Through the Quarterback's Eyes: Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans

Breaking Down a Key 35-Yard TD Reception vs. the Chargers

The Buccaneers walked into the home of the number-1 scoring defense in the NFL on Sunday and dropped 40 points on them.

Everything seemed to work well for Tampa against the Chargers. They rushed for 223 yards. Baker Mayfield threw for 288 yards and 4 touchdowns, giving him a career-high 32 TD passes on the season. Mike Evans seemed uncoverable, finishing with 9 catches on 11 targets for 159 yards and 2 touchdowns.

And it was his second touchdown that allowed the Buccaneers to break the game open.

This was a 3rd-and-12 late in the 3rd quarter with Tampa leading 23-17. The Buccaneers came out in a 3x1 formation with Evans to the back side:

To the 3-receiver side, the Buccaneers had a post/stutter-wheel combination called. To the backside, Evans would also run a post:

Baker Mayfield described what he saw:

“They [had] a 3-safety defense. [Derwin James is] playing the middle of the field.”

“They’re basically playing a Tampa-2 invert. So the two high safeties are rolling down. Derwin’s going back to the middle.”

In Tampa-2 coverage, the middle-seam defender (James) generally opens up to the passing-strength side. That was the three-receiver side here. Mayfield recognized the coverage and turned his attention to Evans:

“Mike’s got leverage on that route […]. He knows how to win on leverage on certain routes.”

The leverage Evans had was to the inside, where there was no one in the deep middle of the field. The cornerback over him, Kristian Fulton, was playing to the outside of Evans.

So to keep him there, and even to push him further to the sideline, Evans attacked his outside leverage by running right at him. That widened Fulton:

And that gave Evans the inside. Mayfield just had to put it in a good spot, which he did with an absolutely perfect throw:

Baker Mayfield is playing the quarterback position at an extremely high level right now, and the Buccaneers have won four in a row. They are in sole possession of the NFC South division lead and appear to be peaking at the right time.