Buccaneers vs. Falcons Week 8: Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell Run Through the Rain in a 16-0 Shutout With Zero Completions

Baker Mayfield threw three passes on Sunday. Not one of them was caught. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won by 16 anyway, and it was never really in doubt.

In a driving rain at Raymond James Stadium, the Buccaneers handed the ball to Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell until the Atlanta Falcons ran out of ways to tackle them, piling up a franchise-record 324 rushing yards in a 16-0 shutout. Irving ran for a career-high 170 yards and the game's only touchdown, Gainwell added 140, and the defense intercepted Michael Penix Jr. four times. Per the Associated Press, Tampa Bay is the first team to finish a game without a completion since the Buffalo Bills beat the New York Jets 16-12 on Sept. 29, 1974. Same 16 points for the winners, too, which feels like football history showing off.

The Bucs move to 3-5 with their first home win of the season after an 0-4 start in their own building, and they got it against the team whose last-second win in Tampa last December eventually cost them the NFC South tiebreaker. Atlanta also falls to 3-5.

Field Goals, Fumbles and a Lot of Water

Nothing about the first half was pretty, and most of it was soggy. Atlanta's opening series ended with Nick Folk pushing a 53-yard try wide left, while Tampa Bay's opening drive ended with Chase McLaughlin splitting the uprights from 46. The Bucs also put two snaps on the ground early, which pushed them toward more shotgun and pistol looks the rest of the way.

Alex Anzalone then started a two-interception afternoon. The linebacker's first interception handed Tampa Bay the ball at the Atlanta 41, and the Bucs marched all the way to the 1-yard line before Jessie Bates III jarred the ball loose and it skidded out of the end zone for a touchback. Anzalone simply went and got another one, and that pick set up McLaughlin's 34-yarder for a 6-0 lead after one quarter.

Atlanta's best chance of the half died at the Tampa Bay 17, where cornerback Jacob Parrish picked off Penix on fourth down. The Bucs went 65 yards the other way, McLaughlin hit from 42, and it was 9-0 at the break. Tampa Bay had 146 yards of offense at halftime, every last one of them on the ground, per Yahoo Sports.

Lightning, Meet Lightning

The third quarter is where this one got settled, and the running backs settled it. Backed up at its own 10, Tampa Bay needed six plays to go 90 yards. Irving ripped off a 46-yard run, Gainwell slipped through traffic for 28 more, and Irving finished the drive by plowing in from 4 yards out. Up 16-0 in that weather, the Bucs might as well have been up 50.

Irving finished with 170 yards on 27 carries. Per Athlon Sports, Irving accounted for 53 percent of Tampa Bay's scrimmage yards, the second-highest share for any running back in a game this season, and has now cleared 100 rushing yards in three of the last four weeks. Those three games are also Tampa Bay's three wins, which is not a coincidence. Irving gave the credit to the offensive line afterward, describing a different look in the linemen's eyes whenever it is time to run the ball.

Gainwell, who carried a questionable tag with a hip injury into the weekend, was nearly as dangerous and finished with 140 yards. Per Buccaneers.com, the pair became just the second Tampa Bay backfield duo to each top 100 rushing yards in the same game, joining Warrick Dunn and Mike Alstott in 1998.

That left Mayfield, in his second game back from a thumb injury, with a strange stat line: 0 for 3, 52 handoffs and a few yards scrambling. "If I'm not gonna throw the ball, I have to get active somehow," Mayfield said, per the AP. Mayfield was not complaining about the arrangement. "I'll do whatever it takes to win."

Todd Bowles insisted the plan was not to abandon the pass entirely. "We didn't say we were not going to throw the ball; the conditions told [offensive coordinator Zac Robinson] that," Bowles said, per Sports Illustrated's Falcon Report.

The Turning Point: Atlanta's Empty Trips

The scoreboard says shutout, but Atlanta moved the ball often enough to make this a game. It just never cashed in. Parrish's fourth-down interception at the 17 erased one scoring chance. Ted Hurst III couldn't hang on to a back-shoulder fade in the end zone on another. And when the Falcons drove one more time late, Zyon McCollum picked off Penix at the Tampa Bay 14 for the Bucs' fourth interception of the day.

Atlanta went 0 for 12 on third down and came up empty on three fourth-down tries, per Athlon Sports. Penix, the reigning NFC Offensive Player of the Week coming in, finished 8 of 24 for 125 yards, four picks and a 12.0 passer rating, with Jahan Dotson's two catches accounting for 95 of those yards. "Knowing that the conditions are like that, as a quarterback, the leader, I got to protect the ball," Penix said, per the Falcon Report.

The Numbers Behind It

• 324 rushing yards on 56 carries, breaking the franchise single-game record of 283.
• 0 completions, and the first double-digit win without one since the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Chicago Cardinals 23-0 on Nov. 11, 1945, per the AP.
• 4 interceptions of Penix: two by Anzalone and one each by Parrish and McCollum.
• 0 for 12 on third down for Atlanta.
• 19 for 19 on field goals this season for McLaughlin after a perfect 3 for 3 day.
• 76 rushing yards on 19 carries for Bijan Robinson, who entered the week leading the NFL in rushing.

What It Means

The NFC South remains a group chat where nobody wants to commit to plans. Carolina sits on top at 3-4, while Tampa Bay and Atlanta are a half-game back at 3-5. The Bucs are 2-0 in the division after last week's 43-13 rout at Carolina and this one, and this was their first shutout since a 9-0 win at Carolina to close the 2023 season. They did lose edge rusher Yaya Diaby to a knee injury in the first quarter, per the AP.

"We knew it was going to be a nasty day and what type of conditions it was going to be," Bowles said, per Buccaneers.com. Whether a run-only blueprint travels is another question. Mayfield has 64 passing yards over the last two weeks combined, per Athlon Sports. Tampa Bay visits the Chicago Bears on Sunday Night Football on Nov. 8.

For Atlanta, it is three losses in four games, and the injury list grew: receiver Zacchariah Branch and defensive end Samson Ebukam both left with hamstring injuries, per the AP. "They did a better job than we did," Kevin Stefanski said, per the Falcon Report. Robinson put a finer point on it: "We pride ourselves on running the football. We just can't turn the ball over." The Falcons face the Cincinnati Bengals in Madrid on Nov. 8 as the designated home team.

A Homecoming Washed Out

Penix grew up in Dade City and went to high school in Tampa, and our preview of this game predicted the hometown kid would spoil the party with a 23-20 Atlanta win. The rain had other plans, the Tampa Bay offensive line followed them to the letter, and a quarterback who never completed a pass walked off a winner. Asked about ever drawing up a game plan with no completions, Bowles kept it short, per Athlon Sports. "I have not," Bowles said. "First time for everything."

Stats via ESPN, Buccaneers.com, Athlon Sports and Yahoo Sports. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press, Buccaneers.com, Athlon Sports and Sports Illustrated's Falcon Report.