Baker Mayfield — Week 2: Ten Deep Throws, Two Completions
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 21
Mayfield completed 21 of 34 throws for 182 yards, one touchdown and one interception, took three sacks, and ran four times for 29 yards and three third-down conversions. Ten of his throws traveled 20 or more yards in the air and two were caught, for 70 yards. His last, fourth and 11 at the Cleveland 20 with 22 seconds left, fell incomplete, in a 23–19 loss to the Browns.
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Six to three, Buccaneers, a minute 19 left in the first quarter, first and 10 at the Tampa Bay 36. Baker Mayfield threw deep left for Ted Hurst, 17 yards in the air, and Myles Harden intercepted it at the Cleveland 47 and brought it back 25 yards to the Tampa Bay 28. −6.2 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 20.0 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Tampa Bay went from about 74 percent to about 54, and Cleveland kicked the field goal that tied it at six.
The line: 21 completions on 34 throws, a hundred 82 yards, one touchdown, one interception, three sacks for six yards. 37 pass plays, counting the sacks, worth −13.6 expected points. Before halftime it was nine of 15 for 45 yards on 18 pass plays, −13.8; after it, 12 of 19 for a hundred 37, +0.2. He kept throwing long. 10 throws traveled 20 or more yards in the air, and two were caught, for 70 yards: 21 to Hurst on third and 18 in the second quarter, and 49 to Tez Johnson with 12 minutes left, which set up the field goal that made it 19 to 16. His 34 throws carried 421 air yards; Deshaun Watson's 30 carried a hundred eight. On third down: 10 pass plays, eight throws, three completions, two conversions, two sacks. The touchdown was five yards to Emeka Egbuka on first and goal with nine 39 left in the third.
His legs did better. Four runs, 29 yards, +4.6 expected points, and the first three all converted third downs: a 14-yard scramble on third and 10 from his own 17, three up the middle on third and one, and a nine-yard scramble on third and nine to the Cleveland five, one snap before the touchdown. The fourth was the three-yard scramble on third and 14 with 33 seconds left. Then fourth and 11 at the Cleveland 20, deep middle for Egbuka, incomplete, −26.3 points of win probability, the largest swing on any run or pass in the game. The drive had reached the 13 before a holding penalty moved it back.
Back in June the preview made no call on Mayfield. It said the availability was the dependable part, that the efficiency and the touchdown rate were not, and that with a new play-caller for the fourth year in a row the place to look in September was sacks and turnovers. Week 1 was 23 of 28 with four sacks and three lost fumbles. Sunday had no fumbles, one interception and three sacks. Two games: seven sacks, four turnovers, pass plays worth −7.9 and −13.6, and two losses by a combined 10 points. The preview pointed at the right column. Two games do not make a season of it. Tampa Bay is home to the Vikings on Sunday the 20-seventh.
_Data via nflverse._
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