their heads on the Bucs right now and most of them wear headsets on the sidelines or play G or must have concussed themselves pregame (Goedeke).
December 21st, 2025 at 5:30 pm
This is like driving back to take another look at a crash site.. returning to JBF
Please… be over season.. please be over….
I have been through this every other time since 1976 ..z it’s a terrible experience
December 21st, 2025 at 5:30 pm
We could still win the division at 8-9, provided the Panthers lose in Seattle. How pathetic is that??? If that happens, we should forfeit the playoff game.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:31 pm
Something happened at Detroit, Bucs never recovered from that game. It’s been a downward spiral ever since. I truly believe Miles 1k affected the team and Todd leaked his retirement. Sorry the spell check got away from me.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:31 pm
10 passes to Evans & Godwin…….averaged 6 yards…….WTF….
December 21st, 2025 at 5:31 pm
My imagination’s definition of rock bottom appears flawed.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:35 pm
Baker Bros
The coaches trust Baker so much they run the ball. Baker even makes one read then looks to run the ball. He doesn’t even trust his own arm. He’s not good. He completed, what, 2 passes beyond 15 yards today? Pathetic
December 21st, 2025 at 5:36 pm
All I want for X-mas is backup guards that don’t suck.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:38 pm
This was a Todd game plan. Play not to lose instead of to win. Baker is not the answer with a poor offensive line and lousy game plan. The Bucs had ten days to prepare. This coaching staff is not getting it done. They are Todd, soft, extre soft, unprepared, and waiting out retirement on the extension.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:40 pm
Bowles publicly stated he wanted to run the bal 30 times and control the clock. This is all on him, as it always has been. He’s one of the 7 worst coaches in the NFL, and the last 3 weeks should remove any doubt from fans that he will be sitting on his couch next football season. Garbage staff. If we don’t make that move, Jason Licht should be fired also.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:41 pm
Worst coached Bucs since the 2011Raheem meltdown. As I’ve been trying to say, it’s over and has been over since the loss to the Patriots.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:42 pm
I seriously wonder if Brian Leftwich is still available. He couldn’t do any worse.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:43 pm
why did they take it out of buckys hands?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:48 pm
I had high hopes for this season , the Bucs were impressive in their first 6 games they beat Seattle, San Fran, tough opponents then after the bye it went down hill quickly. The OC is horrible I can predict 75% of the plays, the OL is terrible, so Baker has little time and worst of all is the secondary they are giving receivers 10 yards or more buffer.. This is not a playoff team and if by chance they get there they will be gone after the first game.
December 21st, 2025 at 5:49 pm
Time to clean house.
In hindsight, they should have put Coen in command.
Definitely need an offensive HC. How many defensive coaches go bust before they wake up?
December 21st, 2025 at 5:50 pm
BOWELS FAULT! He is the HEAD Coach!
Being a DEFENSIVE GURU,he knew his defense could stop them!
SHEAR GENIUS!
Fire Bowels,OC and all defensive coaches!!
December 21st, 2025 at 5:54 pm
SIMPLE!! Our O Line is weak and our OC is lost
December 21st, 2025 at 6:10 pm
I don’t know, Joe, what the answer is but I’m afraid it’s probably more than one which means the whole damn thing is broken…a broken scheme, a broken will and desire, broken player leadership, broken player self accountability, broken confidence, broken understanding of what each and every person is wanting to accomplish.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:12 pm
I think Bucky got injured. I don’t remember the play but he got up limping. Then they started White and Tucker.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:22 pm
Maybe they took the ball out of his hands because when they put it in his hands, like at the end of the game, he failed miserably.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:28 pm
The late 1st half TD was pure Jamel Dean. He gets beat often on go routes and hopes for an overthrow. Usually he gets lucky. Not today. Time for the Baker bashers—Munchers—to remind us how talented Dean is. He is so talented that he might be the only guy in the NFL to take a pay cut this year.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:30 pm
I’m a Browns fan in Ohio. This sounds eerily like Baker’s last season in Cleveland. He played well that season until seriously injuring his left shoulder (which he did again a few weeks ago), and then had broken ribs and a sprained ankle. He’s a gamer and wanted to play the rest of the season in Cleveland but played mediocre and should have been taken out and sent for shoulder surgery. The left shoulder is vital for throwing a football right handed believe it or not. He was in so much pain he couldn’t get any sleep. Stephanski should have shut him down for the season, I blame him for that. So Baker may have several significant injuries right now given that he played so well in the first half of the season that the consensus was that he was the league MVP up to that point. Something definitely changed after getting injured this season. My 2 cents.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:36 pm
Play-calling has no rhythm, no timing, no strategy – except to establish a run game that will be abandoned in 4th quarter because we’re trailing a bad team.
