The Tampa Bay Buccaneers' offense had its best performance of the 2023 season in Sunday's 34-20 win over the Packers in Green Bay, producing season highs in total yards (452), first downs (22), third-down success rate (63.6%), yards per play (7.5), net passing yards (353), completion percentage (78.6), average gain per pass play (10.7) and average yards per pass (13.6). With Baker Mayfield's "perfect game" in the passing attack and a solid month worth of improved production on the ground, the optimistic view is that the Mayfield and the Bucs are peaking at the perfect team.
At the very least, the offense is jelling after 13 games of absorbing the new scheme imported by first-year coordinator Dave Canales. Perhaps an even more optimistic take is that there is still room for that offense to grow in the next three weeks and, if things go right, the playoffs.
"Just jelling together," said Head Coach Todd Bowles of the offensive upswing during the playoff stretch run. "The receivers knowing exactly where to be, audibles are on time, offensive line playing together – nobody is really missing a bunch of blocks right now. The confidence has grown, as a group, as the season went on. Dave is comfortable with them, they're comfortable with Dave. The adjustments, the roles everybody has, and moving people around. I think they've grown very comfortable with that and that's kind of helped us out a lot."
On Thursday before the trip to Green Bay, Canales said it was his "vision" for the group to have both Chris Godwin and Mike Evans plus a reliable rushing attack all producing on the same afternoon. He said that would be a "pretty dangerous offense." Against the Packers, Godwin had 155 yards on 10 catches, Evans had 57 yards and a touchdown and running back Rachaad White had 139 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown. It did indeed look dangerous, as the Buccaneers punted just once and turned their four possessions in the second half into three touchdowns and one clock-killing drive at the end.
"It was great to see everything clicking over there," said Bowles. "You know, the run game [was] going, the pass game [was] going, [and] the ball [was] spread around. It was great to finally see some consistency over there. They've been putting it together for a couple of weeks now and it finally came to fruition."
Bowles said the Bucs have been "staying the course" when it comes to letting Canales develop the offense and figure out what they do best and correcting the issues that held it back a bit for the first half of the season.
"Dave is very positive guy, very bright guy, excellent teacher," said Bowles. "The coaches around him are really excellent teachers. If something doesn't work, they know why, how, when – they can fix it, they can correct the mistakes, they can teach it to the players to adjust it and trust them to do the right thing. Over the course of the year, you learn a few things calling plays. Preseason, regular season, it doesn't matter – throughout your whole career, you're going to learn things. He's quick learner, he adjusts with himself, he adjusts with the team, and he's making all the right calls."
The Buccaneers have also stayed the course with Mayfield in his first season with the team, which has been easy given his level of play. After his four-touchdown, 381-yard, zero-interception effort in Green Bay, Mayfield now has a 24-8 TD-INT ratio and a nice 94.7 passer rating. He ranks 13th in EPA per dropback among players with at least 200 dropbacks this season, just ahead of Baltimore's Lamar Jackson.
"I love where he is at right now," said Bowles. "I loved him when he came in, not just because of the game he played yesterday. [He is] very smart, very tough, knows where to go with the football, very mature where he is as far as getting his reads, and getting everybody in the right place. I mean, me personally, I really like where the guy is at."
The Bucs like where they are at a lot more than they did three weeks ago, as a three-game winning streak has put them in a tie for first in the NFC South and in possession of the tiebreaker over the Saints. Tampa Bay knows it will win the division if it wins its final three games, and with the offense suddenly clicking, that seems a lot more possible than it did a few weeks ago.
