Baker Mayfield rallies Buccaneers again before falling short against Eagles

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Baker Mayfield and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were down three touchdowns, but hardly out against the Philadelphia Eagles.

Chase McLaughlin kicked a 65-yard field goal on the last play of the first half, Mayfield ignited a sputtering offense with a pair of long touchdown passes in the third quarter, and a defense that had no answers for containing Jalen Hurts early suddenly put the clamps on the defending Super Bowl champions.

Mayfield finished winning drives in the final minute of each of their first three games this season. By midway through the fourth quarter of Sunday's 31-25 loss to the unbeaten Eagles, the veteran quarterback who's resurrected his career since joining the Bucs in 2023 had his team in a position to pull off another improbable comeback.

Ultimately, a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown and Tampa Bay's first two turnovers of the season were too much to overcome.

“You're not going to beat the Super Bowl champs turning the ball over three times,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said, including the blocked punt and Sydney Brown's 35-yard return for a quick 7-0 lead in his giveaway count. Five minutes later, Hurts finished a 73-yard scoring drive with the first of his two first-half TD passes to Dallas Goedert.

“The fight, we're going to have it every week. But you can't get behind the eight-ball, down 14-0 (eight minutes into the game) and expect to win,” Bowles added. “We've got to clean up the mistakes.”

Despite running 32 plays to Philadelphia's 28, the Bucs were outgained 201 yards to 99 en route to trailing 24-6 at halftime. Mayfield flipped the statistical advantage in the third quarter, when he teamed with Emeka Ebuka and Bucky Irving on TD plays of 77 and 72 yards to get Tampa Bay back in the game.

Hurts, meanwhile, failed to complete a pass after halftime and Philadelphia managed just 33 yards of offense after the break before Eagles punter Braden Mann burned the final 6 seconds off the clock by retreating 34 yards to the end zone to take a safety.

“We did some good things. We understand that, we acknowledge that,” Bowles said. “But we're trying to win ballgames here, so we've got to be clean throughout.”

Mayfield finished 22 of 40 passing for 289 yards, two touchdowns and his first interception of the season — a goal-line pick that stopped a Tampa Bay drive that reached the Eagles 11 with the Bucs trailing 31-23 midway through the fourth quarter. Irving's third-quarter fumble at his own 25 set up Philadelphia's only points in the second half.

“Situationally, red zone, you've got to be careful with the ball,” Mayfield said. “We talked about starting fast, and we quite obviously did the opposite today. We've got to fix that. You can't expect to beat teams of that caliber when you start slow like that.”

Mayfield's late heroics produced wins over Atlanta, Houston and the New York Jets by a total of six points in the first three weeks of the season.

“When we took care of the ball, we were undefeated,” Mayfield said, summing up the team's 3-1 start. “When we didn't, we lost the game.”

Some good news for the Bucs: All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs (knee) and veteran wide receiver Chris Godwin (ankle) returned to the lineup after missing all of training camp and the first three games.

“We're starting to get some guys back,” Mayfield said, “but we've just got to play better.”

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