Let Baker do his Baker things by running & throwing when the opposing defense doesn’t expect either of those two things. We DO NOT have the guards to force our will in the run game. We ran it enough to start getting a couple of breakout runs, but Carolina proved they could be had EARLY by hitting them with a strategic pass game.
We abandoned it so we could force the run game that we abandoned to pass when Carolina KNEW we had to pass.
We could have been ahead at the half by two TD’s – we have to be all gas no breaks – because our defense are speed bumps to any opposing offense rights now.
Sorry to say, but it’s Grizz. Coen attacks at every opportunity. We play it safe, fritter away time by accumulating 170 yards rushing – and STILL being behind – and then abandone it to pass out of desperation. It’s the strategy for the season and why a team with more talent than Coen had, now has a losing record.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:38 pm
So a second quarter TD to get 13 points and a 3 point deficit is too much for Baker to overcome. Amazing how much confidence the Baker Boi(s) have in their idol.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:52 pm
BOWLES SAID HE WANTED TO RUN IT ! WHAT ? WHY ? YOUR WIDE OUT ROOM IS HEALTHEY ⁰AND YOU CANT THROW PAST THE STICKS ? THIS IS ON BOWLES .HIS STINK IS ALL OVER THE RUN GAME .TELLING GIZZ WHAT TO DO. ITS PATHETIC HE IS NO OFFENCE GUY . COEN HAD THIS TEAM HUMMING AND JASON LIGHT BLEW IT ! HAD A AGREEMENT THAT WAS NEVER SIGNED ! JAGS SAWCIT AND JUMPED ON IT AFTERCTHEY SAW WHAT HE DID WITH THE BUCS ! SHAME ON LIGHT . HECWAS HEAD COACH MATERIAL AS WE SEE NOW LEADING THETE DIVISION.
December 21st, 2025 at 6:52 pm
Bowles wanted to run the ball because running the ball eats more Clock. Eat more Clock keep his putrid defense off the field. He knows they suck, we know they suck, everybody knows they suck.
Unfortunately, our off offensive line and our offensive coordinator suck too. Quite an organization Bud Licht has set up here.
Baker is more like Gardner Minshew than starting caliber QB.
December 21st, 2025 at 7:13 pm
They waived the white flag on defense. Trying to keep offense on field and break Carolina defense. Keeps defense rested and (maybe) panthers offense out of sync. Didn’t work
December 21st, 2025 at 7:33 pm
Had a similar problem 2 weeks ago when a receiver just stopped on a crossing route leading to an interception. Might have been Cam Johnson?
.
December 21st, 2025 at 8:02 pm
I pick the Panthers to win today sorry to say when Baker threw the ball and I knew that he will be picked off in the last 2 minutes. This Bucs team has no fighting spirit and now It looks like the Panthers will win the division. Something is really wrong with Baker. Bowles is also to be blame here. He is just standing on the sideline and looks lost. Bucs need a new head coach and draft a new qb if they want to reach the super bowl again.
December 21st, 2025 at 8:19 pm
If I throw an interception at the end of a game and my team is already behind, I do not cause the loss. The other team already had enough points to win. I did not, it is true, win the game. But to assume that my team would score on that drive is not logical. The most you can say is that my play to away a possibility of winning, which is not causing a loss.
Second absurdity. People claiming that the Bucs are garbage, trash, [unmentionable], and then asserting that they lose to weaker teams. Exactly how bad can teams be if they are inferior to garbage, etc.?
December 21st, 2025 at 8:22 pm
Baker told the crew before the game that he was completely healthy, and had even taken off the extra padding on his NON throwing shoulder.