Tag: Baker Mayfield

Bucs’ Chris Godwin leads NFL in a key receiving catgeories through Week 6

Through six games, the Bucs wide receiver has been on a tear and leads all receivers in the NFL in not just one but multiple key categories.

Having a sure-handed wide receiver like Chris Godwin is a luxury. Through six games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver has been on a tear and leads all receivers in the NFL in not just one but multiple key categories.

Godwin leads the way for wide receivers with a minimum of 25 targets on the season, catching 84.3% of on-target throws in his direction by quarterback Baker Mayfield, who completes 43-of-51 passes. Cincinnati Bengals superstar wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase trails with an 82.9 catch rate on 10-less targets (41), supplying Mayfield with a 138.3 passer rating when he tosses the ball toward Godwin.

Receiving yards has Godwin positioned with the third-most at 510 behind Houston Texans’ Nico Collins (566) and the Bengals’ Chase (565). Where Godwin begins to set himself apart from the pack is his 335 yards after catch eclipse that of the second-place Chase (268), who is more commonly known as an explosive receiver, by 67. The only slot receiver in the NFL who averages more yards after catch per reception is Green Bay’s Jayden Reed with 8.1 YAC/REC. He also is tied with Chase, Allen Lazard, and fellow Buccaneers Mike Evans to lead the NFL with 5 TD.

Godwin’s chemistry with Mayfield has generated a league-leading 30 receiving first downs through six games. To make things impressive, Godwin is ranked 55th in the league for average depth of target (ADOT) at just 5.2 yards- essentially half (10.3) of what he saw in Dave Canales’ offense last season.

The Texans connection between quarterback CJ Stroud and Collins has generated the second-most receiving first downs on the season with 27, with an ADOT of 12.0- nearly three times that of Godwin.

Currently on pace for a career year with 122 receptions, 1445 yards, and 14 touchdowns, The 28-year old Godwin is picking no better time to produce even higher numbers than what Bucs fans have grown accustomed to, as he is playing in the final year of his three-year contract.

Last Rams-Raiders meeting featured one of the most improbable game-winning drives ever

In a lost season, Baker Mayfield provided the Rams with some excitement by leading one of the most improbable game-winning drives ever against the Raiders

Los Angeles Rams fans didn’t have much to cheer about in the season following their Super Bowl LVI victory. The 2022 campaign was a highly disappointing one as the Rams limped to a 5-12 record and were routinely pegged as a group suffering from a Super Bowl hangover.

But in Week 14 after the Rams had lost six games in a row and were missing Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp and Aaron Donald, none other than Baker Mayfield provided some much-needed excitement at SoFi Stadium.

It was a Thursday night game between the Rams and Raiders, a contest few people were looking forward to, but it turned out to be a thrilling finish between two sub-.500 teams. The 48 minutes provided very little entertainment value as the Raiders got out to a 16-3 lead but in the final 12 minutes, the Rams mounted an incredible comeback led by a quarterback who had just been claimed off waivers two days earlier.

Trailing by 13 points, Mayfield led two consecutive touchdown drives: one that went 75 yards in 17 plays and 9 minutes and a second that spanned 98 yards in only eight plays and 1:45 of game time. It was the second drive that made history and won’t soon be forgotten.

That 98-yard drive was the longest go-ahead touchdown drive that began in the final 2 minutes in at least the previous 45 seasons, per ESPN. And it wasn’t just the length of the drive or the speed in which the Rams moved the ball down the field. It was the fact that Mayfield had only thrown a few passes in practice with his new team before making his Rams debut on Thursday Night Football. He’d be forgiven if he didn’t know his teammates’ names. That’s how new he was to L.A.

With the Rams set to face the Raiders this weekend, it’s a good time to relive that miraculous 98-yard touchdown drive led by Mayfield, which featured a remarkable catch by Ben Skowronek and the game-winning grab by Van Jefferson with 9 seconds remaining.

