Lavonte David slid toward the middle of the field in anticipation as Tampa Bay teammate Antoine Winfield Jr. pressured Seattle quarterback Sam Darnold.
After a deflection off defensive end Logan Hall’s helmet, David found himself in the right spot to intercept Darnold with 58 seconds left. His pick set up Chase McLaughlin's 39-yard field goal as time expired, and Tampa Bay escaped with a thrilling 38-35 win over Seattle on Sunday.
“Got a good read, and was able to make it to a good spot to read the quarterback,” David said. “When I (saw) the ball coming in the air, I had to have it.”
Baker Mayfield tied it for the Bucs (4-1) by throwing an 11-yard touchdown pass to Sterling Shepard with 1:08 remaining. That left time for Darnold and the Seahawks (3-2), but David made one of the few standout defensive plays in a game that saw the teams combine for 889 yards of offense.
In a duel between quarterbacks who struggled with the teams that drafted them, then spent a season together in Carolina before reviving their careers elsewhere, Mayfield and Darnold combined to throw for 720 yards with just 10 incompletions.
Mayfield finished 29 of 33 for 379 yards and two touchdowns, and his 87.9% completion percentage was the highest by any quarterback in a game this season. The Bucs needed every one of those successful throws to bounce back from last week's loss to Philadelphia.
“He was sharp,” Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles said. “Baker doesn’t try to have two subpar games in a row. He was still (ticked) from last week.”
Darnold was 28 of 34 for 341 yards with four TDs and the one, costly pick while throwing off his back foot toward the middle of the field.
“At the end of the day,” Darnold said, “I got to protect the football in that situation and can’t give them a short field to put the game away like that.”
Tampa Bay took over at the Seattle 36. Rachaad White ran three times for 15 yards to get the Bucs well within McLaughlin’s range, Mayfield took a knee to run the clock down, and McLaughlin ended it with his third field goal of the day.
Entering the afternoon, Seattle’s defense had allowed the third-fewest points in the NFL. But without injured regulars DeMarcus Lawrence, Julian Love and Devon Witherspoon, the Seahawks struggled to slow down the Bucs, who converted seven of 11 third downs.
“I have to do better with our defensive game plan and execution and how we call it,” Seattle coach Mike Macdonald said. “When you put up a performance like that, it means that I didn’t prepare them well enough. It hurts. It stings.”
Tampa Bay led 13-0 late in the second quarter thanks to two field goals by McLaughlin and one of two rushing TDs by White, but Seattle went ahead 14-13 early in the third on a 5-yard TD run by Zach Charbonnet.
The Bucs pushed back ahead 28-21 near the end of the period. Darnold threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter, the second a 21-yarder to Tory Horton that gave Seattle a 35-28 lead.
“Sam was great. Played a tremendous football game,” Macdonald said. “Thought we were going to have a chance to win the game there at the end.”
Instead, Tampa Bay became the first team in NFL history with four wins by three points or fewer in its first five games.
“I think this was the fourth two-minute drive that we’ve had this year out of five games,” said wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, Tampa Bay's first-round pick this year. “NFL is down to the wire a lot of the time. So, you have to have someone at quarterback that has that capability, and Baker has that for sure.”
Egbuka and Seattle's Jaxon Smith-Njigba, both first-round picks out of Ohio State, were the main beneficiaries of the high-level quarterback play.
Egbuka had seven catches for 163 yards and a touchdown. Smith-Njigba, a first-round pick in 2023, finished with eight receptions for 132 yards and a score.
Mayfield, in his eighth season, said he’s never seen a rookie who's more prepared than Egbuka.
“He’s well-rounded, and not just in football but in life,” Mayfield said. “I think he’s grounded, and I think he’s genuine in everything he does. He’s intentional, and you just don’t see that often.”
Egbuka leads all NFL rookies with 445 receiving yards.
Seahawks tight end AJ Barner, in his second year out of Michigan, caught all seven passes thrown to him, including two for TDs. He has four touchdown catches this year, matching his total from last season.
“I am able to get open, get an opportunity, and I feel like Seattle’s a great fit for me,” Barner said.
McLaughlin, who made all three field-goal attempts, was on the Bucs' injury report Saturday with an illness.
“He probably needs to be ill more often,” Bowles said. “It wasn’t quite the Michael Jordan flu game, but give Chase McLaughlin his flu game here in Seattle. He did a heck of a job.”
The Bucs return to Raymond James Stadium next Sunday to face the San Francisco 49ers (4-1). Both teams lead their divisions. The NFL recently flexed the game time to 4:25 p.m. to allow for a greater audience on CBS.
