Buccaneers Beat Falcons 16-0 Without Mayfield Completing a Pass

TAMPA -- The last time an NFL team won a game without completing a single forward pass, Gerald Ford was in the White House and the AFL-NFL merger was barely four years old. Tampa Bay just did it again.

The Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons 16-0 on Sunday behind what might be the strangest winning box score of the modern era. Baker Mayfield went 0-for-3 passing, took a sack for a 2-yard loss, and finished the afternoon with minus-2 net passing yards. Tampa Bay won by 16. Somebody has to explain that to the analytics department.

According to reporting by ESPN, the Bucs rushed 56 times for a franchise-record 324 yards on a wet, sloppy field at Raymond James Stadium. This is the kind of number that gets laughed out of a front-office meeting if you project it in a PowerPoint before the season. It happened anyway.

The ground game belonged to two backs who don't appear in many national conversations. Bucky Irving carried 27 times for 170 yards and the game's only touchdown, a career high, according to the HuffPost. His backup, Kenny Gainwell, went for 140 yards on 25 carries, also a career best. Between them they put up numbers that most offenses would be glad to claim through the air.

Mayfield's contribution to the passing game was, to put it gently, minimal. As reported by NBC Miami, he attempted three throws, completed none, and was sacked once. The last quarterback to deliver a stat line like that for a winning team was Joe Ferguson of the 1974 Buffalo Bills, who went 0-for-2 against the New York Jets in a 16-12 Bills win. That's not exactly a comparison any quarterback is chasing.

To be clear about the conditions: the Washington Post reported that more than a half-century and well over 10,000 NFL games had passed between Buffalo's feat and what Tampa Bay pulled off Sunday. The Super Bowl era has seen exactly two of these games. One was a curiosity. Two is a data point, even if the data point is mostly about rain.

The defense held up its end. Tampa Bay intercepted Atlanta quarterback Michael Penix Jr. four times, per the Washington Post, which had a lot to do with why a team that couldn't throw the ball managed a shutout.

Mayfield, to his credit, didn't pretend the passing game was a tactical choice. "If I'm not going to throw the ball, I have to get active somehow," he told reporters, according to ESPN. He also threw a downfield block on a Gainwell run in the fourth quarter, ending up face-down in a puddle. That's one way to contribute.

The win, Tampa Bay's second straight, moved them to 3-5 and within a half-game of first place in the NFC South, per HuffPost. That's the other thing worth noting here. This isn't a novelty win for a team going nowhere. The Bucs are in a division race, and they just scratched out a shutout without asking their quarterback to do the one thing quarterbacks are paid to do.

Some games you remember because of a great play. This one you'll remember because of a stat line that shouldn't exist in 2026. Tampa Bay finished with more interceptions thrown by the other team's quarterback than pass completions by their own. The NFL has seen a lot of strange afternoons. Sunday in Tampa belongs in the file.

Sources cited:
- ESPN (https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/50351129/buccaneers-silence-falcons-pass-completion)
- HuffPost (https://huffpost.com/entry/tampa-bay-buccaneers-without-completed-pass-baker-mayfield_n_6ae8d4a2e4b0ac29e4484d31)
- NBC Miami (https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/sports/nfl/buccaneers-win-no-completed-passes-falcons/3881604/)
- Washington Post (https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2026/11/02/how-do-you-win-an-nfl-game-without-completing-pass-like-this/)
- Yahoo Sports (https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/article/buccaneers-register-zero-passing-yards-in-rainy-16-0-win-over-falcons-with-baker-mayfield-not-throwing-a-single-completion-213656908.html)