Baker Mayfield believes Buccaneers made a 'statement' with blowout win over Panthers

One of the more surprising NFL results of the final Sunday of October involved the Tampa Bay Buccaneers earning a blowout 43-13 win at the rival Carolina Panthers that improved Tampa Bay to 2-5 on the season. 

Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield hadn't played since he suffered a dislocated thumb on his throwing hand in Week 3. After he had a relatively easy day at Carolina's Bank of America Stadium, he spoke about what the 30-point victory meant to those inside the Tampa Bay locker room. 

Baker Mayfield: Buccaneers' win over Panthers was "a statement internally for us"

"I think it's a statement internally for us -- not to anybody else -- but for us," Mayfield explained, per Jenna Laine of ESPN. "This is what it's supposed to look like. It's not always going to look like that. It's the NFL. But operation-wise, and when it comes to complementary football, this is what the potential this team can have. And so, it's a statement within ourselves."

Previous stories suggested that Tampa Bay could begin selling players ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline as soon as this week if the Buccaneers lost to the Panthers. Additionally, Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles was routinely mentioned throughout October as a head coach who could be fired before the end of the campaign. 

Against Carolina, Bowles only needed Mayfield to complete seven of 11 passes for 64 yards and a touchdown. As a team, the Buccaneers rushed for 258 yards and three scores, and the Tampa Bay defense held Carolina to just six points until a garbage-time touchdown was scored with under 5:30 remaining in regulation. 

Baker Mayfield did what the Buccaneers needed him to do against the Panthers

"It was great. He made the plays when we needed him to," Bowles said about Mayfield. "We didn't need to make much. When the offensive line gets 49 runs in and you can run the ball like that -- especially a quarterback coming back off injury -- it made the day easy for him."

3-3 Carolina sits atop the NFC South standings, meaning the Buccaneers are now right back in the race for the division title. Mayfield and Co. will have another opportunity to tally a statement win when the Buccaneers host the 3-4 Atlanta Falcons on Nov. 1. As of Monday morning, DraftKings Sportsbook had Tampa Bay as a 1.5-point home favorite for that matchup. 

"Definitely a good physical win," Bowles told Albert Breer of Sports Illustrated about the victory over the Panthers. "And it was a hard-fought win. Hopefully it’s an identity setter."