It's not that 33 percent of Michael Penix Jr.'s completed passes on Sunday went to Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- a team the Atlanta Falcons quarterback decidedly does not play for. It is not, incredibly, that Penix threw more passes to the Bucs than Baker Mayfield did. It's that Penix, unbelievably, threw more interceptions in Week 8 than Mayfield had total pass attempts.
A constant downpour in Florida and an early lead meant Mayfield's job Sunday revolved around handing the ball off and getting soaked. Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell were responsible for 310 of Tampa Bay's 322 total yards, all of which came on the ground. Mayfield threw just three passes in Week 8, all of which fell to the soaked turf.
Meanwhile, Penix countered with throws like
these:
BACK TO BACK ‼️ It's a great day to be Alex Anzalone 👏
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) November 1, 2026
📺: #ATLvsTB on FOX pic.twitter.com/L4h19Ko3w7
Penix threw 11 passes that traveled at least 10 yards downfield in a rainstorm. He completed more to Tampa Bay (three) than to his own players (two).
WIDE OPEN JACOB PARRISH ‼️
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) November 1, 2026
📺: #ATLvsTB on FOX pic.twitter.com/LcZ3BpvEul
He had to keep winging shots downfield because the run defense supporting him gave up nearly six yards per carry. The result was a pair of truly bizarre, horrible passing charts that told the world watching this game was exploiting dueling medical curiosities.
this is what it must have looked like to see a biblically accurate angel way back when
— Christian D'Andrea (@trainisland.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T20:53:05.556Z
It was the kind of game that can make an NFL analyst who grinds tape for a living realize she is, in fact, seeing history in the making.
This Bucs Falcons game will be studied for generations
— Mina Kimes (@minakimes.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T20:29:28.835Z
In fact, it was a game that plumbed the depths of NFL history. The Buccaneers did something that hadn't been done in the league since 1937.
The last time a team picked off 4 passes while attempting 3 or fewer passes of their own was before World War II (per ProFootballReference)
— Derrik Klassen (@qbklass.bsky.social) 2026-11-01T20:52:01.768Z
The only performance that comes close to it since 1976 -- the last time an NFL team won a game without completing a pass, was the New England Patriots' 2021 win over the Buffalo Bills in a blustery December day in Highland Park, New York. Like Mayfield, Mac Jones attempted only three passes that night. Unlike Mayfield, he completed two (for a whopping 19 yards!) and Josh Allen failed to throw even a single interception in response.
Thus, we were left with a perfect distillation of the NFC South. The weirdest division in football gave us the weirdest game I can remember -- a historical unicorn whose horn was honed and sharpened against layers of failure. The Atlanta Falcons are capable of surprising highs and stark reminders why there's aseven-hour YouTube series about their woes. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had only their defense to rely on in an 0-4 start, but that's turned into a 3-5 record thanks largely to that unit, Irving's skill and a tremendous assist from the Florida weather.
The division that should have exhausted ways to surprise us by now has, somehow, found a way to surprise us some more. It was terrible football. It was beautiful football. It was the NFC South.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Falcons-Buccaneers was one of the dumbest, weirdest games in modern NFL history
