All anyone could talk about this week was how Baker Mayfield might have finally gotten his groove back. The former No. 1 overall pick was trolled when he signed with the Buccaneers back in March, but every sports talk show and pregame program overdosed on Baker content after what he did to the Packers at Lambeau Field last week.
He was back at it again on Sunday against the Jaguars.
The 'Mayfield Cycle' made the rounds after the game on Sunday, with detractors noting that Baker is known to have those sorts of games and then fall back into a cold streak. Bucs fans already experienced that to a certain degree this season, with a 3-1 start being chased by a 1-6 slump that almost sunk the season.
Baker helped get it back on track with a performance that won him NFC Offensive Player of the Week and set the Bucs up to clinch a playoff spot as early as next week. To do that Tampa Bay needed to get a win on Sunday and Baker got things off to a hot start early.
Kevin Harlan had a classic call of Baker Mayfield's scramble in Week 16
Tampa Bay's impressive start to the season can be traced back to Baker's angry run against the Minnesota Vikings. It wasn't just a run that helped the team win a game, it injected a new energy into the team and helped create a new identity.
Baker had another angry run for the ages against the Jaguars, and Kevin Harlan was on the call to turn in a classic moment.
Great call by Kevin Harlan and Trent Green on this 2-yard Baker Mayfield run pic.twitter.com/YmMeVxW61m
— Steven Cheah (@StevenCheah) December 24, 2023
What a fantastic combination of things, from Baker's inexplicable scramble to Harlan working his mic magic to take it to another level.
Let's not stand on ceremony, though, because the run by Baker is absolutely filthy stuff. How he got out of that initial tackle almost defies the laws of physics, and the fact that he nearly turned it into a first down is yet another example of why he's so genuinely won over the locker room.