Carolina Panthers 23, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20
Q. Coach said he thought the last pass was missing communication with Mike Evans, what did you see on that play and what happened?
BAKER MAYFIELD: Yeah, unfortunately it was. I was trying to find a lane to step through and make the throw to him and he thought I was going to scramble, which based on some of the scrambles earlier to that, can't blame him. Just honestly, it's just a sucky situation.
Q. Describe just where you guys are at right now as a team. You had a chance to go down and win it.
BAKER MAYFIELD: Yeah, we did. Where we're at right now? We have to win out to win the division and get into the playoffs. It's as clear as it can be. Wish we would have taken care of business today, but the situation doesn't change. So, yeah, it sucks.
Too many penalties on offense today. Just keep shooting ourselves in the foot and got to finish with seven in the red zone instead of three. Same story, different day.
Q. Were the penalties what kept you out of the end zone those times you think?
BAKER MAYFIELD: No, just a matter of execution down there. They played physical but I thought we were physical as well. Just got to find a way to finish in the end zone.
Q. What goes through your head when you have that run pass option right down there with Mike. Obviously there's miscommunication, but.
BAKER MAYFIELD: Yeah, stepping up in the possibility, the guy was going to be over the top of him. There was going to be a bang-bang play but trust Mike in those situations to make that and that really would have put us in field goal range at that point. Still had a time-out. At that point you're really evaluating, okay, time on the clock, let's go score to win the game. No negative plays to knock us out of field goal position. That's what was going through my head and give one to our best player and, you know, I'm never going to question his instincts. That's the thing, you can look and say we 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.
Q. The previous possession you had a big shot to Egbuka, a 40-yard play, and you guys wound up not scoring there. Is that the kind of missed opportunity you're talking about?
BAKER MAYFIELD: Same, yeah. Same thing. Get down there, have a run, a negative play and then G-Bot, they wound up about to bring the pressure, we get a delay of game and just little things like that. Got to be able to line up and snap the ball when we're supposed to snap the ball and play on time and we didn't do that enough today.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports