The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have had an up-and-down year, but nonetheless, the 2024 season has ended in a fourth-straight NFC South title and a fifth-straight playoff berth.
And it's largely in part of the heroics of Baker Mayfield.
I'd be remiss to leave out Jalen McMillan off the bat. The Bucs rookie made two spectacular catches that helped Tampa Bay come back against the New Orleans Saints, but it was Mayfield's perfect throws, on top of a 28-yard scramble on a 3rd and 14 later in the game, that were the catalysts behind the division-clinching win.
But, one also has to give head coach Todd Bowles all the credit in the world for going for it on 4th and 8 from the Saints 42. The Bucs were still down by six at the time and they would've had to settle for a 59-yard field goal attempt from Chase McLaughlin that if made, would've just cut the score to three points.
"It was confidence in the offense, as well as being where we were on the field, having to punt, we probably wouldn't have gotten too many yards out of that punt," Bowles told reporters when asked what went into the fourth down decision. "So you might as well go for it on fourth and eight. We were trying to win the game. We knew we had to win to get in the playoffs."
How things were going at the time, there was no guarantee the Bucs would've been able to get those three points. The offense had been riding the wave, to say in the slightest, and the Saints defense had been making life hell for Liam Coen's group all game long.
It was an incredibly gutsy call and I'm not sure many other head coaches would've signed off on the decision. Regardless, Bowles did and it opened up one of the Bucs' biggest plays of the year, as Mayfield found McMillan for 33-yards that set the Bucs up at the Saints 9.
Nothing is ever easy in a Bucs Life, however, as McMillan was hit with a very questionable penalty after the big catch. It pushed the Bucs back from a goal-to-go situation into a 1st and 10 from the Saints 25 situation.
Then, just to make things worse, Luke Goedeke was hit with a holding call on the first play of the drive, forcing a 1st and 18 upon the Bucs offense.
But it didn't matter. Mayfield proceeded to throw what is probably his best throw of all-time as a Buccaneer and then McMillan proceeded to definitely make what is the biggest catch of his Bucs career, thus far. It was a 32-yard dart from Mayfield and just an incredible catch from McMillan.
"[It was] a hell of a throw," said Bowles. "It was a hell of a throw. We needed it. We needed every bit of it. We knew it was gonna be a tough game. Those guys fought hard, [I'm] proud of our resilience to come back and win."
It didn't stop there, either. As mentioned earlier, Mayfield's 28-yard scramble on third down was instrumental in the win, as well. The Bucs were trying to close the game out, up by just a point, with a little over four minutes left in the game. The problem was the fact they were in the shadow of their own end zone as they attempted to shut the Saints down for good.
Mayfield's scramble allowed the Bucs to do just that. The offense then marched the remaining 60-yards to the end zone as Bucky Irving took the ball in for a touchdown to make it a 27-19 game, which ended up being the final score.
If not for Mayfield's heroics, the Bucs probably lose this game. Don't get it twisted, the defense deserves some credit, too, for allowing just three second half points, but the Bucs still had to overcome a 10-point first-half deficit regardless of what the defense did in the final 30 minutes. For the game, he finished 21-of-32 for 221-yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He also added 68-yards on nine carries.
Mayfield is the reason that happened. And, just to put the cherry on top of everything, Mike Evans was able to snag 88-yards worth of passes on the day, giving him his 11th-straight 1,000 yard season, which ties him with Jerry Rice for the all-time record and also further extends his own record of starting off a career with nothing but 1k receiving seasons.
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