The Bucs offense made history against the Saints in Week 6

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were firing on all cylinders on Sunday against the Saints and were efficient at a historical rate.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were firing on all cylinders on Sunday against the Saints and were efficient at a historic rate. They would end up winning the game 51 to 27, and the road to those 51 points is where history came into play.

Liam Coen and this Bucs offense did something that has never been done in the Super Bowl Era.

The Bucs’ offense, led by Liam Coen and Baker Mayfield, became the first offense to go on the road and pass for 300+ yards and rush for 275+ yards. They also have the past first downs and points scored this season by a team. The team now hopes this can springboard them into a more consistent presence the rest of the year.

Their next test will be against the NFL’s most efficient offense, the Baltimore Ravens. It should be a fun, high-scoring matchup on Monday Night Football’s national stage to show the country they can be one of the best teams and offenses in the NFL.

Baker Mayfield cannot avoid being caught up in the Red River Rivalry

This past weekend saw Baker Mayfield return to his electric self, something that Oklahoma Sooners know all about.

This past weekend saw Baker Mayfield return to his electric self, something that Oklahoma Sooners know all about. The former Heisman Trophy winner also knows all about the Red River Rivalry, having beaten Texas two out of three times for the Sooners.

It appears that at this past weekend’s rivalry game, Baker Mayfield was still on the minds of Texas fans and players.

After Texas dominantly defeated Oklahoma, the Longhorns players grabbed a jersey and planted their flag on it at midfield. Following the Bucs and Mayfield’s dominant win against the Saints, he was asked about it.

He said he is, “Just a kid from Austin, Texas that went to Oklahoma, won his last two Red River games and being rent free in their heads for almost a decade.”

Texas players later explained that it wasn’t meant as a dig at Mayfield, but rather it was the first jersey Longhorn fans handed them. It goes to show that you can take the player out of the rivalry, but you can’t take the rivalry out of the player.

5 key takeaways from the Bucs pivotal win over the Saints in Week 6

An ever-important bounce-back game was on the docket for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the New Orleans Saints on the road.

An ever-important bounce-back game was on the docket for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers against the New Orleans Saints following their Week 5 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. Not only would the Bucs fall to .500 with a loss, but they would have been 0-2 in the NFC South, a place you do not want to be.

With a commanding 51-27 win over their division rivals, this was more of a giant leap forward for the Bucs team, who improved to 4-2 on the season. Here are 5 key takeaways from Sunday’s pivotal win over the Saints.

The offense once again showed glimpses of explosiveness

For the fourth time in six games, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs have put up more than 30 points, three of those being in winning efforts. Despite three interceptions from Mayfield, two of which should have been catches, Liam Coen never let off the gas in his playcalling. Three fourth-quarter touchdowns were a much different -and welcomed- feeling for Bucs fans as the offense was able to truly shut the door on the Saints in their blowout win.

The Buccaneers have the luxury of two superstar wide receivers and a revolving door of capable running backs. A balanced offensive attack proved the recipe for success against the Saints, as there was a 36-to-35 passing attempt to 35-to-35 rushing attempt split.

Rachaad White might be the odd man out

There will likely continue to be a theme when it comes to figuring out the running back room, and the theme will be uncertainty. A couple of times this season, it appeared that Rachaad White and Bucky Irving could be in the discussion for one of the top duos in the league until they weren’t. That conversation spun off into Irving potentially taking over RB1 duties from White. With White being inactive for Sunday’s matchup against the Saints, insert Sean Tucker into the conversation. Tucker carried the ball 14 times for 136 yards and a touchdown, while Irving also logged 14 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown.

A saving grace for White has been his ability to catch passes and create out of the backfield. However, Tucker finished the day as the team’s second-leading receiver, with 56 yards and a touchdown on three receptions.

The coaching staff will need to figure this out, and with arguably the toughest four-game stretch in the league looming, it might be time to roll the dice and stick with what worked so well against the Saints.

