Baker Mayfield says he had headset issues in Cincinnati, couldn't hear play calls

A lot went wrong for Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield on Sunday in Cincinnati, including not being able to hear the plays in his helmet.

“We had some headset issues for quite a while, in and out,” Mayfield said. “It’s not an excuse, but when they’re testing them on the sidelines, and they work perfectly fine, then you get out in between the hashes and it’s not working, it’s unfortunate. But it wasn’t the whole time, just first drive for sure, and then sporadically throughout the rest of the game. But yeah, we need to get in and out of the huddle quicker.”

Asked how often he has experienced headset issues like that, Mayfield answered, “That’s the first time it was that bad.”

Still, Mayfield acknowledged that a much bigger problem was his three fumbles, all of which the Bengals recovered.

“This one falls on me. They had, I think, 17 points alone off my turnovers, and it turns out to be a one-score game, six points,” Mayfield said. “If I get that fixed, make those corrections, I think we’ll be alright.”

The Bengals actually scored 21 points off Mayfield’s turnovers, in a 33-27 game. That was a much bigger problem for the Buccaneers than the headset.