Josh Grizzard Agrees With Baker Mayfield
November 14th, 2025
Baker Mayfield is getting a lot of run this week for basically scolding his beloved teammates about not being focused on details and not having a killer instinct.
He says that’s leading to losing games and maybe, screwing up what could be a magical season.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles has been pretty vocal about his support for Mayfield setting his teammates straight.
Joe sees Mayfield as such a team-first guy always willing to prop up his teammates. For him to be openly critical like this, it must be an issue or issues much bigger than the team is admitting.
Well, there’s another coach who has Mayfield’s back. That would be Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard.
Yesterday in his weekly presser, Grizzard was asked to comment on Mayfield’s comments.
“I agree with it,” Grizzard said.
“I echoed everything he said on Monday as well, because when you have a practice week and you’re having a play and it might not have been executed the way you wanted to execute it, there’s not a lot of time to run a lot of these plays multiple times because you move on to third down or the red area.
“Guys have to be able to correct it at that point and know when we get in the game, you have to execute it at a high level, and you might not get another rep at that, especially full speed to do it.
“When he talks about the killer instinct, I’d echo that as well. We’re coming off a bye week, guys got time off, we talk about starting fast, we go down there and get seven points – and then you go down there on the second drive and it sputters out. That’s, I think, where the killer instinct needs to come in – that seven [points] is not enough, especially some of these high-powered offenses.”
Grizzard said Bucs players have to realize they cannot take their foot off the gas at any point until the offense goes into Victory Formation.
“It’s got to be for 60 minutes, and if it takes more than that, it takes more than that,” Grizzard said. “You can’t let off just because you got seven [points] on the first drive.”
It almost sounds to Joe like dudes thought they had the game in the bag when they scored on the opening drive.
What Joe would like to know is, how do guys think they have it all figured out if they’re dialing back the energy?
And this leadership stuff, it’s rearview mirror logic.
Hey, it’s great that guys like Lavonte David or Mayfield will unload on guys. But this is coming after the damage is done. If guys were loafing in the first quarter, where were these self-anointed leaders to address the issue right away? Why wait until after a loss?
November 14th, 2025 at 12:28 am
You wait to see if the individual self- corrects during the game. Had the Bucs pulled it out that last drive, we’d never had heard those comments. The shepherd p.i comes to mind. It was late in game, a crucial play that was erased because he can’t avoid a defender. I can’t recall Mike or Chris ever doing that ( last three years , anyway) . The blocking miscues too ( on the last play ) I think can be attributed to Bredson absence.
November 14th, 2025 at 2:26 am
Speak a lot about Bowles lacking the intangibles to take a team to a SB win & this is just one more example of that. Just my opinion & obv some will disagree, but the ass chewing should be led by the HC, with the vets following his lead & reinforcing his message in the locker room. Any HC who stands behind his players yelling “Yeah, what Baker said!!” after the fact isn’t fit to be LEADING a team.
November 14th, 2025 at 3:04 am
so who will call out Baker for the pizz poor job he did? Add the HC add OC in there as well
November 14th, 2025 at 3:15 am
@FlBoy84,
It is NOT necessary for the ass-chewing to be led by the HC. On a championship team, it is common for the players to hold each other accountable. Certainly, the team that won a Lombardi Trophy in 2002 was that way.
That said, you’re criticizing Bowles for his lack of leadership when you have no idea how things were handled on the team I guarantee Bowles addressed some issues with the team internally before Baker’s press conference.
November 14th, 2025 at 3:36 am
@callingoutthelies,
Baker threw for 273 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTS, 106 QB rating. That’s what you are characterizing as a “pizz poor job”?
Baker was not perfect, but I didn’t see him on the field ever when the defense gave up 4 explosives over 50 yards each.
Given that you are “callingoutthelies”, maybe you should start by looking in the mirror. 😉
November 14th, 2025 at 3:56 am
Baker and Grizzard are both full of crap on this.
The players on offense were sufficiently focused. It was the play calling that lost the game.
Once Bredeson left the game, the Bucs strength was running LT, LG, RG, RT and sweeps. Five yards per carry running the ball, 3 for 3 converting third downs running the ball, the players on offense were getting the job done. But, Grizzard (and or Baker ) just had to pass the ball.
Here is a truly awful statistic that should have informed play calling in the game, and definitely should inform future play calling!
On 8 of 10 drives that the Bucs passed twice in the same set of downs, the drive ended with a punt 6 times, a turnover on downs once, and a field goal once on a what had been a very successful drive until the Bucs passed on five straight plays.
Of the two successful exceptions, the first was the 10 yard touchdown pass on third down in the third quarter. And, the second was on the last scoring drive of the game when the Bucs threw two incomplete passes before converting on third down with an 11 yard pass. But, at that point, the Patriots were just playing prevent and running out the clock.
The Patriots knew what was very likely coming on third down, and they mostly stopped it because the Bucs were not playing to the strength of the players they had on the field, and because the Bucs were PREDICTABLE – the deadliest sin in football!
The first drive, the Bucs ran the ball three times, passed the ball three times and scored a touchdown. Complimentary football works!
The second drive, the Bucs ran for 11, an incomplete pass, ran for 12, ran for 4, then an incomplete pass, another incomplete pass again and punt. The Bucs didn’t let up on the gas. Bredeson was out of the game, and the guy who replaced him blocks well for runs, and for passes, not so much. So? Run the ball!
