When wide receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin both went down with significant injuries in a Week Eight game against Baltimore, it obviously dealt the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense a significant blow. At the conclusion of that game, the Buccaneers ranked fourth in the NFL in points per game and fifth in yards per game, and Evans and Godwin had accounted for approximately half of the team's passing output and 11 of Baker Mayfield's 18 touchdown passes.
Tampa Bay has since lost two more games but not because the offense has stalled without Evans and Godwin. The Buccaneers racked up 707 yards and 50 points in those two games against Atlanta and Kansas City – the latter against a top-five defense on a rainy night – which are both below their averages from the first seven games, but not by much. Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen has impressively schemed up an attack that has had to rely on a lot of reserves stepping into larger roles, and Mayfield's efficient passing has made it work.
Godwin is out for at least the rest of the regular season and Evans' earliest return will be after the team's Week 11 bye, but there is still room for improvement in the offense without those two. As Mayfield noted on Wednesday, as well as the Buccaneers are moving the chain, they're not getting as many of the splash plays that can turn a good offensive outing into a great one.
"Offensively, and I'll just speak on that – you know, I mentioned it after the [Kansas City] game, leaving three points [on the field] before halftime is a huge thing and that goes back to in the weeks prior, the turnovers I had in the red zone or past the 50 – making sure we're doing everything we can on offense to not leave points out there. That's what we're focused on is finishing drives, still trying to find some ways to get explosives. We're doing a good job of driving the ball on everybody but need to finish, need to find more explosives as well."
One way to categorize "explosive" offensive plays is to consider all runs of 10-plus yards and all completions of 20-plus yards. In the past two games, the Bucs have generated only eight such plays, including only three passes for 20 or more yards, none of which gained at least 30 yards. In contrast, in the two games prior to that, the Buccaneers racked up 24 explosive plays, including 11 through the air.
Against Kansas City, Tampa Bay had only two explosive plays and both were runs, neither by a running back. Wideout Sterling Shepard had a 19-yard end-around and Mayfield had a 10-yard scramble. That's a tiny bit misleading because Mayfield did have a handful of completions in the 15 to 19-yard range, but it's true that getting the ball downfield has been significantly more difficult without Evans and Godwin, plus rookie wide receiver Jalen McMillan, who is dealing with a hamstring problem.
Mayfield is currently dealing with a toe injury and some general soreness but he said on Wednesday that he would be fine for Sunday's game. The Buccaneers have chosen to turn their first two practices of the week into walk-throughs, which means they'll be trying to find a way to create those explosive plays without actually running full-speed.
"It's a ton of mental work," said Mayfield. "A ton of mental work, guys have to get their body right, and that's – when you do the walk-throughs like we did today, they're trying to allow us to recover as quickly as possible, but yeah, guys have to take the accountability to be locked in when you're not getting the full speed reps of overcommunicating, understanding when we're calling a certain pass play, what depth the route is at with the timing of it and all that."
The Buccaneers' last chance to get a much-needed win before their bye week is this Sunday at Raymond James Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers' defesne ranks 14th against the pass, allowing 209.0 yards per game, but notably already has 10 interceptions and boasts a pair of dangerous edge rushers in Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd. There will certainly be plenty of snaps on Sunday in which Mayfield's focus is to get rid of the ball quickly in order to avoid sacks and turnovers and keep the chains moving. The Bucs have done that well in the past few weeks; now they want to add some bigger gains downfield in order to get the most out of their offensive possessions.
