Baker Mayfield Was Fine On Short Passes
October 22nd, 2025
Passing chart vs. Lions.
Just looking at Baker Mayfield’s passing chart from Monday night in Detroit, passing wasn’t the problem when the Bucs tried to exploit the mismatches they had with the Lions’ secondary.
No, Mayfield did rather well in passing — so long as they were short passes.
Mayfield attempted seven passes past the Liam Coen line — 20 yards downfield from the line of scrimmage. Mayfield didn’t complete one of those passes.
But passes inside of 20 yards Mayfield was fine, connecting on 28 of 43 passes for a 65 percent completion percentage.
Throwing no further downfield than 10 yards, Mayfield was 22 of 27 for a 81 percent completion percentage. Perhaps Bucs offensive coordinator Josh Grizzard should have used play-action a little more?
October 22nd, 2025 at 4:41 am
No risk it no biscuit
October 22nd, 2025 at 5:19 am
Missed way too many open receivers on what would have been game changing plays.
October 22nd, 2025 at 5:57 am
Should’ve been 1/7 on passes beyond 20. The ball to Evans was perfect, just unfortunate the NFL allows the DBs to rape the receiver prior to the catch. That dude was burnt and that play would’ve been a TD had he not tackled Evans.
Other than that, it wasn’t Bakers night. It happens, time to rebound beat the slimy saints. 6-2 at the bye, Go Bucs!
October 22nd, 2025 at 6:31 am
gotbbucs, totally agree! That one he missed to Tez in the end zone was definitely a game changer. He normally makes that play. Joe speculated that the onslaught of Detroit’s d-line caused him to throw high so his passes wouldn’t be batted down. That’s certainly a possibility. He needs better protection to set up for long passes. Hopefully, the o-line will give him that when they play the Saints.
October 22nd, 2025 at 6:36 am
In a word….Inexplicable.
October 22nd, 2025 at 6:50 am
Probably a good time to lose a game. All that MVP talk can no go away and free his mind. We need to win big at NOLA and then take a much needed bye.
October 22nd, 2025 at 6:52 am
4 of 18 on passes over 15 yards is the more startling stat…
October 22nd, 2025 at 6:55 am
Early in the game I thought Baker was hyper-targeting Evans probably to try and get him make up yards from being out to get him back on track for 1000
He had the same problem in CLE when there was pressure to feed OBJ
He’s better letting the offense flow just throwing to who is open (SF)
Also Griz is overusing White just like he did Bucky – needs to be more of a split especially w/ Tucker as a runner – his favorite opponent coming next week so let’s hope this offense bounces back – go Bucs
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:00 am
Baker looked to be having lower back issues and although Baker would never admit this , it was pretty obvious.
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:13 am
Redzone … ‘Early in the game I thought Baker was hyper-targeting Evans probably to try and get him make up yards from being out to get him back on track for 1000’.
There may well have been some of that going on early Redzone. Mike was targeted 5 times but caught none (1 resulted in an accepted penalty so it was officially just 4 targets). And they were ALL deep.
Pro-Football-Reference (PFR) uses only 15 yards as the criteria for a deep pass it looks like. They had Baker throwing deep 13 times … and completing just 1 (for 18 yards). Plus he threw deep 2 more times that resulted in penalties & thus didn’t count as passes. Something out of whack with the playcalling when you see those kinds of results.
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:22 am
Baker just had a bad day and didn’t perform as the superman we got used this season. It happens to the best. He will be back next games
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:26 am
Time to throw had a lot to do with the bad throws down field. Lions were getting after Mayfield. All the more reason for the short passing game, and quick trap running plays. Grizz didn’t adjust, Baker was off, the whole team was. Even as some suggest the defense was good enough, they had too many gaffs. Six explosive plays. They set the tone with the opening drive, When we got within five, they went right back down the field and put up 7 instead of 6. Going for 2 at the start of the 3rd quarter was just dumb. The whole team from coaching to the last guy on the bench weren’t ready, or willing to play on fire. They need to show who’s boss this week in N.O.. Win, feel good going imto the bye, lose start to worry. We’ll see where we’re at after Sunday.
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:36 am
Saints beat us 38-THREE in our Superbowl year, what do you think the conversations were like after THAT game?
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:42 am
I’m hoping Baker is not hiding an injury.
October 22nd, 2025 at 8:04 am
Baker didn’t forget how to football. There was way too much penetration up the middle which caused his passes to get blocked earlier in the game and caused him to throw high later in the game
October 22nd, 2025 at 8:05 am
grizz will tighten up…
our former 2 OCs had games just like this….
lets get this WIN sunday and go on our much needed bye!!!!
GO BUCS!!!!
October 22nd, 2025 at 8:32 am
Thinking Grizz, Baker, and the rest learned a lot from that game.
I do worry about these night games. In the past, I read that Baker doesn’t like night games. I think our next one is in December against the Falcons. Also the noise factor in these domes. There are so many factors to think about too.
Go Bucs!
