{"id":444706,"date":"2026-11-02T01:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T01:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444706\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T01:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T01:24:09","slug":"tampa-bay-buccaneers-win-nfl-game-without-completing-a-pass-first-time-thats-happened-in-half-a-century-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/444706\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa Bay Buccaneers win NFL game without completing a pass, first time that\u2019s happened in half a century"},"content":{"rendered":"

The joke will be that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/a> set back the modern-day NFL offense by decades on Sunday by failing to complete even one pass, something which had happened only one other time during the Super Bowl era.<\/p>\n

But the Bucs get the last laugh.<\/p>\n

They came away from Sunday\u2019s rain-drenched, mud-soaked meeting with the Atlanta Falcons<\/a> with a 16-0 victory where they set a new club rushing mark of 324 yards. On top of that, they have renewed life in the NFC South.<\/p>\n

BUCCANEERS COLLECT TWO FREAKISH FIRST-HALF SCORES TO DOMINATE PANTHERS \u2013 AND, OH, BAKER MAYFIELD IS BACK<\/a><\/p>\n

Afterward, coach Todd Bowles<\/a> was asked if he informed his offensive coordinator or quarterback Baker Mayfield<\/a> they weren\u2019t going to throw the ball a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions told him that,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cI mean, you could see it as a downpour down there and the wind\u2019s blowing. You can kind of see the ball wasn\u2019t going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

FALCONS STAR BIJAN ROBINSON WANTS EVERY NFL TEAM TO PLAY INDOORS ONE DAY: \u2018THAT WOULD BE SICK\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

So much for the space-age passing inside an air conditioned dome.<\/p>\n

This was three yards and a cloud of dust. Or rather, because this game at Raymond James Stadium was played in that unrelenting rain, it was three-yards-and-a-lot-of-slush.<\/p>\n

So, a lot of running football. And, just to be accurate, for way more than three-yards a pop.<\/p>\n

But no passing.<\/p>\n

Quarterback Baker Mayfield attempted three passes without a completion.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll right, let\u2019s get this over with because you don\u2019t want to talk to me,\u201d Mayfield told reporters to open his postgame news conference.<\/p>\n

This was some surreal stuff and that was obvious when Mayfield was asked questions about his lead blocking on one play.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, if you\u2019re not going to throw the ball, I got to get active somehow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The last and only other time a team failed to complete a pass in a game since the NFL began playing Super Bowls was on Sept. 29, 1974 by the Buffalo Bills<\/a>, according to the Associated Press.<\/p>\n

It was O.J. Simpson\u2019s Bills that did it that time with quarterback Joe Ferguson attempting only two passes without a completion.<\/p>\n

Simpson ran for 117 yards in that long-ago game.<\/p>\n

Bucky Irving and Kenneth Gainwell went bonkers in this game. Irving gained 170 yards and averaged 6.3 yards per carry against the Falcons. Gainwell gained 140 rushing yards and averaged 5.6 yards per attempt.<\/p>\n

Historic.<\/p>\n

But Irving didn\u2019t see it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie to you. I don\u2019t know the last time I checked the weather for a football game,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to have to play in it anyway. That\u2019s how I think about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cRain, snow, muddy, you\u2019re going to have to play in it anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

ZERO BS. JUST DAKICH. TAKE THE DON\u2019T @ ME PODCAST ON THE ROAD. DOWNLOAD NOW!<\/a><\/p>\n

It could be argued the Bucs would have been more productive, if perhaps, they had tried a pass sometime in the second half. But the Falcons tried doing some of that.<\/p>\n

Their quarterback, Michael Penix Jr. completed only eight of his 24 attempts, throwing four interceptions.<\/p>\n

The Bucs, on the other hand, didn\u2019t try to hit their heads against the proverbial wall like that. They were too busy running up and down the field.<\/p>\n

FOLLOW ARMANDO SALGUERO ON X: @ARMANDOSALGUERO<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The joke will be that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers set back the modern-day NFL offense by decades on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444707,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-444706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}