TAMPA, Fla. – Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes, and the Bucs defense, after being embarrassed last week by giving up 470 passing yards and five touchdowns to rookie CJ Stroud, sacked Titans QB Will Levis four times and held Tennessee to without a touchdown in a 20-6 win.
Bucs head coach Todd Bowles says the team stuck together during the losing streak.
“The answers to the test are in the room with us,” Bowles said. “We’ve just got to play mistake-free football. We understand how we’ve got to play. Today, everybody made plays.”
It was a slow start for the Bucs offense. Down 3-0 in the second quarter, Mayfield threw a screen pass to Rachaad White, who went 43 yards to pay dirt to give the Bucs a 7-3 lead, and Mayfield says it gave the offense some confidence.
“The first half kinda went extremely quick,” Mayfield said. “I don’t know how many series we had, a few but we just needed to take advantage of our series in the second half, get points, and let the defense pin their ears back and put pressure on Will (Levis).”
Bucs wide receiver Mike Evans had an up-and-down day, dropping a sure touchdown pass in the back of the end zone, but was able to redeem himself on a 22-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to put the Bucs in front 17-3 late in the third quarter.
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“We just kept playing, that’s what this game is about, adversity,” Evans said. “We just kept fighting and made some plays down the stretch to win it.”
The Bucs defense continually pressured Levis, who was 19 of 39 for 199 yards. The Titans drove down the field on their first possession but had to settle for a field goal. Levis didn’t get much help from his running game where the Titans could only muster 42 yards on 16 carries.
The standard that we have here on our defense is something we had to get back to,” rookie defensive lineman Callijah Kancey said. “We had to find ourselves. I think today is the standard of what we do as a Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense.”
Mayfield finished 18 of 29 for 278 yards passing with two touchdowns and one interception.
The four-game losing streak was the longest for Tampa Bay since 2019.
Now, the Bucs are preparing for a West Coast trip to face a (6-3) 49ers team that demolished the Jacksonville Jaguars 34-3.
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