October 22nd, 2025 at 8:49 am
Some games, things do not click. It’s not the end of the season.
October 22nd, 2025 at 8:55 am
Sitting in August if you would have told me all the injuries we were about to have and that we would beat Atlanta, Seattle and Houston on the road, and be 5-2, I would be thrilled. Let’s beat the saints and be 6-2 with a needed rest coming up. The Pats, then Buffalo and LA on the road will be tough.
October 22nd, 2025 at 9:33 am
having Evans backfired, agree with the other posters. was a big worry coming in, having seen him do it before with Godwin when he wasn’t 100 pct. he wasn’t checking to the wide open guys in those games because he’d already decided. not the best version of Baker. if everybody doubles EE will be interesting.
October 22nd, 2025 at 9:49 am
Baker should never throw the ball 50 times. Grizz gave up on the run way too early and ran up the middle too often. This also shows how effective White isn’t in the run game. This team needs Bucky back
October 22nd, 2025 at 9:50 am
It was an off game by the entire team. I agree with the lack of play-action and lack of pre-snap motion as well. When you’re down to your backup receivers, you need to help them by “scheming them open” as well. That falls on Grizz for a lack of creativity and failure to make adjustments on the fly. I get it… Grizz is still a rookie OC, but when Detroit’s “decimated secondary” eats your lunch, maybe the problem is more obvious? I’m sure there will be a ton of film study this week and Bowles let his dissatisfaction with his offense be known in no uncertain terms. (But his defense wasn’t that good either, however we did hold them to 20 points which should have been enough to win).
October 22nd, 2025 at 9:55 am
The good news is EE2 is playing like the rest healed the hammy. And Tez Johnson–2 TDs in his last 2 games. He’s a rookie. Where was he hiding? Really bad refs (SOP for this team) and weak offense killed the Bucs. The refs also made Detroit look like a joke. They were the better team, but they needed that help, too? BTW, when the Bucs won their last SB, they weren’t Division champs. Slimebag Payton and the Aints were. Getting my obeah beads out. Bucs won’t need them. Go Bucs!! 6-2 at the Bye!!
October 22nd, 2025 at 10:23 am
We should be a little concerned about Baker’s deep ball accuracy. It looked a little suspect last year as well
October 22nd, 2025 at 11:15 am
orlbucfan … Egbuka had 4 catches in 12 targets for a total of 58 yards, 0 TDs & 0 first downs. He had no targets in the 1st qtr, but was 1-of-2 (both short) in the 2nd qtr for a total of 4 yards. He was 1-of-3 (all deep) in the 3rd qtr for a total of 18 yds. He got a LOT of work in the 4th qtr though: 0-of-3 (deep) and 2-of-4 (short) for 36 yards.
So on the night he was 3-of-6 short for 40 yds, and 1-of-6 deep for 18 yds. Since deep passes are timing critical, I’m kinda wondering if Egbuka’s hammy wasn’t slowing him down just a tad, to the degree that Baker was overthrowing him (that seemed to be the case most often with both he & Evans when they went deep).
Baker on the night was 1-of-13 deep, and the vast majority of his deep throws went to Evans & Egbuka (both of whom had hammy issues). I’m sure that a big part of it was the pressure that Baker was under all night, but still can’t help but wonder if both Evans’ & Egbuka’s previous hamstring issues impacted their top speed & thus threw off the play’s timing.
October 22nd, 2025 at 11:48 am
The Lions took away the screens and short stuff. A completion was met with an immediate tackle. They figured correctly, due to a real head coach, that their DL pressure through the Bucs Matadors wouldn’t give Bake enough time to compete the deep balls and rattle him. That’s exactly what happened. And because the Bucs gameplan was so unimaginative and the playcalling worse, it resulted in the Bucs getting abused in Old Testament fashion by the Lions. A real head coach would have assisted his rookie play caller in the game plan instead of criticizing it afterwards. A real head coach would have sought in game adjustments.
But the Bucs don’t have one of those.
October 22nd, 2025 at 12:30 pm
Yeah, that’s crazy! Trust me, EE’s hamstring was NOT healed. Not even close. And, it’s not going to. Two-things… Lots of routes, there wasn’t anything short (only RWhite, around the flats as a check-down outlet), (&/or) everyone all loaded to one side. And, when there WERE ‘short to intermediate’ routes over the middle of the field, & etc. (can’t remember hardly any slants early)… Baker held onto the ball for way too long, while waiting for something to open up and develop downfield. Then, by the time he would check-it down, it was too late! They weren’t going anywhere, & NO YAC. You HAD TO have a quick fast passing game-plan against such an aggressive defense and pass rush. Hell, all of our routes were too deep, and took too long. Nothing/nobody there short, and when there was, Baker continued looking deep the whole time, and never saw them. Quick. Tempo. RYTHYM. It was a poor gameplan. They HAD TO start fast, and they did the exact opposite. Honestly, it couldn’t have been much worse.
