Baker Mayfield took a step back, planted his left foot, and sprinted for an 11-yard touchdown run that put Tampa Bay in the lead for good in a playoff rematch.
Mayfield scored on an 11-yard run on a designed play just after converting a third down with another 11-yard run late in the third quarter. The Buccaneers defeated the Lions 20-16 on Sunday in their playoff rematch.
“I wasn’t expecting to score from that far out, but I managed to make a few defenders miss,” Mayfield said about the longest touchdown run of his career.
Tampa Bay (2-0) trailed only once during the close game and managed to stop Detroit (1-1) from scoring when the Lions had two opportunities to drive for a go-ahead touchdown in the final moments.
The Lions turned the ball over on downs at the Bucs’ 6-yard line with 53 seconds remaining and again at their 26-yard line with just 2 seconds left.
Lions coach Dan Campbell regretted a mistake he made in the first half, which caused confusion for his offense and special teams and resulted in a penalty.
This mistake wasted time and prevented them from attempting a short-field goal to close the gap to four points.
“I asked this team to improve and they did, but the coach cost them the game,” Campbell said. “It’s a huge error on my part. I messed up.”
Had Detroit made that field goal, they might have been just a kick away from winning the game in the fourth quarter. “It was fortunate for us,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles admitted.
Detroit quarterback Jared Goff threw two interceptions and missed other opportunities when defenders dropped two potential interceptions.
Goff completed 34 of 55 passes for 307 yards, and his offense was 1 for 7 in the red zone.
“That’s the difference in the game,” Goff said. “If we had scored a few touchdowns down there, we likely would have won.”
Mayfield was efficient in the air, completing 12 of 19 passes for 185 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown pass to Chris Godwin in the second quarter, along with one interception. He also ran four times for 35 yards. Godwin had seven catches for 117 yards.
