Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game Baker Mayfield shows Bucs in good hands at QB

TAMPA, Fla. — With Tom Brady back at Raymond James Stadium for the first time since his retirement, all eyes were on his successor, Baker Mayfield, trying to get the Bucs back on track after a humbling loss to the Broncos last week.

Mayfield stepped up from the very beginning, going 12-for-13 for 138 yards and touchdown passes on Tampa Bay’s first two drives, and the Bucs never looked back in a 33-16 rout of the Eagles. By the time he finished, Mayfield had 347 passing yards, two TDs passing and one rushing — and the Bucs were alone atop the NFC South standings with a strong 3-1 start.

In the past 30 years, there have been just four Bucs home wins in which the quarterback had that many yards, multiple touchdowns and no interceptions. The list includes Mayfield’s showing Sunday, and three games by Brady, who gave his LFG Player of the Game honor to Mayfield.

Four hours earlier, the two quarterbacks shared a moment in the end zone, talking before the game.

“He’s obviously happy for me and he knows the guys,” Mayfield said of their conversation. “He knows how much I enjoy throwing to Mike [Evans] and Chris [Godwin] because he got to do the same. It’s fun to be able to talk about the same experiences with a guy like that.”

Tom Brady talks to Bucs QB Baker Mayfield before the game Sunday. Mayfield threw for 347 yards and two TDs, earning Brady’s LFG Player of the Game. (Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

[Related: As Tom Brady returns to Tampa, Mike Evans remembers their special connection]

Mayfield connected with Evans for a 2-yard touchdown on that opening drive, and nearly half his passes went to his top two receivers, who finished with 14 catches for 163 yards and the touchdown. The strong start not only set the tone for the game, but helped the Bucs forget all the struggles they had on the same field a week earlier in the loss to Denver.

“We just wanted to get that taste out of our mouth for sure,” Mayfield said. “It started fast because the guys were just locked in. We came out [with] a ‘hair on fire’ mentality. Everybody was locked into what the plan was, and that’s why we executed that quickly, but that needs to be the case every week.”

The last time the Bucs had scored an opening-drive touchdown, Brady was at QB back in 2022. They went all of last season, winning a division title and even a playoff game, without once finding the end zone on an opening drive. And facing an Eagles defense that had shut down the Saints a week earlier, it was crucial to come out and set the tone for the game.

Last week, Evans was limited to two catches on three targets by the Broncos’ Patrick Surtain. So Mayfield went his way on the first play of the game, and threw the ball nine times in 10 plays, converting two third downs. At the 2-yard line, he went to a staple of the Brady years, a corner lob to Evans, which he brought in for the opening score.

“Mike gets going, everything kind of goes from there,” coach Todd Bowles said of the commitment to get him going early. “They start paying attention to Mike, that opens up a lot of other avenues.”

Most of those avenues involved Mayfield on Sunday, and while the Bucs stormed out to a 24-0 lead, there were times when the game seemed to be slipping away. Saquon Barkley scrambled 59 yards on the first play of the second half to set up a touchdown and make it a 10-point game. A three-and-out by Tampa Bay’s offense would have pushed momentum more to the Eagles.

But Mayfield responded with perhaps his best drive of the game. On third-and-7, he scrambled left and broke loose for a 10-yard gain to move the chains. Quickly facing a third-and-11, he again avoided pressure and found Godwin for a 15-yard gain into Eagles territory. A throw to Evans got the Bucs to the 7, and rookie running back Bucky Irving capped the drive with his first career touchdown. The Eagles wouldn’t score again.

“That was a big drive, stopping the momentum they had, keeping the lead to what it was,” Mayfield said. “For us to go back out there and execute … I can’t say enough about the whole team. That was one of the hotter games I’ve ever played, and just for everybody to be locked in that much, we were really, really dialed in, and to answer like that is huge.”

It was a performance worthy of the LFG trophy. Secret insights from Mayfield on the hardware: It’s much heavier than you might expect, and players don’t get to take it off the field with them, as it gets the name and date etched onto the trophy and then mailed to the winner to keep for posterity.

Tom Brady’s LFG Player of the Game: Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield | Week 4 DIGITAL EXCLUSIVE

It was a special game for Brady’s old teammates, who got to see him again and then came up with the kind of clutch win they did when he was their teammate. Linebacker Lavonte David, who had a crucial strip-sack of Jalen Hurts to force a fumble and thwart another Eagles drive, said the chance to visit with Brady before the game was just another highlight on a memorable day.

“It was great getting a chance to see Tom again,” David said. “It looked like he was happy doing what he is doing — I love that for him. Obviously, Tom is always welcome in Tampa, especially for what he brought to this city, what he brought to this organization and what he brought to me as a football player. Just to see that he’s doing well, that was definitely great to see.”

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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