Baker Mayfield helped lead the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an NFC South championship. (Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images)
The NFC South isn’t exactly charging into the playoffs. History won’t remember that, only that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers got the job done.
It was far from the sure thing it was supposed to be. The Buccaneers got a tough test from a New Orleans Saints team that had been decimated by injuries and was given very little chance to compete with the Buccaneers, who would win the NFC South with a win or an Atlanta Falcons loss.
Just remember before Week 18 next season that it’s often a fallacy to believe a team will lay down because it has “nothing to play for.”
The Saints had a spirited effort and led into the fourth quarter. Eventually the Buccaneers got it it right. Baker Mayfield threw a touchdown to Jalen McMillan in the fourth quarter to give the Bucs their first lead of the game. The Buccaneers scored an insurance touchdown in the final two minutes, but the Saints drove downfield with a chance to tie it. Tampa Bay got the stop it needed and took the division title with an ugly 27-19 win. They even got Mike Evans his 1,000-yard season on the final play of the game, keeping his streak alive. He has had 1,000 yards in 11 straight seasons, tying Jerry Rice’s NFL record.
That meant the Falcons’ game against the Panthers, which was surprisingly going into overtime, meant nothing by the time the extra period started. The Falcons were eliminated when the Buccaneers won. It’s probably better off for the Falcons anyway, because they lost 44-38 in overtime as Bryce Young had three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns. That loss would have been horribly embarrassing had the Buccaneers also lost. Now, it’ll be mostly a footnote.
The NFC South race seemed to be over long before Sunday when the Falcons lost in overtime at Washington in Week 17. The Buccaneers were facing the sad-sack Saints, who had lost their previous two games by a combined 59-10 score. Once the Buccaneers won, they’d be on their way to the playoffs.
But a weird thing happened. Two weird things. The Saints never trailed in the first three quarters at Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Falcons were struggling with the Panthers. The Buccaneers and Falcons both trailed going into the fourth quarter of their games. It seemed for a while that both teams might lose, meaning the Buccaneers might back their way into the division title in the ugliest way possible.
The Buccaneers finally got something going in the fourth quarter. Mayfield hit McMillan for 33 yards on a key fourth-and-8. McMillan got a 15-yard penalty after the play for what officials seemingly deemed a gun gesture by McMillan after the first down, but the rookie made up for it with a touchdown catch to give the Bucs the lead.
The Falcons were rallying at the same time. Right after McMillan scored in Tampa Bay, Drake London continued his huge day with a touchdown to pull the Falcons into a tie with the Panthers. It was a fun day for NFL RedZone, but eventually the Buccaneers did just enough to win.
The Buccaneers trailed 16-6 at halftime and Mayfield was 0-41 in his career when trailing by at least 10 points. They were clearly in trouble. But the Buccaneers are moving onto the playoffs. It’s a great accomplishment to come from behind and win the NFC South, after it looked like the Falcons would run away with it following a season sweep of the Buccaneers. And even though Tampa Bay wasn’t great on Sunday, the Bucs won’t be an easy out in the playoffs.
Here are the winners and losers from Week 18 of the NFL season:
Marcus Mariota: There was a big difference for the Washington Commanders in getting the sixth seed. That meant they’d avoid a date at Philadelphia on wild-card weekend. Washington needed a win to ensure getting the No. 6 seed and not falling down to No. 7. Despite that, they still pulled rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels to start the second half.
Mariota got the job done off the bench. Mariota broke a huge 33-yard run on a quarterback sneak on fourth-and-1 in the final minute, then hit Terry McLaurin for a game-winning touchdown with three seconds left to beat the Dallas Cowboys 23-19. The Commanders got the No. 6 seed in the NFC playoffs.
Mariota was great in a relief role. He was 15 of 18 for 181 yards and two touchdowns, and also ran for 56 yards. Daniels has had a historic rookie season, but the Commanders didn’t even need him to beat the Cowboys on Sunday.
Joe Milton III: Week 18 is for players like Milton. The New England Patriots weren’t interested in putting their best foot forward in the finale, considering a loss would clinch the first pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. So Drake Maye played a series and was replaced by Milton, the raw rookie who had some splash plays in the preseason.
And Milton played well. Well enough that getting that they didn’t get that loss most Patriots fans probably wanted. He looked like what the Colts thought they were getting with Anthony Richardson, just with a sixth-round cost.
The Patriots blew their shot to have the first pick of the draft by beating the Bills 23-16, who were mostly playing backups with the No. 2 seed already clinched. Milton led the way, completing 22-of-29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown, with a rushing touchdown too. It will set the Patriots back, but it was a pretty big day for Milton in his career journey.
Jonathan Taylor: Taylor can rest in the offseason.
The Indianapolis Colts put a high priority on winning Sunday, a week after a terrible loss to the New York Giants eliminated them from the playoff race. Perhaps that’s because coach Shane Steichen was worried about his future after a truly miserable loss. The Colts ran Taylor often, giving him 34 carries for 177 yards in an overtime 26-23 win over the Jacksonville Jaguars that might be the end of the Doug Pederson era.
Taylor had another strong season. He’ll be one of the building blocks for the Colts as they try to rebound from a disappointing season without a playoff berth.
Brian Callahan: Improvement is key for first-year head coaches. Improvement from the previous season, and improvement from the start of the season to the end.
Callahan hasn’t checked either box. The Tennessee Titans are worse than they were last season and they’re probably worse than they were for the first month or so this season. The Titans finish Callahan’s first season on a six-game losing streak. On Sunday they lost 23-14 to a Houston Texans team that was already locked into the No. 4 seed and started sitting starters in the first quarter. The Titans allowed backup running back Dameon Pierce to break a 92-yard touchdown run, a good way to sum up the effort and execution of the Titans late in the season.
There hasn’t been much speculation that Callahan won’t be back for a second season. Maybe there should be.
Christian Watson and maybe Jordan Love: The Green Bay Packers had to play their starters and try to win. The difference between the No. 6 seed and the No. 7 seed, teh latter of which would have to travel to Philadelphia on wild-card weekend, was massive.
But it was costly. Watson went down with a bad looking non-contact knee injury. Shortly after, Love left after having his arm hit, and didn’t return due to an elbow injury.
The Packers didn’t even get the win or the No. 6 seed. The Bears kicked a field goal as time expired, after the Packers took the lead with a field goal in the final minute, for a 24-22 win that sends Chicago into the offseason on a good note. That field goal happened at the same time the Commanders scored with three seconds left to clinch themselves the No. 6 seed regardless of what happened in Green Bay.
The Packers are in the playoffs, but they have to play at the Eagles and have some injury concerns going into it. It wasn’t a positive day for them.
New York Giants: The Giants couldn’t beat Philadelphia Eagles’ third-string quarterback Tanner McKee, as the Eagles made 11 key players inactive with the No. 2 seed clinched. But they won last week somehow to screw up getting the first pick of the NFL Draft.
There is nothing positive to take from the Giants’ miserable season. Malik Nabers’ strong rookie season perhaps, but not much else. The Giants finished the season on a bad note, which is how most of their season went. They lost 20-13 to an Eagles team whose touchdown scorers were Ainias Smith and EJ Jenkins, who only hardcore preseason watchers would recognize. Now the Giants have decisions to make on general manager Joe Schoen and coach Brian Daboll. If there was still a question about what to do with them, Sunday won’t be a good final impression.
