The clock had nearly bled dry, and Baker Mayfield was standing tall in the pocket, bruised, battered, and hit so many times he might as well have been a piñata at a kid’s party. But when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers needed him most, he ran headlong into trouble, lowered his shoulder, and kept the game alive.
“We’ll take the wins for sure, but there’s a lot of stuff we can clean up, especially offensively,” Mayfield said. “Obvious, I think we’ll all look at the tape and say we can correct a lot, and not make it this difficult on ourselves, but we’ll take wins when we’re having to scratch and claw, though.”
The scoreboard read 20-19 when it was done vs. the Houston Texans, a Tampa Bay win on Monday Night Football that felt more like an escape act. Running back Rachaad White plunged across the goal line for the winner, his second heroic act of the night after recovering a fumble earlier. Between White and rookie Bucky Irving, the Bucs carved out 169 rushing yards, carrying the offense when the line in front of them crumbled.
Mayfield’s Clutch Heroics Seal Bucs Win
Baker Mayfield’s Grit Was the Headline
Mayfield had been crushed all night by Houston’s front, hit high, hit low, dragged to the turf. Still, on a third down that would have iced the game for the Texans, he tucked the ball, dove for daylight, and refused to fold. “Scratch and claw” had never looked so literal.
The Buccaneers’ special teams nearly undid it all. A missed kick. A blocked punt that flipped the lead. A kickoff return that sliced through coverage like a knife through soft bread. “Self-inflicted errors,” Mayfield called them. CBS analyst Bryant McFadden was less kind, saying the unit was “playing with the enemy.” Thomas McGaughey, the special teams coach, is about to have a very long week.
And yet, there’s something undeniable about Mayfield’s presence. Experts called him an “early MVP”:
“You have to have his name in that early MVP conversation, my goodness, cuz he is unbelievable, and they’re doing so being short-handed,” McFadden said. “And you still don’t, you don’t talk about the guys that are not there, you talk about the guys that are making plays, and it starts and it stops with Baker Mayfield.”
The offensive line? Banged up, patched together, but tough enough in the final minutes. Still, they’ll need to protect him better. The NFC South won’t wait around while Mayfield plays the hero every week.
Bucs Are Living Dangerously
At 2-0, the Bucs are living dangerously, winning knife fights instead of blowouts. But they’re also proving they can win ugly, win late, win when everything else goes wrong. And with Baker Mayfield in charge, the Bucs believe that might just be enough.
The stage is set for Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, where the New York Jets will square off against Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 1 p.m. ET.
History leans green in this matchup. The Jets have owned the series, winning 10 of the 13 meetings, while Tampa Bay has managed three victories. Still, Mayfield’s fiery play and Tampa’s 2-0 start suggest the Bucs won’t be rolling over this time.
Main Photo: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images
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