Baker Mayfield Strong Against The Blitz
December 1st, 2025
Burned Arizona’s blitz in Sunday’s 20-17 win.
Fun stuff about the Bucs’ franchise quarterback from NextGen Stats.
By way of Kevin Patra of NFL.com, Baker Mayfield, per NextGen Stats, was blitzed on over a third of his dropbacks (39.4 percent) Sunday, yet Mayfield was money when the Cardinals blitzed him in the 20-17 win over Arizona. Mayfield completed 6 of 11 passes for 114 yards. That was over half of his 194 yards passing.
Now here is where stats don’t pass the eyeball test but the stats are, well, documented.
Joe didn’t think the pass protection was all that strong Sunday. Early on it seemed Mayfield barely had time to set up. It may have slowly gotten better as the game went on.
Why does Joe used the words “may have?” Well, NextGen Stats uses sensors in players’ equipment and a computer chip in the ball to come up with data. Per NextGen Stats, Mayfield averaged 3.05 seconds to throw. That was his second-longest mark of the season.
It sure didn’t seem that way. But Joe’s not going to argue with NextGen Stats. Guess Ben Bredeson did make that much difference.
December 1st, 2025 at 12:04 am
For the millionth time, Wiz Kid needs to go back and watch the film from last year, what was working, and what wasn’t working, and Baker throwing deep wasn’t working and isn’t working. What does work is the short, quick passing game. What does work is the two back set with lots of motion and misdirection. What doesn’t work is just running up the middle on every first down like you’re Brian Leftwich calling the game.
Not idea what the man from Lot Lizard is doing, other than costing himself a HC job by being incredibly stupid. How do you just throw out last years success when you’re allegedly running the same scheme and playbook?
December 1st, 2025 at 12:06 am
This. ^^^^^
December 1st, 2025 at 12:17 am
Joe – has Grizz talked about needing to scale down the playbook because of all the offensive line injuries? I really don’t get why it seems so basic and bland. It’s impossible to believe he just isn’t aware of what was working last year or is refusing to run it, unless he’s incredibly thick headed. The only real out I can give him, and it’s really stretching it at this point in the season, is that all that misdirection with the offensive lineman is hard to learn, and with the constant carousal of lineman, they’ve had to simplify things.
Also, any mentions of Cody coming back in the playoffs if the Bucs make it far enough? Technically, according to the timeline of his injury, he could in theory return if the Bucs made the SB. Yes, wishful thinking on many levels, but just curious if his name is even mentioned at all.
December 1st, 2025 at 12:17 am
Fire Bowles and the whole coaching staff
December 1st, 2025 at 12:31 am
What we have in the Grizzer is the worst of Canales combined with Leftwich. Finally we saw some plays set up to immediately target Chaad or Bucky, and the results saw nice gains. So never again was that called when crunch time happened.
That is on Tood, for not coaching his rookie coach who he picked and reports to him. And if he can’t do that he’s not a head coach. Which most of us already know anyway.
December 1st, 2025 at 12:57 am
It’s amazing how the offense opened up last year when Mike was on the field..domino effect. The 3 seconds to throw tells me Bakers waiting for some daylight/separation. A sharp Chris should help get that ball out quickly, like when Canales was here, ( he preached he wanted that ball out in 2.4 seconds or less) .
December 1st, 2025 at 1:02 am
I mean that’s barely over a 50% completion rate…
And not even 200 passings yards for the full game…
But no one celebrates mediocrity quite like the Bucs (and the Tampa media)!
December 1st, 2025 at 1:19 am
Rod Munch:
——-
Agree with you on all points. Copy/paste last years’ offense. It was great.
December 1st, 2025 at 4:00 am
Yeah last years scheme just seemed to match Bakers play so well – what happened to that guy?
Surely Licht and the Glazers wouldn’t have chosen fading defensive mediocrity over offensive innovation and chemistry?
Did El Serpiente take the playbook with him?
Seriously can’t AI help study and mimic Liam’s sequencing when it comes to playcalling?
December 1st, 2025 at 8:12 am
Maybe Grizz is playing 4D chess and will save the innovative play calling for the playoffs. I’m kidding of course. He definitely has a lot to learn about play calling, play design and everything else to be a successful coordinator. I’ve tried to be patient with him, but I don’t see anything creative other than the Wirfs TD yesterday. He calls plays, but I don’t see him set anything up. He has no feel for the game.
December 1st, 2025 at 10:26 am
After watching the game a second time, I saw enough to believe there is room for the offense to really get better down the stretch. That’s good because the defenses we face down the stretch are pretty good, especially the Panthers. Their defensive coordinator imo is a future head coaching candidate. They are tenacious and they get turnovers. Not that talented but they are definitely well coached. Defensively, we continue to look soft and the numbers bear that out. They are way down the ladder in all categories against the pass except in sacks and interceptions. I think the problem is they can’t get any pressure rushing just 3 or 4 so have to send the house which leaves them vulnerable on the back end. Also seem to be uninspired and lacking in confidence, understandably so. No idea how they fix it.
December 1st, 2025 at 12:32 pm
Oscar, the only thing a Todd Bowles coached team gets better at is regression. During the season, even during a game. Like yesterday. Like the Jets. Like the Bills. It’s vomitous and no amount of hopefully pixie dust can change the fact.
December 1st, 2025 at 12:45 pm
2022: 8-9
2023: 9-8
2024: 10-7
That’s not “regression.” Joe gets why fans are fed up. But let’s not make things up.
December 1st, 2025 at 1:40 pm
Did anybody else notice SVD coverage on 4th down won the game for us? That was a shocker.
December 1st, 2025 at 1:44 pm
Funny, was Baker Mayfield blitzed on every passing attempt? Of the 28 pass attempts, it looked like 25 of those attempts he was under duress. I’m not exaggerating, it looked rough every time he dropped back to pass, didn’t matter the down, but of course much more noticeable on 3rd and long.
This Oline is scary, and not in a good way. Coen must of been a genius masking it’s weaknesses with how he schemed up his Oline. We’ve been waiting for a healthier team for Grizz to be able to show us he’s our next Coen, and I’m still not seeing it. The calls by the Ref’s were atrocious, but everything thing our offense did just looked like a lot of work. Nothing looked smooth. Cardinals actually looked better moving the ball than we did, they just couldn’t finish their drives in the red zone.
December 1st, 2025 at 4:02 pm
NextGen stats release some fairly positive stats about our QB, and all the BucsGen commenters respond as if to something horrendously negative, without seeming to disagree with the data. Bewildering.