Did Todd Bowles blame Baker Mayfield for Buccaneers' woes?

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have fallen from 6-2 to 7-9 amid their third in-season swoon in three years under head coach Todd Bowles. 

On Monday, Bowles seemed to toss quarterback Baker Mayfield under the bus while discussing his team's latest woes. 

Buccaneers need "better" from Baker Mayfield?

"[They are] mistakes," Bowles said about Tampa Bay's uptick in turnovers, per the Buccaneers' website. "We've got to be better at the quarterback position, and we've got to be better at the signal-calling position, and we've got to be better blocking it."

Pro Football Reference shows that Mayfield tossed eight interceptions and lost two fumbles over Tampa Bay's last eight games, seven of which the team lost. In Week 12 of the campaign, Mayfield suffered an injury to his non-throwing shoulder. 

Most recently, Mayfield committed three turnovers (two interceptions, one lost fumble) in the Buccaneers' 20-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 17. That result put the Bucs in a position where they'll need more than just a win over the Carolina Panthers (8-8) in Week 18 to claim the NFC South title. 

If the Atlanta Falcons, Buccaneers and Panthers all finish the season at 8-9, the Panthers would win the division due to having a tiebreaker advantage. Atlanta hosts the 6-10 New Orleans Saints in Week 18. 

What are Todd Bowles' messages to Buccaneers ahead of must-win game? 

"Winning in this league is hard," Bowles added. "There's no negativity inside the locker room, inside the building, as far as we're concerned. There's mistakes and things we've got to clean up…There's trust, there's belief. We've got to play harder, we've got to play a lot better, we've got to coach a lot better."

As of Tuesday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Buccaneers as 2.5-point favorites over the Panthers. If Tampa Bay doesn't "play a lot better" at Raymond James Stadium on Jan. 3, the Atlanta-New Orleans showdown won't mean much to casual football fans. 

"We don't play 48 or 60 minutes of bad football," Bowles said. "We play spurts, and we have a couple plays. We've got to put it together. It's the last game – one way or the other, we've got to find a way to win."