The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 2-0 without setting foot on their home field yet. Baker Mayfield has thrown five touchdown passes and no interceptions. Tampa Bay's defense has allowed an average of 312 yards and 19.5 points per game. Rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka has already scored three times as the Buccaneers await the return of Chris Godwin.
Don't worry, things are going to get better.
That's the message from Mayfield after he led an 80-yard game-winning touchdown drive in Houston Monday night to keep the Bucs' 2025 record pristine. The Bucs have taken two games down to the wire on the road, holding on to a 23-20 win in Atlanta in Week One and downing Houston before a national audience, 20-19, in Week Two. A 2-0 start – the fifth in a row for Tampa Bay – is great. A fast start with a lot of room for improvement is even better.
"Similar to what I told you guys last week, in these two-minute close games, we were not on the right side of things in the past couple years," said Mayfield after Monday's victory. "It's good to see that we haven't played even close to our best ball in all three phases, and we're still finding ways to win on the road and that's really important. To not lose sight of that, we're finding ways to win, but we do need to get things fixed. Some of these games, we can make it easier on ourselves and try to put teams away earlier, but this is a good team that we played. We expected a hard-fought battle. It's nice to be on the right side of it."
The Buccaneers got off to a fast start in Houston, taking each of their first two drives the distance for touchdowns, as Mayfield hit Egbuka and Ryan Miller on touchdown passes. However, they didn't score again until the final 10 seconds of the game, as Rachaad White's two-yard scoring run proved to be the difference. Injuries to the offensive line and a ferocious Houston pass rush were part of that equation, but Mayfield said the Buccaneers can be sharper even in difficult situations.
"Too many self-inflicted errors there in the middle of it," he said. "Obviously, they did a good job of doing some adjustments. Coming into the two-minute situation, something that we drill all the time, and just relying on our guys to be able to make plays and doing the little things right."
Fortunately, the Buccaneers' defense allowed just 266 yards of offense and only two conversions in nine third-down attempts. Some special teams miscues allowed Houston to take a late lead despite struggling to move the ball, but the Buccaneers had enough time to counter with a two-minute drill. There are things to clean up, as Mayfield noted, but the Buccaneers have shown they can answer the bell when the game is on the line.
"I have a lot of confidence in our guys," said Mayfield. "In those moments, when you're moving the ball down the field, defenses can't get certain blitzes and coverages dialed in, so it's a lot of basic fundamentals. And so for us, it's relying on the Day One installs and the drills. We do two-minute all the time. Being able to know that you have all those reps in the bank and relying on that and all the work, taking the checkdowns, the easy throws and obviously guys making plays, being able to get out of bounds and extend the drive."