Baker Mayfield's stage was set for a career playoff game following a career season -- until one fumble changed it all.
Up four with just under 12 minutes remaining against Washington on Sunday night, Mayfield had an opportunity to piece together a drive to perhaps give Tampa Bay the first multi-possession lead of the game for either team. Instead, he and rookie wideout Jalen McMillan mistimed the handoff on a jet sweep from their own 15-yard line, causing the quarterback to fumble the ball to the Commanders in what went down as the biggest swing of the Buccaneers' 23-20 defeat.
"Yeah, it comes back to me just timing it up correctly," Mayfield said postgame, per the team transcript. "First one of the year that happened on, so obviously the timing of it, not great. Being backed up, defense had just done a hell of a job getting us the ball. Another fourth down stop, and, yeah, unfortunate, but that falls on me."
Tampa Bay's defense indeed show up for the Wild Card Round. Outside of an inability to get off the field on fourth down, giving up three conversions to Washington on five tries, the unit far exceeded expectations against a top-five scoring offense, considering its middling regular-season performance and myriad injuries entering the contest.
But after stonewalling the Commanders for a goal-to-go turnover on downs just moments before, the Bucs could not repeat such heroics given just 13 yards of space between their opponent's starting spot and the end zone.
"Nothing to say to him. He's your bell cow," head coach Todd Bowles said when asked what he told Mayfield following the botched play. "When your bell cow takes a shot and something goes wrong, you got to live with that. They're human. We are going to make mistakes. He got us here. We wouldn't even be here without Baker, so really nothing to say to him."
To think the Bucs would have found themselves where they were Sunday without Mayfield -- hosting a playoff game as NFC South champions for a fourth straight season (second with him starting) and having transitioned seamlessly from the post-Tom Brady years -- would certainly be folly.
Mayfield continued his renaissance during his second year in Tampa Bay with 4,500 passing yards, 41 touchdowns and a 71.4 completion percentage, all career highs.
He lost the time-of-possession battle Sunday and saw limited opportunities with just seven drives, but he nonetheless continued on the regular-season trajectory he had set. Mayfield completed 15 of 18 passes for 185 yards, two touchdowns and a 146.5 passer rating, a new franchise playoff record and the highest in NFL history in a postseason loss.
There were also shades of the regular season in his turnover, though. Mayfield's 2024 campaign was as much about electric playmaking as it was backbreaking mistakes, a yin-yang situation that resulted in him tying for the league lead in both interceptions (16) and fumbles (13).
And that push-pull relationship was seen when, in the wake of a Commanders' go-ahead touchdown following his giveaway, Mayfield marched the Bucs 61 yards on an eight-play drive that included a 26-yard pass to McMillan and 20-yard connection with tight end Cade Otton.
That possession, too, was stymied by a mistake, when center Graham Barton snapped the ball from Washington's 12-yard line too early on a third-and-1. None of Tampa Bay's other linemen moved immediately off the ball; Washington's did, and it resulted in a two-yard loss by Bucky Irving.
An ensuing field goal tied the game, 20-20, but Mayfield would not see the ball again, instead left to ponder his what ifs from the sideline as Commanders QB Jayden Daniels orchestrated a game-winning field-goal drive that drained the remaining 4:41 off the clock.
For as well as he played Sunday, he'll now have the rest of the offseason to ponder those regrets, as well.
"Just some dumb stuff today that cost the team," Mayfield said. "So, yeah, it's going to wear on me for a while."
