For Mayfield, absences are just a fact of life in the NFL.
“Until we lost, nobody was complaining or whining about it,” Mayfield said. “That’s the nature of the game. You know you’ve got a game every week until you say goodbye, so you realize it and move on. You don’t have to give an extra speech, guys know they have to prepare — physically as well as you can to play and go from there.”
Because they played Monday night, the Buccaneers (5-2) have one less day to rest, heal and prepare for their meeting with New Orleans (1-6). Fortunately, the Saints are also rebounding after falling to the Chicago Bears in a turnover-filled loss in the Windy City.
Mayfield knows that one win can wash away the bad taste of a loss like the one they experienced in Detroit. He expects his teammates to bounce back and bring their best to the NFC South showdown.
“Yeah, I think you look at it — I know it’s not Thursday week — but similarly in short weeks, if you lose, you want to get there sooner rather than later to get it out of your system,” Mayfield said. “Especially when you have a group like us, they understand what we have to do to get the job done to find wins. Our guys will handle it the right way, recover as quickly as we can and go from there.”