TAMPA, Fla. — Of course it wasn’t easy, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ NFC South-clinching and playoff-qualifying victory over the New Orleans Saints in the regular-season finale on Sunday.
Nothing about their 2024 campaign has come with ease. Not the start, when they stormed out of the gate with two authoritative victories before an up-and-down stretch. Not in mid-October, when Hurricane Milton forced them to relocate to New Orleans to practice five days before facing the Saints. Not the heart of the season, when the Bucs should have hit their stride, but instead endured a four-game losing streak while plagued by injuries to key players. Not the homestretch of the season, which, despite wins in six of their final seven games, featured no margin for error as Tampa Bay engaged in an arm-wrestling match with the Atlanta Falcons for the division crown.
So, of course Sunday’s win-and-in matchup at home against the five-win Saints was no cakewalk.
But in a performance befitting of their season, Tampa Bay’s players scratched and clawed their way to 27-19 comeback victory and 10-7 regular-season record. The Buccaneers, who trailed until the final 10 minutes of play, earned their fourth straight NFC South title and fifth consecutive playoff berth. They finished as the NFC’s No. 3 seed and will host the sixth-seeded Washington Commanders next weekend in a wild-card game.
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Sunday’s game certainly wasn’t pretty, and it featured all kinds of obstacles — some self-inflicted. But the struggle of the season forged the resilience necessary for Sunday’s victory, and the adversity of the year and the game itself made Tampa Bay’s spot in the seven-team NFC playoff field that much sweeter. Buccaneers coaches and players believe the repeated storms have forged them into a battle-tested squad capable of making a deep postseason run.
“It all makes you stronger,” coach Todd Bowles said moments after he and his players celebrated winning the division for the third straight year on his watch. “You can’t not fail or not have some bad things happen to you and be successful. You’ve got to go through that. You’ve got to go through that part of it. It makes you mentally tough, makes you resilient, helps you grow, helps you understand the mistakes and things you’ve got to do better. We went through a bunch of that this year, as most teams that make it do, but it helped us grow in the second half of the season. They corrected a lot of things, and now we’re in the tournament.”
Strong finishes are becoming a common occurrence for Bowles’ Buccaneers. Last season, they needed a 5-1 finish to win the NFC South. This season, Tampa Bay fell into a 4-6 hole, then closed out the year with a 6-1 tear to clinch the division and postseason bid in the 11th hour.
Last season’s experiences prepared the Buccaneers for a tough fight Sunday against the Saints. In 2023, they looked to wrap up the division with a Week 17 win over downtrodden New Orleans but instead “they beat the brakes off of us,” as quarterback Baker Mayfield described the 23-13 loss. The Bucs had to then beat Carolina in Week 18 to reach the postseason.
The Buccaneers rolled the Saints 51-27 in Week 6 of this season. They suspected the rematch would play out much differently, and they were right. Injuries left the secondary without three starters and Saints quarterback Spencer Rattler capitalized early, passing for 181 yards in the first half. Meanwhile, missed tackles, dropped passes and penalties also hampered the efforts of the Buccaneers, who trailed 16-6 at halftime after mustering only 116 total yards of offense.
But previous experiences also reminded the Buccaneers not to panic. They retreated to the locker room at halftime and the message delivered by Bowles — who always maintains the same stoic demeanor regardless of successes or failures — centered on “what we had to do to win, what they were doing to us, and what we were going to adjust to.”
Bowles credited his assistants for helping replacement players better understand their assignments while guiding regulars toward game-saving adjustments.
“They never flinch,” Bowles said. “They make sure guys are ready to play and understand what they have to do. They don’t shy away from their assignment. They don’t make excuses. And they get the job done, and they make life easy. … They do a hell of a job, and, you know, I would be nothing without them.”
The Buccaneers didn’t exactly storm out of the locker room and whip up on the Saints, however.
The offense did deliver a second-half opening scoring drive ignited by two scrambles by Mayfield. The second scramble ended with the quarterback getting into a scuffle with Saints defensive back Will Harris. Referees had to separate the Bucs and Saints, whose players had rushed to the defense of their teammates. The drive ended with a Mayfield 6-yard touchdown pass to tight end Payne Durham.
But as a whole, the Buccaneers’ takeover was more gradual.
A defense that proved woefully inept in the pass-rushing and pass-coverage departments in the first half (surrendering 231 total yards and 15 first downs) regrouped in the second half and gave up only 61 yards and 3 points.
And the feisty Mayfield willed his offense toward effectiveness, scrambling seven times for 61 yards (finishing with a career-high 68 rushing yards) while also delivering two touchdown passes.
“He’s been our rock the whole year,” wide receiver Mike Evans said of Mayfield, who this season posted career highs in yards (4,500) and touchdown passes (41, which fell just two shy of tying Tom Brady’s 2021 franchise record).
Mayfield said he recognized the Saints devoting extra coverage to Evans, his big-play target. Their goal of taking away downfield plays left chunks of real estate for Mayfield to gain with his legs — and so he ran.
Mayfield leans heavily on Evans, who on the final play of the game made an 9-yard catch to tie Jerry Rice’s record of 11 straight seasons with 1,000 receiving yards. However, the Saints did everything they could to neutralize Evans on Sunday. Mayfield was well-prepared for how to respond thanks to a three-game midseason stretch when a hamstring strain sidelined Evans and conditioned Mayfield to trust other targets while further expanding his improvisational skills.
In the fourth quarter, on a fourth-and-8 play near midfield with Evans double-covered, Mayfield connected with rookie Jalen McMillan for a 33-yard completion that moved Tampa Bay into scoring position. Two plays later, Mayfield went to McMillan again on a 32-yard touchdown pass.
“It was win or you’re going on vacation, and nobody in this locker room wants to go on vacation yet,” Mayfield said. “This is a tough group, and we knew it was going to be a scrappy ball game. … It was going to be a physical game and you have to win at all cost, no matter what it looks like.”
BAKER TO MCMILLAN. BUCS TAKE THE LEAD.
📺: #NOvsTB on FOX
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025
A jubilant celebration erupted on the Raymond James Stadium field as Evans’ catch tied Rice’s record and clinched the victory and playoff bid. The celebration continued in the locker room. But thoughts about unfinished business ahead was in the back of players’ and coaches’ minds.
They know that to succeed in the postseason, they must continue to execute with balance and also must reduce the number of penalties and mistakes that made achieving Sunday’s win more challenging than necessary. The Buccaneers also know they don’t want a repeat of last year’s playoffs.
They haven’t forgotten how they followed up last year’s wild-card victory over the Philadelphia Eagles with a 31-23 loss at Detroit — a game they all believe they could have and should have won. And so, just as they aim to draw on the lessons gained from this year’s trials and tribulations entering the postseason, they also hope to use the lessons learned from that defeat to further propel themselves toward their goal.
“It feels good, but our goal wasn’t just getting into the playoffs,” Mayfield said. “We want to go all the way. … This is a tough, resilient group. We’ve been tested throughout the year, and so we’re built for the playoffs.”
(Top photo of Baker Mayfield: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
