The Tampa Bay Buccaneers lost to the New Orleans Saints, 23-13, in Week 17 and had trouble sustaining any kind of effective offense in the first three quarters. However, the Buccaneers did mount two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, and had rookie wide receiver Trey Palmer not stumbled to the ground and lost the football at the end of a 54-yard catch, they might have been in position to tie it up late.
Baker Mayfield finished with his third 300-yard passing game as a Buccaneer, with 220 of his 309 yards coming in the fourth quarter. Playing against a Saints defense that wanted to protect a big lead by draining the clock and discouraging big plays, Mayfield still managed to hit several downfield shots in crunch time, including touchdowns of 22 yards to Palmer and 47 to Chris Godwin.
Mayfield has now played 64 quarters as the Buccaneers' starting quarterback and in terms of yards, his fourth quarter against the Saints was his most prolific one yet. His 16 pass attempts in that quarter were his most in any period so far, and he completed 12 of them, with a completion rate over expected (CPOE) of 6.8%, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. Mayfield's passer rating in the fourth quarter in Week 17 was 130.2, his 13th best this season. Five of his 13 best quarters in terms of passer rating have come in the last three games.
Mayfield's total expected points added (EPA) in the fourth quarter against New Orleans was 5.9, his 11th most prolific quarter this season in that category. Of his 16 dropbacks in that period, nine of them resulted in a higher post-snap EPA than was expected, or what Next Gen Stats calls +EPA. That's tied for the fourth most +EPA he has had in any quarter this season. Coincidentally, his best quarter of the season in this regard, with 11 +EPA in 17 dropbacks was the second period in a Week Four win over the Saints in New Orleans.
Mayfield averaged a whopping 13.8 yards per pass attempt in the fourth quarter on Sunday, his fifth highest average in any quarter this season. It's his highest YPA in any quarter in which he threw 10 or more passes.
The Buccaneers didn't complete the comeback on Sunday and they didn't, in total, have a particularly effective offensive performance. However, Mayfield and company did find some answers when their backs were against the wall and displayed what the Bucs' offense is capable of when it gets into a groove.
