How do you win an NFL game without completing a single pass? Ask Baker Mayfield, who went 0 for 3 on Sunday while the Buccaneers beat the Falcons 16-0 in a Tampa downpour, and the Baker Mayfield zero completions memes were already flying before anyone had dried off.
I respect it because I lived it. In every group project from seventh grade through college, I was Baker on Sunday: present, upbeat, technically on the roster, and contributing nothing anyone could measure. @contendrsmedia made that exact joke minutes after the final whistle, and nobody topped it all day.
Zero for Three, Somehow
The numbers are real, and they are ridiculous. Mayfield threw three passes, completed none, and the Bucs finished with -2 net passing yards, while Bucky Irving and Kenny Gainwell ran for 310 yards between them and Tampa piled up 324 on the ground. Nobody had won without a completion since the 1974 Buffalo Bills beat the Jets, and in NFL.com’s story on Todd Bowles and the zero-completion win, the coach shrugged that “there is a first time for everything.”
Ari Meirov’s stat line reads like the receipt from a restaurant where you only ordered water. Zero, zero, zero, zero, and somehow the word “History!” at the top.
Baker Mayfield Memes Get Petty
The cruelest one came from @PFF, which pointed out mid-game that Mayfield’s 39.6 passer rating was higher than Michael Penix Jr.’s 0.0. Penix finished 8 of 24 for 125 yards and four interceptions, and Evan Birchfield noted that he’d been the NFC’s offensive player of the week just seven days earlier. Football is cruel, and the replies are worse.
Ryan Clark posted a grinning Mayfield with the caption every employee understands in their bones. I’ve sent that exact text. I sent it on my first day at a job I kept for four years.
Atlanta, Again
Falcons fans took it the way Falcons fans take everything, with the calm of people who have seen worse and can tell you the exact date. Kelsey Sutton thanked the team for restoring a feeling she’d almost forgotten, and another fan pointed out that Atlanta’s defense couldn’t stop a handoff, which was the only thing coming all afternoon.
That poncho selfie is the real picture of the day: a soaked Falcons fan in red plastic, asking to be loved back by a team that just lost to nobody throwing. I’ve dated that. Honestly, I’ve been that, standing in the rain for someone who didn’t complete a single pass my way.
Somewhere in Buffalo, a 1974 offensive coordinator finally has company.
Keep the film session going with By Order of the Group Chat, These NFL Memes Are Now Official Film Study, The Falcons Throwback Logo Was Meant to Be Nostalgic and the Internet Picked the Wrong Decade, and Football Memes Are the Only Coverage That Accurately Reports on How Fans Actually Feel. No passing required.
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