TAMPA — No team in NFL history has jumped out to a 3-0 start while winning by fewer points.
The Bucs are the first team ever to win their first three games with go-ahead scores in the final minute, a trio of cardiac finishes that have them as perhaps the most exciting of the league’s six remaining undefeated teams.
They have done it without some of their best players, without most of their offensive line in some cases, and despite some significant special-teams implosions in the fourth quarter.
And as the defending Super Bowl champs come to Tampa this week, have the Bucs established themselves among the best challengers to the Eagles in the NFC?
“Resilient group. We stick together,” said quarterback Baker Mayfield, who engineered a third straight last-minute comeback, with two passes for 48 yards to set up a field goal as time expired to beat the Jets. “The whole team, when one part of it, one phase of it is a little bit down, others [have] to pick it up and be there for you. That’s what this team is all about. We support each other no matter what. It is a resilient, mentally tough group.”
Baker Mayfield has come up clutch early in the season, giving his teammates confidence that this could be a special year. (Photo by Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images)
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To recap three weeks of utter endgame chaos:
- In Atlanta, the Falcons scored a go-ahead touchdown with 2:17 remaining, but Mayfield answered with a touchdown to rookie Emeka Egbuka with 59 seconds left. The Bucs won, but only when Atlanta’s Younghoe Koo missed a tying field goal as time expired.
- In Houston, the Texans blocked a punt and got a 54-yard punt return for nine points in just over three minutes. The Bucs might have let the Texans score for a 19-14 lead with 2:10 left, but Mayfield answered with an 80-yard drive and Rachaad White’s winning touchdown with six seconds left.
- And at home against the Jets, Tampa’s 23-6 fourth-quarter lead evaporated, and New York blocked a field goal and returned it for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:49 left, only to have Mayfield set up the game-winning field goal for a 29-27 Bucs victory.
So the Bucs are 3-0, up two games in the NFC South, and that’s without anything yet from All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs and Pro Bowl receiver Chris Godwin, who could both return for their season debuts on Sunday. They’ve lost defensive tackle Calijah Kancey to a season-ending pectoral injury as well, receiver Jalen McMillan will miss half the season with a neck injury, and now receiver Mike Evans has a hamstring injury that is likely to sideline him.
And still they’re 3-0, thanks to clutch plays in the final minutes.
“Ideally, we wouldn’t want to be in this situation,” said Egbuka, who has three touchdown catches in his first three NFL games and made a 28-yard catch to set up the winning kick Sunday. “We could have put them away a lot earlier, but that’s not always how the cards fall every single time. [I’m] just proud of us for being resilient — obviously, we’ve shown it three weeks in a row. We have to have that mentality. You never know what it’s going to come down to every week, so we have to be able to execute.”
Then there is the duct-tape masterpiece that is the Bucs’ offensive line. Wirfs hasn’t played a snap due to preseason knee surgery, right tackle Luke Goedeke is on injured reserve with a foot injury that’s sidelined him most of the past two games, and right guard Cody Mauch is out for the season with a knee injury. Adjusting for Wirfs’ absence, the Bucs moved center Graham Barton to left tackle and left guard Ben Bredeson to center, with a practice-squad player, Mike Jordan, starting at left guard the first two games.
Then Jordan got hurt, along with Mauch, so Sunday’s guards were entirely new: Elijah Klein, with nine career offensive snaps, played every snap at left guard, and Luke Haggard, making his NFL debut, took every snap at right guard, with swing tackle Charlie Heck taking every snap at right tackle. The Bucs had five holding penalties on one drive — three by the line — but still managed to score, and in the end, win, despite the adversity up front.
“They fought their ass off,” Bredeson said after the win. “I’m so proud of those two guys [Klein and Haggard]. Charlie stepping in last game and carrying it over to this game, and Graham playing left tackle is a phenomenal feat. To be able to come out of this, stay together, run the ball when we needed to, execute a two-minute drill when we needed to, I’m very proud of the line.”
Assuming the injuries eventually stop and players start returning healthy, the Bucs could be dangerous. They’ve won the NFC South four years in a row, but that’s also led to them being written off nationally as the best team in perhaps the worst division in the NFL. The NFC South hasn’t produced a wild-card team since 2020, when the Bucs won the Super Bowl with Tom Brady.
But Tampa Bay beat the best teams in the NFC last year — the Lions, Eagles and Commanders — before losing to Washington in its playoff opener. Sunday’s game against Philadelphia is huge as the Bucs work toward having a higher seed in the NFC playoffs, making it more likely that teams go to them in January, as opposed to them going up north.
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Stacking wins early is crucial for the Bucs, as their next four games are daunting: vs. the Eagles, at the Seahawks, vs. the 49ers and at the Lions — four opponents who are a combined 9-2 this season. Survive that, even splitting the four, and Tampa’s remaining 10 games include just three teams with winning records right now, and the final five games are against teams that are 3-12 now.
The Bucs’ past three seasons saw them win division titles, but with 8, 9 and 10 wins, which meant a lower seed and a single home playoff game, During those three years, they won just one postseason game. If they continue to win close games and beat lesser opponents, the Bucs will be closer to their 2021 team, which went 13-4 and was the NFC’s second seed, losing a close divisional game to the Rams. Playoff seeding is a long way off, but it points to the confidence the Bucs have in each other, especially with the game on the line in the closing minutes.
“When times get tough, we come together and we find ways to win ball games,” corner Zyon McCollum said. “It’s 3-0 on the scoresheet, but down the road, these close games are really going to mean something. It’s really going to matter in the playoffs when we get into those big two-minute game situations.
“We’ve already been there, every game this season.”
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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