When the fourth-quarter playclock hit 1:00 in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2025 season-opener in Atlanta, they were losing by three points. Eight days later, when the playclock again hit 1:00 in a Monday Night Football game at Houston, the Buccaneers were trailing by five points. Despite that, Tampa Bay is one of 10 teams in the NFL that remain undefeated heading into Week Three.
Baker Mayfield's 25-yard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka in Atlanta came with 59 seconds left and produced a 23-20 victory. Rachaad White's two-yard touchdown run in Houston occurred with just six seconds left to allow the Bucs to escape with a 20-19 victory. Tampa Bay is the first team since the 1979 Cleveland Browns to start a season 2-0 despite trailing with one minute to go in the fourth quarter in both games.
Mayfield says that starts with a mental fortitude that has permeated throughout the roster.
"We're always in the fight," he said. "Anytime we step on the field, we expect to win. We expect to play well and do our job at a high level. It's just the mentality."
On the 80-yard game-winning drive in Houston on Monday night, Mayfield rescued the Bucs with a do-or-die 15-yard scramble on fourth-and-10 from Tampa Bay's 32-yard line. He was flipped in the air by a low tackle from long-time Bucs antagonist C.J. Gardner-Johnson and initially grabbed at his ankle before springing up and returning some smack talk from the Texans defender.
Since arriving in Tampa in 2023, Mayfield has repeated endeared himself to his teammates with gritty plays like that, and he's not the only one who went all out on Monday night to help the Bucs get the win. He cited a play earlier in the fourth quarter in which he scrambled but lost the football and White alertly dived on the ball, taking a very hard hit in the process. White knew a turnover there would put the Texans in position for a go-ahead score.
"He took a nasty shot trying to dive for that ball," said Mayfield. "Obviously, huge, huge play for us to be able to punt it. The guys laying their bodies on the line, that stuff screams off the tape. You might not say anything, but guys nod their heads and know, that's the type of group we have. We're going to fight for each other and pick each other up when we're down."
In addition to Mayfield's key scramble, the Buccaneers also got a huge 22-yard catch-and-run from Bucky Irving in which he bounced off several would-be tacklers and juked out a couple more, plus Mike Evans' 11-yard catch down to the seven-yard line. Two plays later, White was in the end zone and the Bucs had calmly executed yet another two-minute drill with the game on the line.
"[It's a] mentally tough group. Guys being on the same page in chaotic moments, doing the little details right in the two-minute drill," he said. "It's good to see from the practice field to the game field – guys being able to execute. Sometimes it's simple plays and guys going above and beyond like Bucky did on some of those checkdowns and putting us in position to score."
