Rain, run game, and a box score that looked like it belonged to another era - that was the story in Tampa on Sunday. The Buccaneers outlasted the Falcons 16-0, and they did it without completing a single pass.
Baker Mayfield got the win over his former Browns coach Kevin Stefanski, but his afternoon was more punchline than passing clinic. The Buccaneers beat the Panthers a week earlier even though Mayfield completed just seven passes on 11 attempts, and this time they somehow went one step further by finishing with zero passing yards in a storm-soaked shutout.
The Bucs became the first team to win with zero completions since the 1974 Bills, who beat the Jets 16-12 in Week 3 of that season. In that game, Bills quarterback Joe Ferguson attempted just two passes and didn’t complete either, while Joe Namath went 2-of-18 for 33 yards and three interceptions in the loss.
Tampa barely even leaned into the passing game. The Buccaneers attempted only four passes, with two of those coming in the first half. Since returning from a thumb injury, Mayfield has attempted just 14 passes, and the Buccaneers are 2-0 in those games.
Instead, the ground game carried everything. The Buccaneers rolled up 242 rushing yards, with Bucky Irving leading the way on 27 carries for 170 yards and a touchdown at 6.3 yards per carry.
Kenneth Gainwell added 140 yards on 25 carries, good for 5.6 yards per carry, and Mayfield chipped in four carries for 14 yards. That came against a Falcons defense that had ranked No. 1 in rushing yards allowed at one point this season and entered the game fourth in rushing yards allowed per game at 88.9, along with a top-five EPA per run allowed mark.
Those numbers won’t hold after this week, after Atlanta’s run defense was exposed again following cracks that had already shown up against the 49ers.
The Falcons also couldn’t survive the turnovers. Michael Penix Jr. threw three interceptions, and Tampa’s defense did the rest.
Alex Anzalone, Jacob Parrish and Zyon McCollum each picked off at least one pass, giving the Buccaneers more interceptions than they had pass attempts. The weather helped shape the game, but the defense still deserves plenty of credit for the shutout.
Atlanta couldn’t fall back on Bijan Robinson and the run game the way Tampa did.
Elsewhere around the league, the Chargers’ offense kept sinking. Per ESPN, they went through another touchdown-less stretch, the longest since 2024, when Mike McDaniel’s Dolphins went 30 drives without scoring a touchdown.
Coming off the bye, McDaniel’s Chargers dropped a 24-9 game to the Rams and again looked stuck, unable to run the ball while Justin Herbert threw two more interceptions. Even a Hail Mary to Ladd McConkey at the end of the first half ended with the ball caught shy of the end zone as time expired.
The Cardinals’ overtime win over the Cowboys had its own wild statistical twist. Tyler Allgeier posted 147 rushing yards in the second half alone, and his combined rushing and receiving output after halftime was more than he had totaled through the first seven weeks of the season.
Dallas, meanwhile, managed only 152 total yards in the second half. Arizona’s defense is hardly a strength - it ranks 24th in yards allowed per game at 354.3 - but the Cowboys still blew a 17-3 lead.
Kansas City’s pass rush had another rough day in Denver. Per ESPN’s Ben Solak, the Chiefs pressured Bo Nix on just two of his 34 dropbacks, their fewest in a game since 2012.
That was a huge change from their Week 1 meeting, when they pressured Nix on nearly 50% of his dropbacks in a 31-10 Chiefs win. On Sunday, Kansas City managed only two pressures and one sack, and the numbers fit a pass rush that entered the game 30th in sacks with eight.
They’ve now failed to record a sack in four of seven games.
Detroit’s Jared Goff kept his own streak rolling. He has now thrown a touchdown pass in 30 straight games, the longest active run in the NFL and tied for the 11th-longest in league history. It’s still a long way from Drew Brees’ record of 54 consecutive games with a touchdown pass, but the streak has been a steady marker of Goff’s consistency since November 2024.
And in Pittsburgh, Jaylen Warren kept his breakout season humming. He averaged 8.6 yards per carry in the Steelers’ win over the Browns, finishing with 17 carries for 147 yards and a touchdown as Pittsburgh piled up 200 rushing yards. The Steelers’ offensive line did its part, too, giving up just one sack after Aaron Rodgers had been taken down five times in the previous matchup with Cleveland.
In Other News...
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Justin Herbert's 2026 Slide Is Becoming A Real Chargers Problem
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The bigger concern is how long the slump has lasted. Herbert has now gone nine straight starts without multiple touchdown passes, and he is the only quarterback in the league with an interception in every game this season. For a team built around his arm, that kind of stretch is becoming harder to dismiss as a short-term funk and more like a real problem the Chargers have to solve. [Read more 🡒]