The third drive, incomplete pass, run for 7, and, on third and three, run??? No! Sacked for a 10 yard loss and punt.
The fourth drive, Tucker run to left end stopped for no gain; the same result as an incomplete pass. Then, an 8 yard pass, and on third and 2, a run? No! Incomplete pass and punt.
Up until that point, the wasted plays were one run stuff for no gain, five incomplete passes for no gain, and one sack for a 10 yard loss.
The fifth drive, 12 yard pass, 1 yard run, 11 yard pass, 31 yard pass, yard pass, incomplete pass, 3 yard pass and field goal on 4th and 8 from the NE 21. The drive was rolling along so long as the threat of a run was there. But, after 5 straight passes, a drive that should have ended in a touchdown settled for a field goal.
That was the last Bucs possession of the first half with the Bucs trailing 14-10.
Second half, first Bucs drive, 7 yard pass, 5 yard run, incomplete pass, Tucker stopped for no gain up the middle, and incomplete pass and punt.
So far, two runs stopped for no gain, 8 incomplete passes for no gain, and two sacks for yards. Running up the middle and around the left end didn’t work. But, 2 wasted run plays vs 10 wasted pass plays?
The second drive of the half, yard run, 11 yard pass, 2 yard run, 22 yards on pass interference as Egbuka was set to make a big catch, 2 yard run, 11 yard pass, 12 yard run, 13 yard pass, 11 yard run, incomplete pass, incomplete pass and 10 yard touchdown pass. After marching down the field playing complimentary football, the Bucs abandoned it at the 10 yard line for three straight pass plays and just squeaked by for the touchdown to trail 21-16. Even the run that lost two yards and the run that gained only two yards still set up successful passes on the next play.
The third drive of the half, 4 yard run, 5 yard pass, 2 yard run (for a 1st down), incomplete pass, yard pass, on third and 12, a 9 yard pass, and on 4th and 3 at the NE 40, a run? No. A pass and a 10 yard offensive pass interference penalty against Shepard and a punt.
The fourth drive of the half, 6 yard run, sack yards, 1 yard pass and punt.
The fifth drive of the half, 5 yard run, 6 yard pass (for a 1st down), 1 yard pass, 16 yard pass, 18 yard run, incomplete pass, 7 yard pass, and, after the 2 minute warning timeout with time to think about it, trailing 21-16 with all three time outs and control of the game in their hands, on 3rd and 3, say run, right? No. Let’s choose something PREDICTABLE, another incomplete pass. And, on 4th and 3, a run maybe? No, let’s STAY PREDICTABLE, a pass for yards – basically a sack, but Mayfield heroically pitched it to White as he went to the ground, but White had no where to go. So, a turnover on downs.
On the sixth and final drive of the half, a 13 yard pass, a 21 yard pass, an incomplete pass, another incomplete pass, a third down conversion on an 11 yard pass, a nine yard pass and an 11 yard pass for a touchdown with 33 seconds left on the clock. So, yes, all passes on the last touchdown drive, but that was with the Patriots ahead 28-16 and running out the clock.
The plays and the numbers say that the Bucs had it in their power to beat the team with the best run defense in the NFL if they had just run the ball more. But, just like against the Lions, the Patriots KNEW what was likely to come on third down. And, the Patriots used that predictability to take a win away from the Bucs.
It was not the players on the offense lacking energy or being soft.
The players on offense ran right over the best run defense in the league for 5 yards per carry and three for three on third down conversions running the ball.
That is a winning formula if the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterback will just use it!
The Offensive Coordinator (and Baker if he is changing lots of runs to passes) should be the focus of cussin’ and fussin’.
Of course the players made some mistakes. But, the game was still there to be won with better play calling and even the least bit of pattern recognition.
November 14th, 2025 at 4:06 am
Sorry about the skips in my post.
I used the less than and greater than signs to bracket the number of yards lost. Apparently, the blog is not formatted to recognize the greater than and less than symbols, or at least not when used to bracket a number.
November 14th, 2025 at 4:07 am
Just note that every skip indicates a number of yards lost.
November 14th, 2025 at 4:59 am
It was only a matter of time before this was going to happen, it was inevitable. There are just too many mistakes in big moments happening. They never seem to end. When you are making millions you are expected to get it right in the big moments when it matters most, we haven’t done that as a team yet. It’s always someting, an off sides here, a holding penalty there or a dropped pass for first and goal. At some point you have to ask yourselves, what are we doing here? Are we after 17 games and calling it quits and running off to Hawaii for a month happy another season is finally in the books or are we after another ring? If we really are after another ring, we HAVE to find a way to cut the mistakes out. This could be a big moment in the teams growth to the next level. Time will tell how the professionals respond…
On another subject, there has to be a way to mitigate these injuries. I would be looking real hard at ways we could lessen the number injured. There is a big difference in first string vs. a second and third and it seems whoever has the most starters on the field come playoff time has the best chance of winning. I would be looking at every single injury, the circumstances around that injury and improve those circumstances to where the chance of another one occurring again would be greatly minimized. An 18-20 game season is a lot of abuse on the human body I don’t care how strong or finely tuned it is, it’s brutal. Maybe going full speed, full contact in practice isn’t necessary at this level? Maybe take them out when you are 2 touchdowns up. It’s how Godwinn was done in!! I sure don’t know the answer but I do know when your 1st round draft pick goes down so does your chance of winning and when 7 of them go down on offense like we are experiencing, well, kiss that ring goodbye for that year. There has to be a better way.