Baker Mayfield: A Perfect Gentleman at Lambeau Field

 By Eric Goska

(photos by Eric Goska)

Sunday was a perfect day for football. Ask Baker Mayfield.

Mayfield shredded the Packers defense as only a handful of quarterbacks have throughout the years. The top pick in the 2018 draft proved virtually unstoppable, throwing for more than 300 yards and four touchdowns as his Buccaneers overwhelmed Green Bay 34-20 at Lambeau Field.

On a rainy, dreary afternoon with temperatures in the low forties, Mayfield completed 22 of 28 passes for 381 yards and four scores. He compiled a perfect passer rating of 158.3.

Until Sunday, Vince Evans of the Bears had been the only player to max out against Green Bay. Evans nailed 18 of 22 passes for 316 yards and three touchdowns in Chicago’s 61-7 victory in 1980.

Mayfield’s rating never fell below 112.5. He reached 158.3 for the first time when he connected with Mike Evans from 19-yards out to put the Buccaneers up 10-7. He got there a second time on his final pass, a 52-yarder to David Moore that put Tampa Bay up 34-20 with six-and-a-half minutes remaining.

Mayfield completed nine passes of 20 or more yards. Chris Godwin snagged four of those with Rachaad White (2), Cade Otton (2) and Moore coming away with the other five.

Since 1921, only two quarterbacks have thrown more 20-yarders while battling the Pack. Matthew Stafford hit on 12 on Jan. 1, 2012 and Ben Roethlisberger had 10 on Dec. 20, 2009. Dak Prescott also had nine in a game in 2019.

Those chunk plays accelerated Mayfield on his drive to 300. No. 6 needed only 24 attempts to surpass the milestone, getting there on a 22-yard strike to Otton late in the third quarter.

Only five players – Randall Cunningham, Vinny Testaverde, Evans, Troy Aikman and Tua Tagovailoa – needed fewer attempts to reach that benchmark against Green Bay. All but Tagovailoa came away victorious.

Mayfield became the 87th player to surpass 300 yards passing aginst the Packers in a regular-season game. He is the seventh to do so while throwing at least four TDs and no interceptions.

That Mayfield had his way is somewhat surprising. Since Matt LeFleur became coach in 2019, Green Bay had permitted just nine individual 300-yard passing performances, tied with the Saints for the fewest over that span.

Surrendering 300 yards passing to an individual is not a death knell. The Packers own a winning record (65-56-1) under those circumstances.

But when Green Bay fast-tracks quarterbacks as it did with Mayfield, the story is different. The Green and Gold is 6-25 when opposing field generals lay claim to 300 in fewer than 30 pass attempts.

To their credit, the Packers sacked Mayfield five times for 28 yards in losses. But it hardly mattered. Because of Mayfield’s hot hand, Tampa Bay wound up averaging 10.7 yards per pass play, the highest by a Green Bay opponent since Christmas 2022 when the Dolphins managed 10.9 in a losing effort.

Non-Stop Flights to 300
Fewest pass attempts needed to reach 300 yards passing by an opposing quarterback against the Packers in a regular-season game.

Atts.      Quarterback               Team                    Date                          Result
20           Randall Cunningham     Vikings                  Oct. 5, 1998               GB lost, 24-37
21           Vinny Testaverde             Buccaneers          Sept. 13, 1992            GB lost, 3-31
22           Vince Evans                       Bears                   Dec. 7, 1980               GB lost, 7-61
22           Troy Aikman                     Cowboys              Oct. 3, 1993                GB lost, 14-36
22           Tua Tagovailoa                 Dolphins              Dec. 25, 2022             GB won, 26-20
24           Peyton Manning              Broncos                Nov. 1, 2015               GB lost, 10-29
24           Baker Mayfield                 Buccaneers         Dec. 17, 2023              GB lost, 20-34