Baker Mayfield gives Bucs hope in season-opening upset over Vikings

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Greg Auman

NFC South Reporter

It took about a half for the new Bucs offense to really find itself, but the end result was enough points to pull out an impressive 20-17 win at Minnesota in Baker Mayfield‘s debut with Tampa Bay.

“Baker is gutsy. He’s tough,” coach Todd Bowles said after Sunday’s win, taking out a Vikings team that went 13-4 last year, including an 11-0 mark in one-score games in the regular season. “The guys stayed behind him … he stuck with it. He made some gutsy runs at the end, and the offensive line came through for him. The receivers showed up, and it was a great team win.”

It wasn’t a good look at all early Sunday. On the Bucs’ first six drives, Tampa Bay netted 29 yards on 21 plays, with Mayfield going 3-for-11 for 12 yards with a single first down. “Not the prettiest start by any means,” Mayfield conceded after the game. But with 2:39 left in the first half, the Bucs got another shot and the offense started to click, and Mayfield completed passes to Chris Godwin and Mike Evans before tying the game with a 28-yard touchdown to Evans.

From that drive on, Mayfield was outstanding — 18-for-23 for 161 yards and two touchdowns, and just as importantly, no turnovers. It’s just the 16th time in 73 career NFL games that he has thrown for multiple touchdowns in a game without an interception, but he’s now 13-3 in those games and happy to add Sunday to the list, knowing the offense will improve with time.

“Absolutely, it will definitely grow,” Mayfield said. “Playing against [Vikings defensive coordinator] Brian Flores, it’s quite the challenge. He’s a defensive mastermind, so it was a good test for us for our first match. Yeah, we’re going to grow. We’re going to get better. Offensively, we have a long way to go, but we’ll take all the wins we can get. It’s extremely hard in this league.”

A few years removed from averaging 30 points a game with Tom Brady at quarterback, the Bucs were still able to win with so little production on that side of the ball. They finished with 242 yards of total offense, and they’d lost 11 straight when failing to get at least 250 yards, going 2-23 in such games going back to 2007.

But win they did, as six-point underdogs, despite an offseason where outside expectations were incredibly low, with power rankings placing the Bucs in the very bottom tier of the league and oddmakers setting the over-under for wins at 6.5. Bowles has ignored that noise and said Sunday’s win was simply an affirmation of the optimism his players and coaches have had about this season.

“It told us what we knew all along, that we can go and win the ballgame,” Bowles said. “I don’t know what it told [critics]. If I paid attention to it, I would actually have something to say, but I don’t.”

Sunday was the first game for new offensive coordinator Dave Canales, who is also calling plays for the first time, so there was a natural adjustment period. The Bucs missed on their first six third-down plays, despite the last five all needing six yards or fewer to move the chains. But they converted on six of their next 10, and Mayfield was strong there, going 8-for-10 for 60 yards overall on third downs and running for a conversion as well.

The Bucs, after leading the NFL in pass attempts last year, are striving for a better offensive balance, and they had that Sunday, with 33 rush attempts against 35 dropbacks. The run game wasn’t particularly effective — 33 carries for 73 yards — but it moved the chains enough to keep the Bucs defense (and Vikings receiver Justin Jefferson) off the field. In the second half, the Bucs had a 2-to-1 edge in time of possession, which helped the defense limit Jefferson to 12 receiving yards after he had 138 in the first half.

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Now the Bucs return home for a winnable game against the Bears (0-1), who gave up 38 points to the Packers in their opening loss Sunday. A victory there could change the national perspective of Tampa Bay and what’s within its reach this season, but Bowles already had confidence in his team and his quarterback.

“Baker’s a winner,” Bowles said. “He’s done this before, and the guys really love to rally around him. … They’re continuing to grow as a team. I really like where they’re at, and we’ve got to just keep getting better.”

Greg Auman is FOX Sports’ NFC South reporter, covering the Buccaneers, Falcons, Panthers and Saints. He is in his 10th season covering the Bucs and the NFL full-time, having spent time at the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.

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