Three attempts, zero catches: that was Baker Mayfield’s passing line on Sunday. Tampa Bay won anyway, shutting out Atlanta 16-0 and turning a rain-soaked game in Florida into one of the strangest results the NFL has produced in decades.
The last NFL winner with an empty completion column was Buffalo, back in September 1974, which makes the Bucs just the second such case since the Super Bowl began. Go further back and it gets even rarer: a double-digit victory with no caught pass had last happened in 1945.
Tampa Bay did it on the ground, over and over again. Bucky Irving carried 27 times for 170 yards and scored the only touchdown, Kenneth Gainwell added 140, and with Mayfield’s scrambles the team piled up 324 rushing yards, a franchise record that beat a mark from 2015. Kicker Chase McLaughlin added nine points with his boot and has yet to miss a kick this season.
Atlanta kept trying to throw through the downpour and paid for it. Michael Penix Jr. completed 8 of 24 attempts and was intercepted four times, three of them before the break. It was a grim homecoming of sorts for Falcons coach Kevin Stefanski, who once worked with Mayfield in Cleveland.
Head coach Todd Bowles admitted he had never won a game like this before, joking that everything happens for the first time eventually. He insisted the decision to stop passing came from the weather, not the play sheet. Mayfield, in only his second game back from a broken thumb, said he was happy to do anything that helps the team win. The result lifts Tampa Bay to 3-5, level with Atlanta and close behind division leader Carolina in the NFC South. Next up for Atlanta is a trip to Spain, where the Falcons play the Bengals in Madrid.
