The Tampa Bay Buccaneers broke an unwelcome streak on Sunday when they took the game-opening drive against Philadelphia 70 yards for a touchdown. Though the Buccaneers had scored opening-drive field goals in its wins over Washington and Detroit, the Eagles game marked the first time since the 2022 season finale that the offense had found the end zone on that first possession.
In fact, the Bucs scored touchdowns on their first two drives against Philly, and on three of its first four. In a season-opening drubbing of the Commanders, the Bucs scored on each of their first five possessions, and in Detroit they scored on thre of their first four. Notably, in a Week Three loss to Denver, the Bucs didn't score a single point until after the two-minute warning in the first half.
Every team wants to start fast in every game, but the Buccaneers think it is crucial to continue developing a productive offense under first-year coordinator Liam Coen. Against Philadelphia, Mayfield completed 12 of his first 13 passes on the two opening touchdown drives and kept right on going until he had a 347-yard outing.
"It's huge, but it's not just for me," said Mayfield of starting fast on offense. "It's for everybody else, too. The O-Line's able to settle in, too. Getting your skill guys going early gives them confidence in certain concepts on a critical third down or in the red zone. So it's important for us just to start fast. Whatever the scheme may be, however we want to attack a team, we just have to start fast and execute the plan at hand and go from there."
On Tuesday, Mayfield noted that the Buccaneers the 2023 season, his first in Tampa, also began with a 3-1 sprint out of the gates, but that team then stumbled and lost six of its next seven before righting the ship down the stretch. Mayfield made note of one difference between those teams: With him only a month into his job with the Bucs a year ago, that offense had not really established an identity yet. He thinks they have done so more quickly in 2024.
"I think you look at, within the first four weeks when we played well we started fast and we were physical," said Mayfield. "That's the identity we need to playing with, the physical mentality up front and playing at receiver, blocking, running backs running really hard and just finishing every single play. You never know when you could have that game-winning block or the touchdown-sealing block and just going from there. So our guys, starting fast and playing with an edge is where we want to to be at on offense."
Obviously, that's only going to happen if Mayfield is on his game in the early going, as he was against the Eagles. It helps when the game plan turns out to be a good one to hit the opposing defense with, and if the players are fully immersed in that plan. That was on display in Week Four.
"He was sharp," said Coen. "We were all really on the same page about the plan. I thought the staff did a phenomenal job of getting the guys ready to play this week, responding the right way. They really were kind of dialed in to what we were trying to do, how we wanted to attack that defense. And the guys were playing hard. They were playing fast. Baker was on, and getting the ball and spitting the ball out, getting the ball to the right guys at the right time. The guys just did a really good job of executing, especially early on, what we were trying to get done and jumping out to a fast start."
