If at any point in the past five weeks you’ve thought to yourself, “the Bucs don’t normally win these close games,” it’d be hard to blame you. Because the truth is, they typically haven’t won them, especially at this rate and especially in the Todd Bowles era. Yet the Bucs are off to a 4-1 start to the 2025 season, with all five games coming down to the wire and each one being decided by one possession.

Bowles took over as Tampa Bay’s head coach in 2022, which coincided with Tom Brady’s final season in red, white and pewter. With Brady in command, it was hard not to feel like you were the favorite to win every close game. Because the G.O.A.T. made a career out of always finding a way and coming through in the clutch. Between the regular season and playoffs, Brady had 69 game-winning drives in his illustrious career.

So, Bowles, Brady and the Bucs – despite all their flaws throughout the 2022 season – went 6-4 in one-possession games.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

It wasn’t until 2023 that Tampa Bay’s inconsistency and overall struggles in one-score games began. The team went 3-4 in such games during the 2023 regular season, then lost by eight points in the NFC Divisional Round to end the season. At one point, that season saw the Bucs suffer three straight one-score losses and four over a six-game stretch. But to their credit, they bounced back with back-to-back one-score wins to start December and get their run toward the NFC South title going.

In 2024, Bowles and Co. went 3-5 in one-score games during the regular season, then fell to the Commanders in the NFC Wild Card Round by just three points. Both of the team’s losses to Atlanta were by one possession, and its four-game losing streak between late October and early November included three straight one-possession losses. A late-season loss in Dallas also came by just two points.

So, in the first two years of the Bowles-Mayfield era, the Bucs were 6-11 in one-score games between the regular season and playoffs.

But so far in 2025, they’ve flipped the script, winning four of their first five games – all by three points or fewer.

The 2025 Bucs Have Simply Found A Way To Win Games Late

The Bucs started 2025 with three straight game-winning drives in the final minute of the fourth quarter, beating the Falcons in Atlanta, the Texans in Houston and the Jets at home. And despite their comeback falling short in Week 4 against the Eagles, they found a way once again in Week 5, beating the Seahawks in Seattle.

After tying the game late with a touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Sterling Shepard, Lavonte David came through with an interception of Sam Darnold. And just like that, Tampa Bay was set up for another game-winning field goal, Chase McLaughlin’s second in three weeks and second in two games in the 1976 throwback uniforms.

Bucs LB Lavonte David – Photo courtesy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

During his press conference on Monday afternoon, Todd Bowles was asked about his team’s ability to win these tightly contested games early in the season, and he credited the resiliency the Bucs have shown week in and week out.

“Well, it’s been good to close them out,” Bowles said. “You don’t ever want to play games that close, but early in the year, all these games are going to be tough and they’re going to be one-score games. Like you said, last year, we didn’t pull them out. This year, we’ve been finding a way to win. That shows attention to detail and resiliency on our part.”

As far as turning the tide in one-score games after what they went through in 2023 and especially 2024, Bowles pointed to a mantra that legendary assistant coach and senior offensive assistant Tom Moore preaches about and judges the team on.

“Well, you learn from last year. Experience is one thing, resiliency is another, practice is another,” Bowles said. “Coach Moore says it all the time: you prepare hard, you practice hard, you play hard. And we go by the three P’s, as judged by Coach Moore. We try to cover all that stuff, as everybody else does as well, but they’re really focused towards the end of the ball game, and they understand what they have to do.”

Bucs GM Jason Licht and senior offensive assistant Tom Moore – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

And another thing that hasn’t hurt for the Bucs is having Baker Mayfield hit an even higher level when it comes to clutch time.

Against the Falcons, Mayfield went 4-of-5 for 63 yards on the game-winning drive, which ended with a 25-yard touchdown pass to Emeka Egbuka. The following week, he went 7-of-9 for 63 yards on the game-winning drive, plus he had a crucial 15-yard scramble on fourth-and-10 to keep the drive alive.

On the game-winning drive against the Jets, Mayfield was just 2-of-4, but he hit Egbuka for a 28-yard gain and Sterling Shepard for a 20-yard pickup to set up the game-winning field goal. And this past Sunday, he went 4-of-5 for 70 yards and found Shepard for an 11-yard touchdown to tie the game with 1:08 to go.

Tampa Bay’s franchise quarterback has been exactly that thus far this season, and Bowles credits Mayfield’s poise for the offense’s late-game success.

“He’s been great. The closer it gets, the more his competitiveness comes out,” Bowles said. “He understands what he’s doing in two-minute [situations]. There’s no panic, so there’s no panic in everybody else. He really breathes life into everybody that’s out on the field and they get the job done.”

The Bucs would love to start winning games more comfortably at some point, and it would certainly be helpful for the heart rates of Tampa Bay fans everywhere if they could do so. But displaying the clutch gene and winning one-score games the way they have to start this season does give the impression that this year’s team, as Mayfield said after the game, is built different.