Sunday was another example of revenge being a dish best served cold. After narrowly losing in the Divisional Playoffs to the Detroit Lions in January, Baker Mayfield and his team had eight months to re-tool, re-strategize, and get comfortable in Liam Coen’s new offense. They were ready for war.
Ford Field has become one of the loudest and most intimidating of venues amongst NFL stadiums in the past few years due to the drastic shift in enthusiasm for the team. The Lions suffered multiple decades of being one of the worst teams in football, including more than one winless season. Now that their fans have a good team to cheer for, they were going to remind Baker Mayfield and his linemen that it was going to be a long day.
The game started as expected for Tampa, with Coen trying to get Mayfield going early with some quick throws. Mayfield’s first two attempts had the Buccaneers at midfield after an 18 yard strike to Chris Godwin. Mayfield kept the pressure up with a 50 yard shot to Trey Palmer in the endzone which drew a pass interference call, setting Tampa Bay up for a 1st and Goal inside the 5 yard line. It looked like Tampa would march into the endzone until some overthinking on the part of Liam Coen led to a near disastrous strip sack by Lions’ juggernaut pass rusher Aidan Hutchinson. Luckily, Bucs’ Justin Skule fell on the loose ball allowing Tampa Bay’s Chase McLaughlin to come on for his first field goal.
On the ensuing drive, the Lions’ first offensive play ended in a Jared Goff interception that handed the ball right back to Baker Mayfield, yet the Lions defense stepped up to bail Detroit out. The Lions’ Aidan Hutchinson wreaked havoc in the backfield all afternoon. He tallied another sack and held Tampa to a monster 55-yard field goal despite the great field position Mayfield started with.
While Goff was able to hit a chunk play up the sideline to Jameson Williams on the next drive, the Bucs defenders stood up the home team, holding them to 3 and making the score 6-3 to end the first quarter. After tying the game with a second field goal, Detroit shifted back to defense where the Lions’ secondary would see their first pressure of the afternoon.
Mayfield would surgically lead the Bucs upfield at an elevated pace, the drive kept alive by a huge 3rd and 10 conversion to Chris Godwin. After converting another first down under pressure, Baker dropped a perfect ball up the left sideline for a 41 yard touchdown to Godwin, making the Bucs’ lead 13-6 with just under 9 minutes to play in the half.
Tampa Bay’s staunch defense seemingly forced a 3 and out when Detroit took the field moments later, but the Bucs’ special teams unit was caught flat footed on a punt fake conversion, keeping Goff on the field to continue the Lions’ drive. Detroit would end up punting a few minutes later, giving Tampa one more shot to extend their lead.
Mayfield made a 7th connection with Chris Godwin near midfield, but would then make his first major mistake, throwing an ill placed ball into traffic which was intercepted by Brian Branch.
Detroit was in prime position with 1:54 left in the half to put points up, even making it into the red zone after some quick mid-range throws from Goff, but then something very “Dan Campbell” would happen. With no more timeouts, after a complete pass inside the 10 yard line, the Lions offense rushed to the line of scrimmage to attempt a spike while half of the Lions’ special teams unit was simultaneously running onto the field, causing a flag for “Too many men on the field” and a ten second runoff, ending the half without scoring, entering halftime with Tampa in front, 13 to 6.
The second half saw Detroit come out to notch an early field goal, cutting the lead down to four points. After another Aidan Hutchinson sack, his fourth of the day, the Bucs would punt back to Detroit. The home team, carrying the apparent momentum, marched down the field on the first drive of the game where Tampa’s defense looked confused as they had been crisp and flew to the ball to this point. David Montgomery would score a touchdown and take the first lead for Detroit heading into the final moments of the third quarter ahead 16-13.
As I’ve said so many times before, though, Baker is gonna bake. After a penalty and his first completion to rookie Jalen McMillan of the day, the Bucs approached the red zone and a potential go ahead score. Faced with 3rd and 4 on the Lions’ 22 yard line, with Hutchinson screaming towards him, Mayfield took a sliver of an opening to dash past his right guard and ran for 11 yards to a much needed first down. On the very next play, Baker snapped the ball and immediately dashed through the middle of the field on a designed QB Draw, sidestepped two defenders, ran through arm tackles and reached over the goal line for the touchdown, taking back the lead for Tampa Bay.
Ford Field went from deafening to silent within a moment. Surely, Goff’s offense had an entire 4th quarter to regain the momentum (and the lead), but the back to back fearless runs by the slightly undersized Bucs’ quarterback changed the Motor City vibes.
Goff would come out in the final quarter and lead the Lions on a deep drive, but on a key 2nd and 16 in Bucs’ territorial, he threw a ball into blanket coverage that was intercepted by Buccaneers’ safety Christian Izien, who was playing for the injured All-Pro Antoine Winfield Jr.
Tampa would punt after their ensuing drive and provide Detroit a chance at a potential game winning 2 minute drill. The Lions offense made it deep into Tampa territory with just over a minute to play, but on a 4th and 8 inside the red zone, backup Safety Christian Izien came up with the stop that should have ended the game.
Detroit would have one more chance after a timeout and a questionable playcall by Liam Coen with just over 40 seconds to go. After punting the ball back to midfield, the Bucs’ defense as they had most of the day, stood strong and stopped Detroit for the final time, giving the big win to the Buccaneers 20-16. It was a scoreless, messy fourth quarter highlighted by the “bend but don’t break” Todd Bowles’ defense.
Baker Mayfield finished the game 12 of 19 for 185 yards with one touchdown and one interception. The Bake Show also added 5 rushes for 34 yards including the go-ahead touchdown. Mayfield was sacked five times, all by Aidan Hutchinson most likely making him an early favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.
On offense, Chris Godwin put up a monster stat line, though all in the first half. Godwin caught 7 balls for 117 yards with one score. Offensively, Godwin and Mayfield shouldered the load almost entirely, with a spark here and there from Mike Evans.
Defensively? There’s bit of work to be done. Todd Bowles’ defense allowed a total of 463 yards with 324 through the air and 139 yards rushing. The two interceptions greatly helped at key moments to keep Detroit out of the endzone and that will definitely improve as the season goes by.
Lastly, the offensive line got absolutely worked by Aidan Hutchinson, who sacked Baker Mayfield FIVE times. There’s some truth to Hutchinson just being an athletic freak, but with the schedule ahead, Liam Coen will look to improve the pass rush diagnostics of his rookie Center Graham Barton and others.
Tampa Bay will host the Denver Broncos this coming weekend. The Broncos defense has allegedly improved this offseason and Head Coach Sean Payton is on the hot seat after Russell Wilson left town, allowing Payton to draft a rookie QB in the NFL Draft in April. I will have a full game preview with betting odds and prediction before the weekend's games kickoff!
