Baker Mayfield Just Got The Job Done
September 8th, 2025
Bucs used a Jesse “The Body” Ventura approach.
Joe thought of this when learning of this statistic in Sunday’s win over the Dixie Chicks
Many, many moons ago, Joe was watching a long-forgotten rasslin’ match. The announcers were Vince McMahon and former Bucs radio analyst Jesse “The Body” Ventura.
The heel in the match won by using some sort of “foreign object” to force his opponent to succumb. McMahon, always playing the straight man, was outraged. Ventura’s retort to McMahon’s indignity was to say, “McMahon, it’s called getting the job done.”
The job Sunday for the Bucs was to win.
It didn’t matter if it was beautiful, it didn’t matter if it was physical, it didn’t matter if it was downright ugly. The Bucs, thanks in large part to Baker Mayfield, got the job done.
Per NFL research by way of Nick Shook of NFL.com, Mayfield’s three-touchdown pass day also came with Mayfield’s fewest yards thrown in in a game in which he also threw for three touchdowns.
Mayfield was 17 of 32 for 167 yards — and three touchdowns.
But the Bucs won.
As Ventura would say, “It’s called getting the job done.”
September 8th, 2025 at 3:52 am
Got the job done and it didn’t feel like he was ‘off’. It was obviously not a great game for him but 0 turnovers, no glaring bad plays, a win. I’ll take that.
My biggest takeaway from the game is: 1. Chase isn’t the long term kicker I thought he was (not always the best but good enough that I’d rather have him for 3+ years than another unknown) and 2. Michael Penix is legit. Didn’t give him enough credit until I saw something and he looked good against our D.
Saw a comment saying Jamel Dean doesn’t know he’s in the NFL and that’s exactly what it is. He plays like it’s the family thanksgiving game and he wants his new girlfriend to go for 200 and 4tds on her family debut. No excuse as to why he’s paid the money that he is.
September 8th, 2025 at 4:17 am
Of course it matters, he stunk quite a bit and it almost cost the team the win. It’s a concern. He’s not above criticism.
September 8th, 2025 at 4:29 am
Dean actually had a pretty good game with a couple notable exceptions. McCollum was even better but that’s to be expected.
September 8th, 2025 at 4:31 am
Bucs Reality Check Says:
September 8th, 2025 at 4:17 am
Of course it matters, he stunk quite a bit and it almost cost the team the win. It’s a concern. He’s not above criticism.
^^^^^^^^^
Gotta love these “almost” fans…What is the REALITY, Bucs Reality Check? That they WON?
September 8th, 2025 at 4:47 am
Can anyone explain to me what the ruling was and why when Penix fumbled the ball into the end zone? Was he even touched before he fumbled the ball? I didn’t see any way that could have gone positively for Atlanta and yet it did!
Reminiscent of the Kyle Pitts “fumble” last year.
September 8th, 2025 at 5:01 am
He got away with two missed INTs. There’s a lot to clean up. Some semblance of a run game will help. They were rusty. I’m expecting improvement in game 2.
September 8th, 2025 at 5:23 am
Also, I think the Bucs need to make a formal complaint about the officiating since Atlanta got 12 extra seconds due to a corrected spot on Bijan Robinson’s late play stepping out of bounds but Atlanta had already spiked the ball for the next play. What’s next- TIME TRAVEL?
September 8th, 2025 at 5:41 am
Defenses are going to be keying on Bucky. Bucs have to mix it up When that happens, Offensive coordinator needs to adapt and mix up the plays and calls to RB’s. Richaad had only two carries for a 7 yard average. IMO, he deserves more chances because he has unselfishly taken on a lesser role and excelled at blitz pickups. He stopped what appeared to be an unblocked rusher dead in his tracks in this game.
September 8th, 2025 at 5:46 am
The environment caused a lot of miscues plus I know people are harping the Cade Otton miss but Cade just came back to practice lol. It happens!
September 8th, 2025 at 6:09 am
Baker got it done in the end. There were some last minute reshuffling of players coming into the game that probably caused some of the befuddlement. The noise in the dome was loud, until it wasn’t. Grizz and the clock management guy’s first game. Where was the clock management guy? On the field or upstairs. The refs were not perfect either. It felt at times they were leaning toward the home team. Baker owns his mistakes. He knows where he and the team need to work on. A great trait to have.
September 8th, 2025 at 6:26 am
No turnovers, but only because they dropped 2 int´s at least
September 8th, 2025 at 6:55 am
“It’s called getting the job done” !!!!!!!!!!!
September 8th, 2025 at 6:59 am
Not sure what people want. Baker played behind a makeshift line with no running game and threw two perfect TD passes to Ebuka. It wasn’t Baker’s best game as a Buc but he delivered in the clutch. Surprised that there weren’t more screens and plays over the middle for Otton. Penix earned some well deserved praised; but, I was glad Kirk Cousins the Buc killer was on the bench. The Bucs pass defense doesn’t look materially better although McCollum and Winfield delivered when needed. It was a good win against our top division opponent.