October 22nd, 2025 at 12:34 pm
And, receivers would just run straight to their spot and just stand there. Hardly, ANY pre-snap motion, eye-candy, or misdirection. Just VERY vanilla and predictable, running the play-clock down to sub 5-seconds left, literally all night.
October 22nd, 2025 at 12:59 pm
The offense Monday night reminded me of the Byron Leftwich offense in Brady’s last year. No creativity
October 22nd, 2025 at 1:07 pm
Glass Half Full Guy Says:
October 22nd, 2025 at 9:50 am
It was an off game by the entire team.
———
No, the defense played great.
The WR’s were making incredible catches.
Baker sucked and lost the game single handed.
But that’s OK, the Bucs aren’t the ESPN week 6 power poll winners if Baker hadn’t been clutch, before this game, when it mattered.
You Baker Boi(s) don’t have to always mindless claim nothing is ever Baker’s fault, he’s not going to get cut if you say he had an off week. Try it. It doesn’t mean you’re rooting against him, it just means you’re not a boring idiot when you admit the obvious.
Baker needs to show up focused and ready to go vs the Saints, if he does and the Bucs win, the Lions loss is no big deal. What he can’t do is let it spiral into additional bad games, and I don’t think he’s going to let that happen.
October 22nd, 2025 at 1:41 pm
I would think everyone is a Baker Boi. If you are still on the Trask Train at this point, you need serious help.
October 22nd, 2025 at 2:02 pm
Rod … ‘You Baker Boi(s) don’t have to always mindless claim nothing is ever Baker’s fault’.
I LMAO every time I see you poke the bear Rod. Love the way we divide JBFers into Baker Boi(s), Traskites, etc. Wondering now if Teddy will become ‘Bridge Over Troubled Waters’.
This next game against the Saints is probably our most important to date of the 2025 season. It’ll show how well we can rebound from a loss DESPITE having numerous injuries. That’s a big ask, even against the 1-6 Saints. They really don’t have much going for them at this point (#29 offense scoring only 125 points … 17.9 PPG … and #27 defense surrendering 186 points … 26.6 PPG). And yet they beat the Giants 26-14. And those same Giants barely lost to the high-flying Broncos 33-32 last week (Denver’s last second FG won it for them). So ‘on any given Sunday’ … yada yada.
Bucs have now played 5 teams with winning records, and beaten 3 of them. We’ve also played 2 teams with losing records, and whooped them both. So we’ve beaten the teams we should beat, and done respectably well against teams that were favored against us. I’d say that 5-2 looks pretty good right now, but 6-2 looks a helluva lot better as we approach our BYE week. We NEED this win.
I don’t think it’ll come easy though, because our offense is so depleted. We’ll most likely be without our best weapons … Irving, Evans, Godwin, McMillan. I still see 4 primary weapons who SHOULD get the preponderance of the work … Egbuka, White, Otton & Shepard. Even before worrying about that though, they need to fix the OLine. Putting Jordan back in the rotation was premature IMO.
In any event, Saints look to be vulnerable to the run. So, run it then run it again. Rachaad’s having a decent year (3.9 YPC) & will probably get the preponderance of the carries, but Tucker needs to share some of the load (he’s only averaging 3.1 YPC this season, but we know he’s capable of some explosive runs).
October 22nd, 2025 at 3:23 pm
how about Baker being 5-24 over 10+ yards passing…that was why we lost…sorry, but that’s the absolute truth here. If we had kept the offense on the field for longer drives, thus keeping the Lions’ offense off the field…then the Bucs could have won the game. You hear some media saying it was a complete dominance by the Lions, but was it really? …only because Baker throws were erratic & mostly too high for the open receivers that the game seemed unwinnable.
Silver lining here…maybe Baker will forget about MVP now and concentrate more on being better. If Baker just made half of his passes over 10+ yards, the Bucs could have won this game…but onto New Orleans now….
October 22nd, 2025 at 4:19 pm
Baker wasn’t getting the pocket that any QB needs to throw from. Heck, Mike Jordan, and Graham Barton were getting pushed back into his lap. No way to step up in the pocket and get his footwork aligned, Not surprised his passes got blocked or sailed on him. Barton in particular got pushed back repeatedly.
Heck will be gone once Luke comes back. Haven’t heard anything about Haggard’s return, so may be it’s time for Elijah Klein or Dan Feeney.
Graham Barton has frankly striggled of and on at center since last year, not unlike what happened to Ali Marpet. Barton has the perfect build for Guard – short arms – so maybe swap positions with Bredeson. Barton at Left Guard and Bredeson back at Center.
October 22nd, 2025 at 5:44 pm
Ha Rod reappears when Baker has an average game. Losing the game single handed would have been multiple Interceptions and a pick six. Bakers stats were almost exactly the same as Goffs who won. There was a ton of bad luck including a big gain erased by Evans dropping the ball upon breaking his collarbone. Lets get some good insults in while you can Rod. Shorty midget etc. I think your analysis b is off. It was not lacking focus but too hyped up. His arm is so strong that when he is too hyper he over throws it.
October 22nd, 2025 at 7:49 pm
Need all white uniforms.