Defense still needs to tighten up

Don’t let the score fool you. Typically a 30+ point effort puts your team into prevent defense and clock-eating mode, that just simply hasn’t been the case for this team more often than not this season. Once up 17-0 early over the Saints, quickly turned into a 3-point 20-17 deficit. Rookie quarterback Spencer Rattler was sacked five times and threw two interceptions on the day, but he never truly looked uncomfortable in the backfield in his first career start.

Only one time throughout their six games have the Buccaneers given up less than 250 yards, and that was to an A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith-less Eagles offense that generated 227 yards of offense. Leaving your offense to win in a shootout is going to be a difficult task, especially with the Baltimore Ravens, Kansas City Chiefs, and San Francisco 49ers coming up. Yes, a crucial game against the Atlanta Falcons should be on the radar as the defense allowed Kirk Cousins to have a career day in Week 5.

Cade Otton isn’t the tight end the Bucs need

As legendary pro wrestling commentator Jim Ross would say, “he’s a good hand.” What that means is that he can be dependable, but there is nothing that truly stands out. It’s not a knock on Otton, but he is incapable of the athletic playmaking that the Buccaneers offense needs. GM Jason Licht is not one to make in-season trades, however, a dynamic playmaking tight end could prove to push this offense into the upper echelon of the consistently elite offenses in the NFL- emphasis on consistently.

Tykee Smith is developing into a solid starter

It’s too early in his career to talk about a budding superstar. After yesterday’s performance, it’s understandable why emotions are high, but let’s bring it back down to earth and talk about what Tykee Smith truly is, and that is a very solid developing star in this Buccaneers defense. Allowing just a 3.5 passer rating -yes, you read that right, 3.5- to Rattler while seeing six targets (second most behind Zyon McCollum’s 7) cannot be ignored. As Jamel Dean has struggled in the first quarter of the 2024 season, and the continued need for Todd Bowles to tighten up the defense, Smith should continue to see more snaps- especially with the return of Antoine Winfield Jr. looming over the top.

 

What did Baker Mayfield say about Texas Longhorns post-game flag plant?

Baker Mayfield responds to Texas Football flag plant from Red River Showdown.

The Texas Longhorns earned all the bragging rights on Saturday in their 34-2 win over the Oklahoma Sooners. It was the second blowout win in three years for the Longhorns over the Sooners.

After the game, Texas players took a Longhorns flag and planted it at midfield of the Cotton Bowl. But it wasn’t any old flag plant, they planted the flag from through a Sooners jersey. That jersey just so happened to be former Heisman winner Baker Mayfield’s.

Anthony Hill posted a picture of the torn jersey with the caption, “Texas fears nobody.” That’s a call back to Danny Stutsman’s pregame speech and the t-shirts that followed, where he said, “Oklahoma only fears God, and Texas fears Oklahoma.”

https://twitter.com/thegoatanthony1/status/1845248960492970106

On Saturday, the Longhorns’ defense dominated the inexperienced Oklahoma offense, holding them to just 237 total yards. They were not afraid of the Sooners in the least.

After Tampa Bay’s win over New Orleans, ESPN’s Jenna Laine asked Mayfield about the incident.

Mayfield said, “Just a kid from Austin, Texas that went to Oklahoma and won his last two Red River games and being rent free in their heads for almost a decade.”

https://twitter.com/JennaLaineESPN/status/1845585169396510830

Any question about where the Red River Rivalry stands among the best in college football should be answered by everything that’s happened in the aftermath of the last two. This game generates so much heat and the players play right into it.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow John on X @john9williams.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin dominated the Saints in Week 6

The Bucs’ offense has had its fair share of ups and downs, but in Week 6, they may have finally found their footing.

The Bucs’ offense has had its fair share of ups and downs, but in Week 6, they may have finally found their footing. No pun intended, of course, but Baker Mayfield and his footwork were a mess, and so was the offense early on.

One player who helped him settle down, though, was Chris Godwin.

He peppered Godwin with targets early and often, letting him be creative and do the heavy lifting for him. Mike Evans was the focus of everyone early on, as he usually is against the Saints and Marshon Lattimore.

