The Tampa Bay Buccaneers came out on top in a wild back-and-forth affair with the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday, 38-35. Powered by the stellar play of quarterback Baker Mayfield, the Bucs scored 25 second-half points to squeak by the Seahawks on the road and move to 4-1. All four of the team’s wins have been decided in the final minute.
Mayfield completed 29 of his 33 passes for 379 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. Sunday’s performance marked the second-highest single-game completion percentage (87.9%) and the third-most passing yards of his career. It was also the first time in NFL history that a quarterback compiled 375 or more passing yards and fewer than five incompletions in a regular-season game.
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The 30-year-old quarterback has developed a reputation for his toughness, competitiveness and clutch play, and it was all on display against Seattle. His first touchdown, a 20-yard strike to star rookie wide receiver Emeka Egbuka in the third quarter, gave Tampa Bay the lead.
Baker with a DART to Emeka 🎯
📺: #TBvsSEA on CBS pic.twitter.com/dp2oTrsIXK
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 5, 2025
Mayfield’s second touchdown came on an 11-yard completion to receiver Sterling Shepard with 1:08 remaining in the game, after he was forced to improvise out of the pocket. The TD tied the score at 35.
BAKER. MAYFIELD.
📺: #TBvsSEA on CBS pic.twitter.com/u23842saT0
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) October 5, 2025
After an interception gave Tampa Bay the ball back at Seattle’s 35-yard-line with 58 seconds left, Mayfield guided the Bucs into position for a game-winning 39-yard field goal.
“We’re built different,” he told CBS Sports on the field after the game. “It’s the way the locker room is wired, the way the they’ve built this roster. And I love it. It’s a group that plays with an edge. I always say, ‘We’re always in the fight.’ But I love this team and I love the way they fight.”
After inconsistency plagued his first five years in the NFL with the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and Los Angeles Rams, Mayfield has enjoyed a career renaissance in Tampa. Now in his third year with the Bucs, he’s set career highs in every major statistical category. He’s earned his first two Pro Bowl appearances the past two seasons, while the Buccaneers have made the playoffs each of the past five seasons; both streaks seem on track to continue in 2025.
However, Mayfield’s time with the Bucs has also seen him develop as a follower of Christ. God has worked on his heart powerfully in the last two years to draw him to Himself.
“Jesus is obviously the Son of God, but is grace, is perfection, Somebody that sacrificed everything, that gave us this opportunity to live life,” Mayfield said as a guest on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in March. “… [Jesus is] the reason we’re here. The story of Jesus walking among the flesh — the only perfect Man — to be sacrificed on the cross and to die for our sins forever. When you accept that grace, that’s an unbelievable feeling.”
"Jesus is grace, perfection. Somebody that sacrificed everything."
Our latest Sports Spectrum pod is out now and features Tampa Bay Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield sharing his story of faith, football, marriage and parenting. Tune in. pic.twitter.com/vHtDhi1qfK
— Sports Spectrum (@Sports_Spectrum) March 21, 2025
Mayfield said he didn’t grow up with parents who were believers, and from his relatively limited exposure to Christianity, he had a distorted view of who Jesus is and how to be saved. As a result, he struggled with his identity during his college career at Oklahoma.
Despite these self-doubts, Mayfield excelled on the field with the Sooners, won the 2017 Heisman Trophy, and was drafted No. 1 overall by the Browns in 2018. In the NFL, he was surrounded by older believers who pointed him to Christ and the hope that’s only found in Him.
Yet even as Mayfield’s football career began to flounder, his Heavenly Father was at work.
“God taught me a lesson. He had to take my career down to the studs and make me realize that I’m more than a football player,” he said on the podcast. “There’s much more going on than the game of football. And for me to see that, I had to hit rock bottom.
“… For me to climb back up, I had to dive into the Word and accept that grace. And that was something that was really, really hard for me. When I eventually did, I started to see things from a different viewpoint. That was the biggest change in my life.”
He continued later: “It’s been a journey, but it all happened for a reason. God’s timing is perfect, where Tampa feels like home for me now. But that’s only because of what I built the foundation on, what my wife, Emily, and I built our foundation on — that’s our faith. It’s been such a special ride to let God take us through that.”
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Mayfield and his Bucs face another test Sunday when they host another NFC West opponent, the San Francisco 49ers. Kickoff between the two 4-1 teams is set for 4:25 p.m. ET.
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