September 8th, 2025 at 7:02 am
3rd offensive coordinator in 3 yrs, missing 2 very important receivers, a guy named Michael Jordan at left guard, not much of a running game (except for bakers own scrambling and timely first downs), still throws for 3td’s gets the W against a divisional opponent – and some of you still have the audacity to be complete c*nts. Perhaps it’s Gator fans butthurt about trask? If that’s the case, maybe you should feast your eyes on how awful the gators are?
September 8th, 2025 at 7:12 am
Baker had a few passes get away. He also gave his body up multiple times to get the job done.
Anyone who wants to criticize him can go cheer for Joe Burrow, all stats and no credibility.
The goal is to win. Not pile up yards.
September 8th, 2025 at 8:11 am
Here we go with the “Baker won us the game” narrative, piggy backed by the fans that only want to acknowledge the positive and willingly turn a blind eye to any critiques. Balance is key and for the record, you can put up gaudy stats and win football games at the same time.
Pretty sure Baker himself won’t settle for 15 incompletions with 4 turnover worthy throws. All that talk of chips on his shoulder, and blah blah blah, you think he himself as a competitor doesn’t want to play better-and when he does YOU the fan will then care about stats again lol
September 8th, 2025 at 8:25 am
Gator fans butt hurt about Trask AND a bit cranky after the USF game. LOL
The game was wild, gave me flashbacks of Martin Gramatica. His kid scored all the points.
September 8th, 2025 at 8:32 am
1st game of the year and a win. Everyone needs to shut up and just enjoy the win and ignore these fair weather fans ! GO BUCS
September 8th, 2025 at 8:37 am
Jay … ‘No turnovers, but only because they dropped 2 int´s at least’.
Yes at least 2 of Baker’s throws could’ve been intercepted, but I also saw McCollum miss 2 potential INTs that hit him in the breadbasket. The game was sloppy in many regards, but it all balanced out in the end (they missed INTs; so did we … they missed a FG try; so did we … their running game was kept in-check; so was ours … etc etc).
Bucs have a lot to learn from this; so do the Falcons. They’re legit, and very likely will give us a go-for-our-money as the season progresses.
September 8th, 2025 at 8:43 am
Agree with @slypirate
GO BUCS
September 8th, 2025 at 8:50 am
I hope that our new coordinator will use Coen’s playbook. The running plays looked horrible
September 8th, 2025 at 8:54 am
Exactly! evaluate on the facts not some fantasy scenario that did not happen.
September 8th, 2025 at 9:15 am
Now it’s time for the head coach to oversee the necessary improvements. Everyone knows that all three units (O, D, ST) need to be better, aside from the return game which was good. Kudos to Kam Johnson and to Tucker for his last kickoff return.
Slow starts are patented Bowles. D gives up a TD by covering no one and O goes 3 and out, looking like they never played before.
How about a fast start? Crazy talk, I know.
After the first drive, D tightened up, DBs were a lot closer to the LOS, and when Atl made plays at least they were contested catches. Not sure why Penix doesn’t use his legs more, he basically ran them back into the game with the TD and scrambles to get them into KooKoo miss range.
Thanks Jungwae!
September 8th, 2025 at 9:19 am
Last year’s offense was a well oiled machine from day one when they dismantled the Commanders in week one. Yesterday they looked more like the 2023 offense early in that season. But it is one game so at this point I think we should reserve judgment and see if they can smooth things out. There were a lot of reasons for this less than stellar offensive showing. You’ve got to give the Falcons some credit, the shuffling of the oline just before the start of the season, and Baker simply not playing very well for much of the game. But you have to give him credit for getting it done when all was said and done. He showed his moxie for sure in that game and you can’t take that away from him. They probably should’ve lost that game and if they had it would’ve been on Baker but they didn’t and the main reason they didn’t was because of Baker.
September 8th, 2025 at 9:27 am
Recent Buc bandwagon fans don’t know that Jesse the body Ventura used to do Bucs radio broadcasts 🇺🇸💪🇺🇸💪🇺🇸💪🇺🇸
September 8th, 2025 at 9:30 am
Defense, my thoughts exactly. Our defense played well too, Penix had to get the ball out quick and was accurate, pass rush was there. Lot of missed calls for the Bucs, I don’t know what the ref’s are looking at or why they miss obvious calls. I’m not saying they should call everything cause they are gonna miss some calls. That roughing the passer needs to be revamped. All the other players bang heads when they tackle but not the QB? SVD purposely dove over Penix when he ran for that 1st down instead of wiping him out on the sideline, I guess he forgot that QB’s turn into running backs when they leave the pocket. The explanation of the player giving himself up when diving was wrong from what I know, the player gives up when sliding, that’s to protect the player, not diving head first, I think that call was wrong but I’m not 100 % certain about it.