The play design allowed Godwin to create with space, and he did.

He finished with 11 receptions for 125 receiving yards and two touchdowns. Of his 125 yards, 105 of them came after the catch. They had him working out of the slot and catching checkdowns, but he was not settling for anything against the Saints.

The results were him filling the box score and the Bucs putting 51 points on the board.

Bucs set franchise record for offensive yards against Saints

No team has had a more eventful 10-day stretch than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but on Sunday they were able to push it all aside.

No team has had a more eventful 10-day stretch than the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. From last week’s overtime shootout loss to the Atlanta Falcons to being displaced over 700 miles in New Orleans since Tuesday due to Hurricane Milton, the Bucs had all the makings of a “putting up a dud” coming into their Week 6 divisional matchup against the New Orleans Saints.

From the opening kickoff, where the Bucs elected to receive the ball, they never really let off the gas on the offensive side of the ball.

In fact, when the final whistle blew, the Bucs set a new franchise record for offensive yards with a net total of 594. Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker combined for 277 yards on the ground, while Baker Mayfield threw for 325 yards in the air.

The previous record of 588 yards came from a Tom Brady-led 47-7 win over the Detroit Lions in 2020, the year the Bucs won the Super Bowl.

No NFL team has lost like the Saints did since 1950

No NFL team has lost quite like the New Orleans Saints managed on Sunday since 1950. Dennis Allen’s team keeps finding new ways to make history:

No NFL team has lost quite like the New Orleans Saints managed to on Sunday since 1950. Yes, nearly three quarters of a century ago. Dennis Allen’s team keeps finding new ways to make history

When the Saints fell 51-27 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the weekend, they afforded Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield quite the stat line (outside of the picks) as he completed 24 of his 36 passing attempts for 325 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.

The 2024 Saints team is the first team since the 1950 Baltimore Colts that forced three interceptions, was able to score 27 points on the opposing defense and lost a game by a minimum of 24 points. That’s very specific criteria, but it goes to show how often teams dominated those areas and came away with a win.

The Saints last scored more than 27 points when they put over 40 points on the scoreboard against the Dallas Cowboys on Sept. 15. In the first two games of the season, the Saints combined for some 91 points that gave a false sense of optimism as to how explosive they would be.

The Saints will look to get back on track and put an end to what has now become a four-game losing streak when they face the Denver Broncos at 7:15 p.m. CT/8:15 p.m. ET on Thursday.

That’s only four days away, so a quick turnaround — especially where the defensive side of the ball, which should be Allen’s speciality, is concerned — will be very necessary.

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Saints nearly set a franchise record in worst of ways in Week 6 loss

The New Orleans Saints nearly set a franchise record in Sunday’s 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It happened in the worst of ways:

The New Orleans Saints nearly set a franchise record in Sunday’s 51-27 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and it wasn’t a good one, either. The Saints came up just shy of the most yards they’ve ever allowed in a single game, with a total of 594 yards gifted to quarterback Baker Mayfield and the Bucs.

That’s the second-most in franchise history. The previous record was 605 yards of total offense surrendered to Daunte Culpepper and the Minnesota Vikings back in 2004.

Mayfield was allowed to have an absolute day on the stat sheet outside of some picks thrown, completing 24 of his 36 passing attempts for 325 yards with four touchdowns and three interceptions.

The 51 points the Saints gave up to the Bucs was by far the most they’ve allowed an opponent to score all season long, with the second-most coming nowhere close as they allowed both the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs 26 points each. Sunday’s amount is a mere one point away from doubling that.

The offense, however, showed more signs of life than it has in a while with backup quarterback Spencer Rattler at the helm. The 27 points they put up were the most the Saints have scored since they totaled 44 points in the win over the Dallas Cowboys back on Sept. 15.

Playing complementary football will undoubtedly be a large emphasis as the Saints look to snap a now-abysmal four-game losing streak.

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