Gabriel Kahaian: Baker Mayfield Keeps Game Alive on MNF vs. Houston

Oh boy, this was tough— which is a great problem to have! The offense has put on a show for the Krewe halfway through the schedule. Entering the season, there were questions on how the team would handle another change at offensive coordinator. Josh Grizzard would become Baker Mayfield’s eighth offensive coordinator during his NFL tenure. That being said, the early returns have been everything you could have hoped for.

Despite injury woes, the Buccaneers enter the Bye at 6-2, which as noted above is tied for their best start in franchise history. Mayfield & Co. have powered a top-ten passing attack and scoring offense through eight weeks of football. It is borderline impossible to just select one offensive moment above the rest. Nevertheless, I am up for the task and decided to go with a play that encapsulates the very makeup of this team.

It was Monday Night Football in Houston and Tampa Bay looked to move to 2-0 for the fifth-consecutive season. After a defensive battle, the Texans took the upper hand when Nick Chubb scored a touchdown with just over two minutes remaining, giving the home team the lead, 19-14. The game was on the line. It’s a situation the Krewe has found itself in before and Mayfield was ready to answer the call.

The drive opened with Bucky Irving picking up a first down on a screen pass but was shortly followed with three consecutive plays with no gain. The ball was on the Bucs’ 32-yard line, fourth-and-10 with one minute and 24 seconds left in the game. It was do-or-die. The ball was snapped and in came a heavy blitz. Mayfield canvassed upfield, no target in sight. The Texans’ defense collapsed the pocket and the Bucs looked dead to rights. For almost any other player, this would be ball game.

Good news: We are not talking about any other player here. Somehow, someway, Mayfield was able to dip his shoulder to shrug off a certain sack, then escaped forward with only green grass ahead. He gained 15 yards on the scramble, keeping the game alive. Six plays later, Rachaad White found the promised land with just nine seconds remaining. The Bucs walked out of NGR Stadium victorious 20-19.

That win really established the tone for the season. Mayfield has excelled in two-minute situations his whole career and that trend has continued in 2025. He produced another insanely difficult first-down conversion against the 49ers in Week Six. Most often than not, NFL teams take on the identity of their quarterback. These types of plays show everyone in the organization that Mayfield is willing to do anything and everything to win. Without that early season momentum, who knows what record we would have now? The Buccaneers couldn’t ask for a steadier hand at the helm.

Scott Smith: Mayfield Incites MVP Chant with Never-Say-Die Run vs. 49ers

That other scramble that Gabe mentions towards the end of his argument? Yeah, that is the Bucs’ offensive moment of the year so far. Since I was picking second I had been contemplating what to take after Gabe took Mayfield’s run against the 49ers, but since he’s going to leave it for me, I’ll take it! Emeka Egbuka will have to wait ’til another day (or maybe until Bri makes her pick below).

I’ll concede one thing: Baker’s scramble in Houston was probably more important. If he doesn’t get that first down, the Bucs almost certainly lose that game. In the case of the play I’ll be describing – as if you, the reader, can’t picture every step of it in your head right now – the Bucs were winning by a point, it was only the third quarter and it was third down, not fourth down. Still.

Was this the point when Mayfield’s MVP candidacy went to another level? I think so. It was after this game that he rose to third in the betting odds for the award. Let’s relive the moment.

First of all, while the Bucs were winning the game, it wasn’t a comfortable lead. Emeka Egbuka had just been ruled out of the game and the Bucs’ offense looked like it might have a tough time moving the ball the rest of the way. The 49ers had taken their previous drive 65 yards before settling for a field goal, and if the Bucs had to punt here, the visitors would be in a good position to regain the lead. Facing third-and-14 at the Bucs’ 41, Mayfield took a shotgun snap and barely had time to scan the field before the pocket collapsed on him and he disappeared in a swarm of bodies. Even play-by-play man Jim Nantz assumed the play was dead.

Then, somehow, Mayfield emerged from the scrum, still on his feet. He had ducked enough to be able to pull free from a near-sack by Bryce Huff and he started running up and to his left, still looking for an open man. Now, if you go back and review the tape of his fourth-down run in Houston, while it’s undeniably a great play, once he got out of the backfield he had open grass all the way to and a bit past the sticks. That was definitely not the case here. By the time that Mayfield gets back to the line of scrimmage and has thus committed to run, there are three 49ers defenders at or near the line to gain and four more chasing him from behind. With Huff in hot pursuit, Mayfield encounters CB Upton Stout with about eight more yards still needed for the first down. He gets around Stout to his left, giving him a push on the helmet as he starts falling to the ground, then cuts upfield and gets a helpful block from Cade Otton, but he is still three yards short when he makes contact with both linebacker Tatum Bethune and cornerback Renardo Green. Mayfield then shoulder his way between the two, dived the for the line and, at the last second, extended the football past the marker for the first down. The Raymond James Stadium crowd immediately launched into an “MVP! MVP!” chant and the Bucs’ offense was visibly energized. Just two plays later, well I’ll stop there because Bri could possibly be picking up where I’m leaving off…*