The Tampa Bay Buccaneers found a way to win Sunday without completing a pass, and the result was one of the strangest statistical lines the NFL has seen in decades.
Tampa Bay beat the Atlanta Falcons 16-0 at home in a rain-soaked game, improving to 3-5 while dropping Atlanta to the same record. Baker Mayfield returned after missing three games with a dislocated right thumb, but the Buccaneers never leaned on the air game.
In fact, Mayfield went 0 for 3 passing, and Tampa Bay became the first team since the 1974 Buffalo Bills to finish a game with no completions. Those Bills still beat the New York Jets 16-12.
The Buccaneers also became the first team since the 1945 Pittsburgh Steelers to win by double digits without a completion, and the first since the Boston Braves, now the Washington Commanders, in 1933 to post no completions while rushing for more than 300 yards.
That ground attack carried everything. Tampa Bay piled up 324 rushing yards and did it with a two-back hammering that Atlanta never solved.
Bucky Irving led the charge with 170 yards and a touchdown on 27 carries, averaging 6.3 yards per rush. Kenneth Gainwell added 140 yards on 25 carries at 5.6 yards per attempt.
Mayfield chipped in 14 rushing yards on four carries. Irving and Gainwell also made history as the first teammate duo in NFL history to each log 25-plus carries and 125-plus rushing yards in the same game.
The Buccaneers have now strung together consecutive wins against NFC South opponents, and the formula has been clear even with the passing game sputtering. Over the last two weeks, Mayfield has completed seven of 14 throws for 64 yards and a touchdown.
Tampa Bay has survived with a dominant run game and a defense that keeps taking the ball away. In Week 7, the Buccaneers forced four Panthers turnovers, including a 32-yard fumble return touchdown.
The defense kept that pressure rolling against Atlanta. Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was intercepted four times, a career high, while completing just eight of 24 passes for 125 yards. It was the first time a Falcons quarterback had thrown four interceptions in a game since Kirk Cousins did it in a 17-13 Week 13 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2024 season.
The result leaves the NFC South crowded and unsettled. The Panthers were in first place at 3-4 entering Week 9, with the Buccaneers and Falcons right behind at 3-5.
The New Orleans Saints are last at 2-5 and on a bye in Week 8. Through the first half of the season, the division remains wide open and unpredictable.
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