Another week, another late-game fourth quarter comeback, courtesy of Baker Mayfield. Week five featured Mayfield dueling with his 2018 first round constituent Sam Darnold. Darnold had a front row seat to watch as the number one overall pick from that draft tossed two touchdowns and led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to 10 points in the last two minutes of play, getting his team out of Seattle with a victory. Week 6 will likely require more Mayfield magic. The Buccaneers’ injury report is longer than the I-95
and San Francisco has been able to seamlessly work in Mac Jones, who is undefeated this season. How can Baker and the Bucs do it again?
How can the Buccaneers win?
Baker Mayfield. The Buccaneers have injuries like Florida has humidity— A topic for another conversation, rather a different portion of this conversation. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are playing yet another good team this week. The San Francisco 49ers are 4-1 (same as the Bucs), and have not lost a game with Mac Jones at quarterback. In three games, Jones has thrown six touchdowns and just one interception.
Tampa has been a semi-quirky/genuinely odd team this season. The club’s 4-1 record is elite. The route taken to get to that mark is certainly unorthodox. The 2025 Buccaneers have been guided by Baker Mayfield— More than ever before, the Buccaneers are his team and Tampa is his city. The results on the field bear that out. Tampa Bay has put itself on Baker Mayfield’s back and is fully along for the ride.
If there anything that is a near certainty heading in Tampa’s showdown with the 49ers, it’s that the Bucs’ defense will let up points. San Francisco may not score at will, but they’re not going to be starved for offense. Kyle Shanahan versus Todd Bowles is not a matchup that has historically favored Tampa Bay. Week six will be another week where Baker Mayfield will have to saddle up all of Tampa Bay on his back and drag them across the finish line.
How can the Buccaneers lose?
Let up 100 points. Hyperbole is the fact of the fool, but this week the Buccaneers’ defense really may go for triple digits. If the football Gods had to stack every stackable chip against the Buccaneers’ defense this week, the stack would look very similar to the one unit currently being presented with. Rolling with injuries like ants in a colony, the group is ravaged. Worse than the total sum of injuries is the fact that each and every season the Buccaneers have played as of late, has seen injuries pile up at the same position(s). This year’s edition, the wide reciever and cornerback rooms.
Tampa Bay will be without three major offensive weapons Sunday (Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and running back Bucky Irving), those players’ absences lend more towards this article’s first notion, however, the Bucs are rocking cornerback injuries just as earth rocks water— Stuff’s everywhere. Zyon McCollum? Not playing. Benjamin Morrison? You won’t see him. Jamel Dean? Likely playing hurt.
“But wait there’s more!” Sure critical injuries are a portion of the stacked deck, however, we cannot forget about the men calling the matchup of Tampa’s defense versus the 49ers’ offense— Todd Bowles and Kyle Shanahan. There are some things Todd Bowles truly excels with, there are plenty of things he does well, and then there are some things that don’t play to his strengths. Kyle Shanahan is so beyond clearly the latter, to insinuate otherwise would be egregious.
Since becoming Tampa’s head coach the matchup has played out three times for Todd Bowles— All three, not good. Despite having good/very good teams in each of those outings Bowles and the Bucs have come up with the short end of the stick each time. The Bucs’ haven’t held San Francisco under 23 points in any of the contests, and have lost by multiple scores in two of the three. For good measure, Shanahan even put it on Bowles back in 2019 when he was just Tampa Bay’s defensive coordinator— A game in which the Jimmy G led 49ers scored 31 points.
Todd Bowles has been a novice against grandmaster in the better part of these battles. Will 2025 bring around a turning of the tide? Can Bowles and a battered Bucs’ defense flex their muscles and some pride in order to find enough execution? There’s no doubt it seems unlikely and history would say no, but that’s why the games are played.
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