Through the first two games of the season, Baker Mayfield has posted 474 passing yards, five touchdown throws and a passer rating of 129.1. In leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a very encouraging 2-0 start, he has shown the same type of throwing talent that made him the first pick in the 2018 draft and a 4,000-yard Pro Bowl passer in 2023, his first season with the Buccaneers.
However, the Buccaneers might not have been able to leave Detroit on Sunday with a 20-6 victory over the Lions if Mayfield hadn’t also had so much magic in his legs.
Most notably, Mayfield scored the winning points late in the third quarter with an impressive 11-yard touchdown run through traffic. Most of his runs are scrambles, but this one was intentional and built on some defensive tendencies that offensive coordinator Liam Coen had noticed during the week. Mayfield took a shotgun snap and a quick step before sitting up and running straight up the middle from the Lions’ 11-yard line on first-and-10. He made the first five or six yards easily, but he had to weave through traffic and charge across the line to score the point.
“Yeah, (it was) just something Liam designed because he understood how they cover the empty package and yeah, (I) let a couple of guys run into the empty. I ended up cutting it short, but yeah, guys up front. It’s not easy to block up front.”
The Bucs were able to score the touchdown because Mayfield had escaped a pocket in disarray on the previous snap and ran 11 yards on third-and-four. It was reminiscent of a similar scrum he pulled off in week one to set up a touchdown against Washington. In both cases, Mayfield’s joy at the play was clear. It’s the kind of play that usually gets his teammates cheering, too, and while head coach Todd Bowles doesn’t necessarily want Mayfield to put himself in harm’s way too often, he knows his quarterback will do whatever it takes in critical situations.
“He knows when to lay down, when to throw freely in the pocket and when to run,” Bowles said. “Like I said, you have to have a feel for it. He has a great feel for it and that’s part of his game that helps make our offense better and we like that.”
That 11-yard touchdown was the longest touchdown run of his career and part of a 35-yard run that made him the Bucs’ best runner. Mayfield laughed when he heard that line, calling it “sad,” but he stressed that he’s always ready to run when the situation calls for it.
“You know what, I’m definitely not trying to run first,” he said. “But if the play is a QB draw, I’m going to try to get it done. So, like I said, I let the defense dictate where the ball goes, and if I have to make plays, my legs do it.”
It wasn’t just the running plays and that one designed run that made the difference for Tampa Bay’s offense. On an afternoon where Detroit’s Pro Bowl edge rusher Aidan Hutchinson was nearly unstoppable at times and lacked open passes, Mayfield also created key plays in the passing game by escaping pressure and buying time to get the ball to an open man. He finished the game with 185 yards on an efficient 12-of-19 passing effort.
“(He) did a great job of using his legs and then getting free. He found Chris (Godwin), who got us some third-down gains and kept some drives going for us,” Bowles said, “and we needed every single one of them.”
Still, the touchdown run was the highlight of Mayfield’s day on the field, and he was equally happy for Coen that his idea bore fruit at a crucial moment.
“Liam did a great job of setting that up. He just understood where we were on the field, what coverage and defense they were going to call,” Mayfield said. “So he was excited about that play. He had been talking about it all week. So it’s always fun when it comes true.”