September 8th, 2025 at 9:34 am
Gofortheface30 👍🏽
September 8th, 2025 at 10:01 am
Stpetematt Says:
September 8th, 2025 at 4:47 am
Can anyone explain to me what the ruling was and why when Penix fumbled the ball into the end zone? Was he even touched before he fumbled the ball? I didn’t see any way that could have gone positively for Atlanta and yet it did!
St.pete, Penix hit the ground holding the ball and was down by contact before the ball came loose. The ground can’t cause a fumble. The ball was past the first down mark so they got the first down.
September 8th, 2025 at 10:03 am
Penix was giving himself up by diving for the end zone.
September 8th, 2025 at 10:12 am
Definitely things to clean up. No run game I’ll chalk up to the line shuffle hopefully that’s the issue was tough sledding trying to run. Grizz better figure out the screen game with white that will fill in gaps with the run game issues at the moment. Run a quick slant with tez let dude break one and take it to the crib!!
September 8th, 2025 at 12:46 pm
Shuffled O line…Didn’t like the last minute call. Got the job done.
Playing musical chairs on the O line rarely ends well. Good job dudes!
Howver Baker is the leading rusher? Not good.
Defense looked much the same as last year. Did force some punts though…
Go Bucs
September 8th, 2025 at 1:07 pm
Thanks, DR. Only gripe I’ve got with Feisty Bake is WILL HE KINDLY LEARN HOW TO SLIDE?????!!!!! I’m really not into Teddy Bridgewater. Plus, I want Baker to stay healthy through Halloween when ME13, EE2, and CG14 are ALL on the field. Talk about a horror show for the refs and opposing teams, yuck, yuck. BTW, Raheem Morris and Hotlanta are NOT chopped liver!
September 8th, 2025 at 1:36 pm
“It was ugly but he got the job done” is an excuse for poor play ,and luck , by losers ! When the opposing teams’ defensive backs drop four Of Mayfield’s passes that should have been interceptions, when your team rushes for 101yards total! and passes for a measly 159 yards and when your”win” is pulled out of the fire by a rare chip shot miss by a very good kicker , you got real problems ! You better get it fixed before you have to venture outside of that Juggernaut that is the NFC -South, ( like next Monday night!).
September 8th, 2025 at 3:20 pm
So am I missing something. Apparently the good nfl teams have to play flawlessly every single game or their coach or teams stink. Like it’s amazing how many people just smooth over all of the uglies that some of the best qbs in the league have had, defenders, olines, you name it. I know I would love id the Bucs went out and maddened every game winning by 35 points or more but the reality is that good teams win ugly games. Mahomes, Brady, Jackson, Allen. None of them have been immune to terrible games nor have their teams. Champions come through when it matters most, in crunch time with the game on the line. I feel like past iterations of this team have lost a game like yesterday more often than not and imo is a good sign moving forward.
September 8th, 2025 at 3:20 pm
JD Still. Any fan here who truly watched the game would know that 2 Falcons had one ball each that could have, with an outstanding play, picked the ball. But neither was really catchable. You are a true idiot and a Baker troll sir, but like I said, rewatch the game and see if you don’t feel a little bit like a dlpshlt. Because you should. Because you are.
September 8th, 2025 at 5:20 pm
I’m one of the biggest criticis of Baker Mayfield but look he came through when we needed him . Again I rather for him to be cluch than put up 500 yards with 5 TD and then fumble in that moment of the game and we lose. Baker played good to me he had some bad throws but at the end of the day we won the game and that’s the only thing that matters. Can’t no body complain about the way Baker Mayfield played because he was clutch.
September 8th, 2025 at 6:05 pm
Many, many moons ago, Joe was watching a long-forgotten rasslin’ match. The announcers were Vince McMahon and former Bucs radio analyst Jesse “The Body” Ventura.
———-
How you not going to mention Jesse the Body without mentioning that him and ‘Mean Gene’ Deckerhoff (along with Al Keck) did the radio broadcasts for the Bucs in 1989.
I love those radio broadcasts as an early teen – you got the big time movie star, professional wrestling star, talking about how the refs need to get a chair upside their heads, it was great stuff, really entertaining. I’ve looked for years but never found audio of those broadcasts, someone must have them somewhere.
September 8th, 2025 at 6:13 pm
There is a difference between accepting a win , we all accept that We won Sunday, but to accept the way we won would be irresponsible, does anyone really believe we can continue to win games playing the way We did against better teams than we played Sunday while running for 100 yards and throwing for 150 yards and hoping opposing defenses will continue to drop multiple chances for interceptions and miss chip shot field goals , just how often do you think that’s going to happen? Be satisfied if you want but I can guarantee that every team we play the rest of the year is going to be studying this film and more , including Atlanta , and plotting and practicing what they can and should do better, and we had best be doing the same.
September 8th, 2025 at 7:35 pm
Kenton Smith: Out of curiosity, How old are You?