Baker Mayfield made easy work of Eagles. Can he pull a repeat in Atlanta?

TAMPA BAY, Fla. — If you live in Tampa Bay, you know a thing or two about motion sickness.

That up-and-down feeling that afflicts seafarers and amusement park riders alike.

Also, Baker Mayfield fans.

The Bucs quarterback was off to a great start with wins over Washington and at Detroit before a sudden plunge in his performance in a 26-7 loss to the Broncos on Sept. 22. He passed for 163 yards with a touchdown and an interception but had no completion of more than 13 yards.

Mayfield also was sacked seven times, although he was responsible for some of them by fleeing the pocket too soon.

Then came one of his best games of the season against the Eagles last Sunday. He completed 13 of his first 14 pass attempts and finished with 347 passing yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions while running for a score.

Overall, Mayfield is off to one of the best starts of his career. He is sixth in passing yards (984), second in touchdown passes (eight), has only two interceptions and a QBR that is 13th (56.9).

But remember what happened last season when he completed fewer than 50% of his passes in wins at Carolina and home versus Atlanta?

Mayfield found a way to win both games, which is the trait of a great competitor. The task now is to consistently repeat that success.

“Week 3 (against the Broncos) was not the consistency I wanted,” Mayfield said. “So I got back to it, but it needs to be week in and week out. Every week is different. It brings its own challenge, but for me, I’m just trying to improve, get the ball out quick and get it in our guys’ hands.”

That’s what was so impressive about Mayfield’s performance against the Eagles. His average time to throw in Week 4 was 2.05 seconds, the fastest for any game in his career and the second fastest by any quarterback this season.

Among the biggest goals for Bucs offensive coordinator Liam Coen is to level out Mayfield’s performances.

“That’s the challenge, right? I don’t think he ever struggles with adversity,” Coen said. “I’ve never really seen him struggle with that. It’s ‘OK, how do we simulate and then emulate success week in and week out? What does that look like? How do we continue to calm our feet down in times of crisis when things are really moving fast?’ You’ve got to slow down and just play the position.

“I thought on Sunday, you really saw him be a surgeon in some ways. He was a little surgical at times and then he did move when he had to, but he didn’t really move until later in the game.”

In fact, Mayfield threaded the needle on some of his passes against the Eagles, showing off his outstanding arm strength.

His 15-yard touchdown pass to Trey Palmer was a dart that whistled just past the outstretched fingertips of Eagles linebacker Nakobe Dean beat cornerback Darius Slay.

On another play, he left the pocket and side-armed a bullet to Chris Godwin. Even Mayfield had to be impressed with how the Bucs executed with such a slim margin for error.

“Critical situation for us, needing to move the chains,” Mayfield said. “(It was) Chris winning in man coverage on a route that he’s won pretty consistently throughout his whole career. But just doing it in a critical moment once again. Yeah, I was trusting him to come out of it, get to the sideline and just trying to put the ball on him and give him a chance.

“Some of those passes, there’s hands flying. It’s kind of like that distraction drill that they work on. Truly, to me, it’s more impressive how they catch it and finish it.”

After being sacked 12 times in the previous two games, Mayfield was only sacked twice by the Eagles and benefitted from a run game in which backs Rachaad White and rookie Bucky Irving each rushed 10 times for 49 yards. Irving scored his first career touchdown on a 1-yard run in the third quarter.

“The guys were doing a great job blocking up front,” Coen said. “I thought we did a nice job in protection for the most part in that game. And we were winning, for the most part, on the perimeter. They didn’t play a lot of man coverage, so that helped where you don’t have to hold onto the ball for maybe a click longer and wait for somebody. The ball comes out, especially when you’re getting free access.”

Fast starts have not been the Bucs’ strong suit on offense. When Mayfield connected with Mike Evans for a touchdown in the first quarter Sunday, making the 11th-year receiver the franchise’s all-time leading scorer, it was the team’s first opening-drive touchdown since Week 18 of the 2022 season.

“That is something that we have to try and challenge (Mayfield) with and challenge our offense with is repeating success and how we can continue to do that,” Coen said.

If so, it could be fun to watch Mayfield become one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks without the need for drama nor Dramamine.

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