The Falcons had a shot to seize the NFC South on Sunday, and instead they walked out of Raymond James Stadium with a result that will live in NFL oddity lore for a long time.
Atlanta’s 16-0 loss to the Buccaneers was ugly enough on its own. Then came the twist: Tampa Bay won the game without Baker Mayfield completing a single pass. Mayfield went 0-for-3, and the Buccaneers still put together a two-score victory in the rain and wind.
FOX broadcast noted that the last NFL team to win without completing a pass was the 1974 Buffalo Bills, who beat the New York Jets 16-12. Tampa Bay became the first club since then to do it.
For Atlanta, though, the strange history was only part of the pain. The Falcons never found any rhythm offensively and kept handing the game back with mistakes. Michael Penix Jr. finished 8 of 24 for 125 yards and threw four interceptions, with three of those coming before halftime.
The ground game didn’t rescue them either. Bijan Robinson carried 19 times for 76 yards, and Atlanta finished with just 99 rushing yards as a team.
Tampa Bay, meanwhile, leaned hard into the run and buried the Falcons with it. The Buccaneers piled up a franchise-record 324 rushing yards on 56 carries. Bucky Irving led the charge with 170 yards and a touchdown, and Kenneth Gainwell added 140 yards, both of them career highs.
The weather clearly shaped the plan. Tampa Bay largely shelved the passing game and let the backs do the heavy lifting.
For Robinson, the conditions made the whole afternoon feel unlike anything he had experienced.
“I haven’t played a game like that before. I played in the snow, but not a rain game like that,” Robinson said.
He also pointed to Atlanta’s own inability to protect the ball.
“We pride ourselves on running the football. We just can’t turn the ball over.”
Penix took the blame for his mistakes and stressed how much the weather magnified every turnover.
“Knowing that the conditions are like that, as a quarterback, the leader, I got to protect the ball. That’s the only way we’re gonna be able to win these games,” Penix said.
Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski said Tampa Bay simply handled the game better.
“You got to play the game that’s in front of you,” Stefanski said. “We didn’t do a good enough job as a team.
So that’s a credit to them, credit to their players, credit to their coaches. They did a better job than we did.”
Mayfield, for his part, wasn’t interested in the historical footnote.
“It’s winning. That’s what I think about it. We won,” Mayfield said.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said the weather forced the offense into its run-heavy approach.
“We didn’t say we were not going to throw the ball; the conditions told [offensive coordinator Zac Robinson] that,” Bowles said.
The loss drops Atlanta to 3-5 and leaves the Falcons one game out of first place in the NFC South in the loss column. Next up is a trip to Madrid to face the Cincinnati Bengals.
For a team with division hopes, this was a brutal setback. Atlanta had a chance to take control of the race and instead let Tampa Bay move ahead of them in the division without completing a pass.
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