6 winners (and 3 losers) from Buccaneers thrilling 38-25 win over Seahawks

Last year the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were a miserable 3-5 in one-score games, a factor that contributed to the team slipping into a midseason coma and nearly fumbling away the NFC South crown.

This year has been a total reversal of that misfortune. Through the first five weeks of the season, the Bucs are 4-1 in one-score games -- which also happens to be the team's record as we begin October. Sunday's 38-35 win over the Seattle Seahawks was the latest in a growing trend of close calls, but ones the Bucs manage to get on the right side of.

It wasn't a missed kick or a bad coaching decision that bailed them out, though, as the Bucs pieced together their first true signature win of the season. Tampa Bay went on the road against a playoff-caliber team boasting the No. 1 ranked defense in a handful of metrics and won despite not having key players like Mike Evans, Bucky Irving or two of its starting cornerbacks.

That's absolutely insane given the long history of this team blowing it in situations like we saw in Week 5, which makes it even sweeter to be sitting on the winning side of a fourth one-score game this season.

Winners and losers from Buccaneers huge 38-35 win over Seahawks in Week 5

Winner: Baker Mayfield, QB

If there wasn't already a case for Baker Mayfield to be the MVP frontrunner, he made it loud and clear in the win over Seattle on Sunday.

Baker finished the game with 379 yards, two touchdowns, and the highest completion percentage among quarterbacks in a single game this season. He became the first quarterback in NFL history to pass for over 375 yards and have fewer than five incompletions in a game, and joins Tom Brady, Lamar Jackson, and Justin Herbert as quarterbacks with that many yards and a completion percentage of 85 percent or better.

That's all a really fancy and nerdy way to say that Baker is the reason the Buccaneers are winning games. The stats back it up but so does the eyeball test; when Tampa Bay got the ball back needing a touchdown with just over two minutes left in the game, there wasn't a single doubt that Baker wouldn't deliever.

He's given fans that level of confidence, and Sunday was the best argument yet he's the single most valuable player on any roster in the NFL. Plenty of one-score games have been played in NFL history, but they have now won four games where their game-winning score came within the final minute of the fourth quarter -- we've played five games this season.

The Bucs aren't 4-1 without Baker Mayfield as their quarterback, and Sunday was a reminder of what MVP-level play does to elevate a team.

Winner: Emeka Egbuka, WR

At this point we're running out of things to say about how incredible Emeka Egbuka's rookie season has been. It's hard to believe he's only played five games because he's already having the sort of impact we've come to expect out of someone like Mike Evans.

Each week it feels like Egbuka finds a way to top himself which he's done in back-to-back games. He finished with a career-best 163 yards, which topped what had been a career-best 101 yards last week against Philly.

Simply put, Egbuka has been a game changing force on offense.

In each of the last three weeks Egbuka has finished with more yards than he did the previous game, and he's currently on pace for over 1,500 yards and 17 touchdowns. That would break Puka Nacua's record for receiving yards by a rookie and tie Randy Moss' record for most touchdowns by a rookie wide receiver -- that's the company Egbuka is keeping, and he's only played in five games so far.

Loser: Buccaneers Pass Rush

Here's a philosophical question: Can something that doesn't actually exist be consider a losing factor in a game? That's the nut we're all trying to crack when it comes to the Buccaneers pass rush.

Yet again the Bucs failed to get hands on an opposing quarterback, and Sam Darnold made them pay for it. He finished the game with 341 yards and four touchdowns, including one that came at the culmination of a 99-yard drive.

Darnold wasn't sacked a single time on Sunday, which is a big reason why he so confidently carved up Tampa Bay's secondary. The lack of a meaningful pass rush was an issue last year in one-score games, and while the Bucs have been able to gut out some gritty wins in ways they didn't last year, the pass rush hasn't helped one bit.

Some could argue that it's actively working against the Bucs, which means it's only a matter of time before it becomes a fatal flaw that threatens to harsh the good vibes.

