Baker Mayfield rallies Buccaneers past Falcons: Key takeaways Baker Mayfield threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka with 1:04 remaining, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers held on for a 23-20 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday when Younghoe Koo missed a 44-yard field goal with two seconds left. The Bucs' win spoiled some clutch late play from Falcons quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who drove Atlanta 60 yards in 57 seconds to set up Koo for the field goal attempt. Penix also engineered a drive that gave the Falcons a late 20-17 lead, twice using every inch of his 6-foot-2 frame to stretch out and convert huge plays. First, he reached the ball out to convert a diving fourth-and-2 on the Tampa Bay 3-yard line with 2:54 to go to give the Falcons a fresh set of downs. Five plays later, he did it again, diving toward the end zone on fourth-and-goal, the ball just breaking the plane to give Atlanta a 20-17 lead. Mayfield completed 17 of 32 passes for 167 yards and three touchdowns. Penix has positive moments, but lacks big plays Penix, in his second year, had an up-and-down game. Making his fourth professional start, Penix finished 27-of-42 passing for 298 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. It wasn't the type of explosive performance the Falcons had expected from Penix, but it had its bright spots. Most notable was the 18-play, 91-yard drive that consumed 8:46 of game clock and gave Atlanta the 20-17 lead. Penix converted two fourth downs inside the 5-yard line with his legs, diving for a first down on fourth-and-2 and then scoring on a 4-yard scramble on fourth-and-4. He led another fourth-quarter drive inside the final minute to get Atlanta into range of a game-tying field goal, but Koo missed from 44 yards out. Robinson does his damage as a receiver Falcons running back Bijan Robinson had a big enough day to keep all his fantasy football managers happy with 118 yards and a touchdown, but it came in an unexpected way. Robinson had five catches for a team-high 94 yards, but only had 24 yards (on 12 carries) on the ground. The Falcons were sixth in the NFL in rushing EPA last season (.06 per carry) but finished with only 57 yards on the ground against Tampa Bay. The Falcons averaged 2.1 yards per carry. In the fourth quarter, Robinson was stuffed for a 1-yard loss on third-and-1 from the Buccaneers' 3-yard line. Atlanta then ran its fourth-and-2 play out of an empty set backfield, a sure sign of a lack of confidence in its run game. The struggling run game made the loss of right tackle Kaleb McGary (knee) very obvious. Last season, Atlanta's bread-and-butter run play was the wide zone to the right side behind McGary and right guard Chris Lindstrom, but much of Sunday's run game went left with Elijah Wilkinson now in for McGary, who is out for the season. Bucs might have a star on their hands in Egbuka It turns out that Egbuka, Tampa Bay's first-round pick out of Ohio State, is as good as everyone said he was during training camp. Egbuka had two touchdowns in his NFL debut, scoring from 30 yards out in the second quarter and 25 yards out in the fourth quarter. He finished with four catches for a team-high 67 yards. "He's everything we thought since he's been here," Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles told media members after the game. "He played with so much poise, and Baker (Mayfield) played with so much poise." Falcons struggle to find a pass rush The Falcons spent most of their offseason capital trying to improve their pass rush, signing veteran edge rusher Leonard Floyd to a one-year, $10 million deal in free agency and drafting edge rushers Jalon Walker and James Pearce Jr. in the first round. They didn't get a lot of return on that investment in Week 1. Atlanta had only one sack on Mayfield's 32 pass attempts, and that was by nickel Billy Bowman and linebacker Divine Deablo on a blitz. The Falcons' four-man rush made almost no impact on Mayfield all day, and Pearce had the only other quarterback hurry on the day. Buccaneers slowed by O-line shuffle Without Tristan Wirfs (knee) in the lineup, the Buccaneers shuffled their offensive line ahead of Sunday's game, and started last year's starting center Graham Barton at left tackle, moving left guard Ben Bredeson to center and inserting Michael Jordan at left guard against the Falcons. Josh Kendall, The Athletic, published 8 September 2025