The Clutch Performance of Chris Godwin: How the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Wide Receiver Stepped Up When It Mattered Most
After a week of drama for Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Chris Godwin, he became Baker Mayfield’s go-to guy. Godwin caught five passes for 53 yards in a 29-25 win over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. Leading up to the game, Godwin’s wife, Mariah, claimed head coach Todd Bowles lied about Godwin’s reduced role amid injuries reported by the team. Despite the controversy, Godwin’s performance on the field spoke for itself.
“As always, we have stuff involved for Chris in the game plan,” Mayfield told reporters on Sunday. “Like I said, early on in the game, they were only keyed on Mike [Evans], so there was some man-coverage stuff we were able to get Chris open, some opportunities. Take advantage of that. Chris and Mike are our two best receivers, so whenever you can get the ball to them, you try and do it.”
Godwin has a solid season going overall with 58 receptions for 659 yards and one touchdown.
Chris Godwin’s Clutch Catch Saved the Day
While Godwin only has one touchdown this season, his 32-yard reception on the final drive arguably saved the season. Godwin caught a 32-yard pass from Mayfield on the final drive with 1:16 left in the game. It set up an 11-yard touchdown pass from Mayfield to tight end Cade Otton for the win.
“We were playing a four-down situation right there, just trying to get a couple of yards at a time,” Mayfield said about Godwin’s catch. “But it was third-and-10, obviously, we weren’t successful on the first two. Chris ran a great route.”
“To be honest with you, man coverage, he has run that 1,000 times—gets up, gets in front of the guy, gets him moving up, breaks out,” Mayfield continued. “Yeah, can’t say enough about him and the job he did today, that’s a clutch moment.”
“Set up that play to Cade. We knew down there in the red zone they were gonna take Mike and Chris away so Cade had a one-on-one, the safeties were not even clued in on him. So he made a nice play, too,” Mayfield concluded.
Tampa Bay (6-7) sits in a three-way tie for the NFC South with Atlanta (6-7) and the New Orleans Saints (6-7) because of it. Otherwise, the Buccaneers would have faced an 8% chance of making the playoffs with a loss on Sunday in Week 14.
Baker Mayfield: ‘It Was Very Obvious’
Godwin led the receivers as Evans had the quietest of days as the Falcons zeroed in on him — a week after notching a 10th-straight 1,000-yard season.
“So, their game plan was to take Mike out of the ball game. You could see it was very obvious, they were running a lot of man coverage at him, bringing safety help wherever he was at. So other guys had to step up. And we found a way,” Mayfield said.
Evans only had a catch for eight yards on six targets. Mayfield finished with 144 yards passing and two touchdowns as he spread the ball this time around.