Winner: Buccaneers Kicking Game

Over the last few weeks Chase McLaughlin has stabilized after a rough start to the season that saw him miss a handful of kicks. Over the last three weeks he's gone 11-for-12 and kicked game-winning field goals, in addition to launching a career-long bomb.

Punting has been a little less fun to watch. Where McLaughlin has course corrected, Riley Dixon came into Sunday playing for his job. Tampa Bay brought in kicking competition after Dixon began the year with a yards per punt average that was almost identical to that of Jake Camarda when he was released this time last year.

Dixon still has a lot to prove, but he turned down the heat a little with the type of performance we've been waiting for. He averaged around 45.5 yards per punt but had a beauty that pinned the Seahawks at their own one-yard line late in the fourth quarter.

That's the type of field flipping the Bucs have sorely lacked this season, and it's what we need to see more out of from Dixon moving forward.

Loser: Special Teams Kick Coverage

While the kicking itself was stellar on Sunday, the kick coverage left a lot to be desired. Credit where it's due for the unit not allowing a monster return before Seattle's ill-fated final drive, but the reason that was so surprising was because of how badly things had gone the rest of the day.

Tampa Bay's kick coverage got slashed up like it was in a Friday The 13th movie. Seattle averaged roughly 32 yards per kickoff return, including three returns that went for 40 yards or more. That's abysmal and it's a big reason why the Seahawks were able to so efficiently move into the red zone since they operated with such short fields.

Special teams took a step in the right direction but the kick coverage remains a total mess.

Loser: Sean Tucker, RB

Everyone expected a big game from Sean Tucker, but he failed to live up to the hype. Part of that was the Seahawks run defense, which held Tampa Bay to just 2.3 yards per carry on the afternoon but Tucker's day was almost non-existent.

He finished the afternoon with a net total of negative one yard, which is a far cry from the NFC Player of the Week performance we were all dreaming about when it was announced he'd be in for a bigger role alongside Rachaad White.

That didn't happen, but it's not the end of his opportunity. Bucky is expected to miss next week's game against the 49ers as well, which means Tucker has a chance to wash this game out of his mouth and come back closer to the guy we all expected to see.

Winner: Tez Johnson, WR

A few weeks ago Tez Johnson was a surprise inactive, but he announced himself as a pass catching threat against Seattle. In a game that saw Baker Mayfield throw for 379 yards, Johnson was responsible for 59 yards and a few crucial drive-extending catches.

He's had a quiet rookie season, and has unfairly lived in the colossal shadow cast by Emeka Egbuka, but Sunday was more along the lines of why fans fell in love with Tez during training camp. He was 4-for-4 when targeted, which suggests that he's going to start seeing a bigger piece of the offensive pie the longer as the season rolls along.

Winner: Josh Grizzard, Offensive Coordinator

There has been a lot of love given to the Buccaneers offense in the aftermath of the big win in Seattle, but the man behind the curtain needs to get his flowers too. Josh Grizzard has his signature game on Sunday, coaching the offense to a whopping 38 points and proving he can scheme his way onto the right side of a shootout.

Grizzard hasn't exactly had a smooth landing since taking over as offensive coordinator but Sunday's win was him finally settling in. The Bucs have scored 20 or more points in 20 straight games, which shows that Grizzard has taken what came before him and continued things without missing a beat.

More than that, he seems to be evolving things quicker than his predecessors. Tampa Bay is averaging more points per game in its first five games under Grizzard than it did under Liam Coen (25.5 PPG) and Dave Canales (18 PPG).

That's huge, and it's a big reason why the Bucs have been able to get out to a 4-1 start that feels as convincing.

Winner: Lavonte David, LB

For all the good the Bucs' offense did on Sunday, it's impossible to think about the win and not picture Lavonte David's big interception that set it up.

David had an uncharacteristically rough game up until the interception, which is part of what made it so cathartic. It's also the fact that David has been a leader for the Bucs for so long, and to still see him have as much of an impact on the field as he does off it is a good reminder of just how important he is to the team's success.

Having him be involved with perhaps the biggest play of a game packed full of them feels absolutely perfect.

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