Baker Mayfield outplays C.J. Stroud, leads game-winning drive in final seconds as Buccaneers stun Texans

In the first of two Week 2 "Monday Night Football" games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers pulled off a dramatic, come-from-behind victory to defeat the Houston Texans by a final score of 20-19, improving their record to 2-0 and dropping the Texans to 0-2.

Trailing 19-14 with just over two minutes remaining, Baker Mayfield led an 11-play, 80-yard touchdown drive to secure the comeback victory. He went 7 of 9 for 63 yards on the way down the field, but his biggest play was undoubtedly a 15-yard scramble to convert a fourth-and-10 opportunity from the Bucs' own 32-yard line. The drive didn't end with Mayfield putting the ball in the end zone himself, however, as Rachaad White ran it in from 2 yards out with just six seconds remaining, but he was the one who engineered the offense down the field for the win.

Prior to that, the game was alternately exciting and mind-numbing, with the offenses starting fast but quickly going into a funk that lasted for multiple quarters.

Things got off to a hot start as the Texans opened the game with a quick, efficient drive that ended with a touchdown pass from C.J. Stroud to Nico Collins, which was the team's first touchdown of the year after they managed just three field goals in their season-opening loss to the Rams. They wouldn't lead for long, though, as Tampa answered right back with a touchdown drive of its own, ending with Mayfield finding Ryan Miller over the top of the defense for a score.

Houston moved the ball well on its next drive, but ultimately stalled out in the red zone and had to settle for a field goal. The Bucs came right back with yet another touchdown drive, culminating with Emeka Egbuka finding the end zone on a screen pass from 15 yards out to give Tampa a lead for the first time.

After those first four drives of the evening each ended with scores, the teams traded punts on EIGHT consecutive possessions. (Not including a kneel-down to end the first half.) Neither offense could get anything going as each team's line looked overwhelmed and unable to block things up along the front.

But then things started to get interesting.

The Bucs put together one of their best drives of the game toward the end of the third quarter, but they stalled out just outside the red zone. That's when Chase McLaughlin clanged a field goal off the left upright, seemingly giving the Texans new life.

Houston took advantage of that mistake and drove the ball down to the goal line ... but then failed on three consecutive plays from the 1-yard line as Nick Chubb got stuffed and then Stroud misfired on back-to-back passes to Collins, keeping the Bucs in the lead.

Tampa actually did a nice job to move the ball off its own goal line on the ensuing possession, but disaster struck on special teams once again as Riley Dixon's punt was blocked by Jakob Johnson. The Texans, naturally, didn't do much with the opportunity, not gaining any yards on a drive that started inside the Tampa 40-yard line. Ka'imi Fairbairn bailed out the drive with a field goal, though, and that cut the Tampa Bay lead down to just one point.

After the Bucs quickly stalled once again on their following drive, Dixon managed to get a punt off cleanly ... but Texans rookie Jaylin Noel returned it 53 yards (a return that was upheld after the officials picked up a flag on the play) to the Tampa 26-yard line. It took the Texans just two plays to find the end zone from there, with Chubb running off right tackle and into the end zone to give Houston its first lead since midway through the second quarter.

Alas, all that was just prelude to Mayfield's heroics down the stretch. The Bucs, who looked like they were going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, instead did the opposite and captured their second consecutive one-score win to open the year.

Why the Buccaneers won

Mayfield magic and a few timely stops.

Baker only averaged 5.7 yards per attempt, but as mentioned, he made his passes count. He led that aforementioned 11-play touchdown drive to end the game. He threw touchdown passes on each of the first two drives. And he had three absolutely massive scrambles, all of which picked up first downs. He converted a third-and-1, a third-and-15 and a third-and-10 with his legs. That's huge.

Tampa's defense buckled down at opportune times. On Houston's second drive of the game, the Bucs clamped down in the red zone and forced a field goal. For a game that was so low-scoring and that ended up being decided by one point, that mattered a lot. After the Bucs missed a field goal, the defense bailed out the special teams unit with a goal line stand where the Texans had three opportunities to score from the 1-yard line. And after the blocked punt, the Bucs didn't give up a single yard, holding the Texans to yet another field goal.

Why the Texans lost

Missed opportunities.

As mentioned, Houston had chances to score multiple times in advantageous situations and couldn't manage to pull it off. Three chances to score from the 1-yard line. A blocked punt that set the Texans up in opponent territory. You can't turn those two opportunities into just three total points.

But the Texans also couldn't take advantage of other situations. They went just 2 of 9 on third downs in the game. They were 0 of 1 on fourth downs. They didn't turn either of their red-zone trips into touchdowns. They had several chances to sack Mayfield on top of the four sacks they actually collected, but he repeatedly escaped -- most notably on the fourth-and-10 scramble that extended the game-winning drive.

The entire last drive consisted of opportunities to end the game, but the Texans just kept giving up yardage. They also had an opportunity to manage the clock toward the end of the game and save some time for a potential game-tying (if the Bucs scored and converted on a two-point try) or game-winning drive, but they elected to let the clock run and keep the timeouts in their pocket. They ended up not having an opportunity for a final drive at all.

Turning point

Facing fourth-and-10 from their own 32-yard line with just over a minute remaining in the game, the Buccaneers elected to go for it despite having all three timeouts left in their quiver. That decision payed off in a big way, as Mayfield escaped from pressure and took off through the left side of the line, scampering for 15 yards and a first down.

That play proved to be the crucial one to extend the drive and set up the Rachaad White game-winning score.

Highlight play(s)

Let's go with three different plays here. First, we have the two special teams highlights from the Texans, which for a moment looked like the difference-makers.

Jakob Johnson broke through the line and blocked Riley Dixon's punt, setting up a Ka'imi Fairbairn field goal:

Rookie wideout Jaylin Noel, who had several big kickoff returns as well, took a punt back 53 yards deep into Tampa territory.

But we have to include a highlight from the Bucs, don't we? And for that, let's go with Mayfield's best throw of the night:

With Mike Evans working against star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., Mayfield threw the ball to the exact, only spot where his man could catch it. And Evans did an unbelievably good job of showing late hands, waiting until the last possible moment to stick his arms out and grab the ball so that Stingley, who had his back turned, wouldn't be able to deflect the ball on its way to its intended target. Just a great all-around play from both guys.

What's next

The Bucs are 2-0 and maintained their early hold of first place in the NFC South. They host the Jets next Sunday before embarking on an extremely tough stretch of the schedule with games against the Eagles, Seahawks, 49ers and Lions from Weeks 4-7.

The Texans are 0-2 but have a chance to get back into things with back-to-back division games over the next couple weeks (at Jaguars and vs. Titans). However, they then travel to Baltimore and Seattle the following two weeks. Things could get quite interesting for the Texans if they don't sweep these next two contests.

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