Through the first two games of the season, Baker Mayfield has 474 passing yards, five touchdown tosses and a 129.1 passer rating. In leading the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a very encouraging 2-0 start, he has demonstrated the same sort of arm talent that made him the first-overall pick in the 2018 draft and a 4,000-yard Pro Bowl passer in 2023, his first season with the Buccaneers.
However, the Buccaneers might not have gotten out of Detroit with a 20-6 win over the Lions on Sunday if Mayfield didn't also have some magic in his legs.
Most notably, Mayfield scored what would prove to be the game-winning points on an impressive 11-yard touchdown run through traffic late in the third quarter. Most of his runs are scrambles but this one was by design, based on some defensive tendencies Offensive Coordinator Liam Coen had picked up on during the week. Mayfield took a shotgun snap and took one quick step before planting and running right up the gut on first-and-10 from the Lions' 11. He got the first five or six yards easily but had to weave through some traffic and power over the line to finish the score.
"Yeah, [it was] just something Liam drew up, understanding how they covered the empty package and, yeah, [I] made a couple of guys miss. Wound up cutting it back, but yeah, guys up front. It's not an easy front to block."
The Bucs were in position to score the touchdown because on the previous snap Mayfield had escaped a pocket in disarray and scrambled for 11 yards on third-and-four. It was reminiscent of a similar scramble he had made in Week One to set up a touchdown against Washington. In both cases, Mayfield's delight over the play was evident. It's the kind of play that generally fires up his teammates, too, and while Head Coach Todd Bowles doesn't necessarily want Mayfield putting himself at risk very often, he knows his quarterback is going to do whatever it takes in critical situations.
"He knows when to get down, he knows when the pocket's clean for him to throw, and when to run," said Bowles. "Like I said, you've got to have a feel for that. He has a great feel for that and that's part of his game that helps our offense be better and we like it."
That 11-yard score was the longest touchdown run of his career, and it was part of a 35-yard day on the ground that made him the Bucs' leading rusher. Mayfield laughed when he heard that nugget and called it "sad," but he reiterated that he's always willing to run if that's what the situation calls for.
"You know what, I'm not looking to run first by any means," he said. "But, if the play call is a QB draw, I'm going to try and make it work. So, for me, like I said, let the defense dictate where the ball is going to go, and if I have to make plays, my legs do it."
It wasn't just the scrambles and that one designed run that made the difference for Tampa Bay's offense. On an afternoon in which Detroit's Pro Bowl edge rusher, Aidan Hutchinson was at times nearly unstoppable, and clean pockets were in short supply, Mayfield also created key plays in the passing game by escaping pressure and buying time to get the ball to an open man. He finished with 185 yards on an efficient 12-of-19 passing.
"[He] did a heck of a job using his legs and then getting open, finding Chris [Godwin] for some third down wins right there that kept some drives going for us," said Bowles, "and we needed every one of them."
Still, the touchdown run was the highlight of Mayfield's day on the ground, and he was just as happy for Coen that his idea came to fruition in a key moment.
"Liam did a great job drawing that one up. Just understanding where we were at on the field, what kind of coverages and defense they were going to call," said Mayfield. "So, he was excited about that play call. He had been talking about it all week. So, it's always fun when it when it becomes true."
