Baker Mayfield stretches for a first down as he is pulled to the turf by Houston DE Will Anderson.
There are a lot of crazy stats floating around social media about how the Bucs are one of a handful of teams to do this or do that in the final minutes of a game on the road… you can drive yourself crazy with this stuff.
For example, last night Joe was tagged by some stats outfit Joe never heard of claiming the Bucs are only the second team in 20 years to win two straight road games when trailing in the final minute.
Well that claim/stat is wrong. Emeka Egbuka caught Baker Mayfield’s 25-yard pass that proved to be the game-winner last week with 1:18 left in the game, not the final minute.
But if something comes from the _Elias Sports Bureau_, the official numbers crunchers of the NFL, it’s both legit and official.
And by way of Jenna Laine of ESPN, [here is what](https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/46209485/nfl-week-2-2025-season-questions-takeaways-lessons-stats-recap-every-game) Elias dug up about the Bucs winning two straight road games to begin the season on their final drives.
> **Key stat to know:** Per Elias, the Bucs are the fifth team since the 1970 merger to win each of its first two games of a season after trailing in the final two minutes of regulation in both games. But the previous four teams — Philadelphia Eagles (2012), Bucs (1980), Cleveland Browns (1979) and Chicago Bears (1971) — failed to make the playoffs.
Well, that’s not a good omen. But Joe thinks Baker Mayfield is the best quarterback of the five teams, and we all know without a good quarterback you won’t do squat in the NFL.
> **2012 Eagles:** The Eagles had Michael Vick but he only played in 10 games. And that season the Eagles lost 11 of their final 12 games. Joe doesn’t believe the Bucs will collapse like that.
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> **1980 Bucs:** Doug Williams was a good quarterback but Mayfield was and is better.
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> **1979 Browns:** Brian Sipe was a really good quarterback and it wasn’t like the Browns were terrible. They finished 9-7. Under current expanded playoff fields, the Browns likely would have been in the playoffs.
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> **1971 Bears:** To compare the 1971 Bears to the Bucs is truly a howler. Bobby Douglass was their quarterback and he may be the absolute worst starting quarterback in NFL history. Imagine having Payne Durham behind center. That was Douglass. This Douglass was a misplaced wishbone QB or a misplaced tight end or linebacker. In 1971, Douglass had a 40 percent completion percentage! FORTY PERCENT! Douglass threw for five touchdowns and 12 picks.
Joe won’t get all twisted up because some really bad teams 40 or 50 years ago pulled off two late wins on the road in consecutive weeks like the Bucs just did.
No, the fact that since the playoffs expanded in 2021 teams opening 2-0 have made the playoffs 77 percent of the time, that’s what Joe is focused on.