The Battle of the Bays goes back to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The team lost it last year in Tampa Bay, but it won it this year at Lambeau Field in December in dominant fashion. The Bucs beat the Green Bay Packers 34-20 on Sunday, moving to 7-7 on the season and continuing to lead the NFC South in what was a big game for the team’s playoff race. The offense excelled with four touchdowns, and while the defense somewhat struggled, they did a decent job of keeping the Packers out of the end zone.
There was far more praise to spread than negativity this week, but we still have our Studs and Duds of the game as always. Here’s who we thought was hot and who we thought was not in the team’s Week 15 matchup:
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Chris Godwin not only had his best game this year, he had one of his best games as a Buccaneer. Godwin caught 10 passes for 155 yards, his longest reception going for 25 yards. He was a huge facilitator in the team’s third-down defense and he accounted for a large amount of the team’s total offensive yards. If the team can get Godwin cooking like this for the rest of the year, the team could become dangerous in the passing game.
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Hard to just pinpoint one person here. Despite the Bucs doing well to hold the Packers to 20 points, quarterback Jordan Love still threw for 284 yards and completed 74% of his passes. The secondary remains entirely porous, and while the Bucs have playoff aspirations, playing like it did today still won’t be enough if it aims to actually win one of those playoff games.
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There weren’t too many tight-window throws for Baker Mayfield today, but his work speaks for itself. Mayfield tossed four touchdowns for over 350 yards and put up a perfect passer rating in Lambeau Field — the first quarterback to ever do that, in fact. Mayfield wasn’t entirely perfect, but he played one of the best games of his career and helped propel the offense to a big victory.
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Goedeke has played well this year, but he struggled against the Packers. He gave up the team’s first sack on Baker Mayfield while going up against Rashan Gary and he was also called for a holding penalty at the end of the second quarter that almost stalled a scoring drive by Tampa Bay.
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Dave Canales called a spectacular game against the Green Bay Packers. The Bucs offense always had open seams to throw into and the playcalling was varied and well-executed. The team excelled in the red zone and was able to score outside of it, and all of it was largely in part due to Canales calling his best game as a playcaller yet. If he can continue to do this for the next few weeks, the offense could really start cooking.
(AP Photo/Zach Bolinger)
Deven Thompkins seemed to have some trouble at the onset of the game as a kick returning, refusing to return two kicks that he seemed to have a decent lane with and instead fair catching with daylight ahead of him. He took one punt for 13 yards, which is decent, but he also lost a yard on his only rushing attempt of the day.
