Buccaneers @ Bears · Week 9

WEEK 9 · FINAL

THE READ

80 points between Buccaneers and Bears

49-31, and neither defence wants to watch it back. Baker Mayfield threw for Buccaneers — 26/34, 432 yards, 6 TD. Caleb Williams threw for Bears — 16/35, 380 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT — in a losing effort. Make it 9 consecutive games past 250 for Baker Mayfield. On the ground: Bears 118, Buccaneers 14.

Zoe Bell The contrarian

THE WIDER PICTURE

Team	SRS	SOS	MARGIN	TO +/-
Buccaneers	+10.9	-3.8	+14.7	+4
Bears	+5.5	+1.4	+4.1	+8

SRS is how many points a side beats an average team by once you account for who they played — beat a good team by 3 and it counts for more than beating a bad one by 20. SOS is how hard that schedule has been. Full table.

Buccaneers — NFC #2 · division · 7-2 Bears — NFC #6 · 5-4 Playoff picture →

In the MVP race

#5 Baker Mayfield QB · Buccaneers · 9.4% of the field

#10 Caleb Williams QB · Bears · 0.6% of the field

The whole board →

IN THE BOOTH

Sierra Vaughn Analyst

Baker Mayfield threw for 432 yards and 6 touchdowns while Chicago turned the ball over 3 times—that's the game right there, a 18-point margin that looks worse than the execution gap that created it.

Nicole Santos Beat reporter · replying

Chicago put up 498 yards and 118 rushing yards—plenty to win most games—but Williams' 3 turnovers against a Bucs defense that forced nothing else meant Tampa Bay got away with not needing to stop the run at all.

They only ever read the box score and this league's own numbers — none of them has a source, and none of them can report anything that did not happen.

Baker Mayfield

Buccaneers

26/34, 432 yards, 6 TD

Caleb Williams

Bears

16/35, 380 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT

Ted Hurst III

Buccaneers

3 catches, 129 yards, 2 TD

THE STORY SO FAR

🔥 Baker Mayfield has now cleared 250 passing yards in 9 straight games.

⭐ Ted Hurst III has not had a better afternoon this season.

📉 Caleb Williams is still searching for it: 33 rushing yards a game across his last three, against an average of 46.

WHAT DECIDED IT

On the ground Bears 118, Buccaneers 14 Bears

Total yards Bears 498, Buccaneers 446 Bears

Through the air Buccaneers 432, Bears 380 Buccaneers

Giveaways Bears 3, Buccaneers 0 Buccaneers

THE ROOM Final. The recap is below.

📺 THE WEEK 9 SHOW this game is in the week's show ▶ Watch the show

THE MATCHUP SCOUT every number below is counted from the export or read off the roster — nothing is inferred about playcalling

LEAGUE DATA counted by Madden, and arithmetic on top of it

Pass-heavy Pass 91% · Rush 9% · 39.0 scored, 24.3 allowed

11.2 yds/att 69.6% completions 4.1 yds/carry 399.1 yds/game 1.9 giveaways/game 4.0% sack rate last 5: 4-1

Primary weapon: Adonai Mitchell WR — 24% of the receiving yards · DEPENDENCY MODERATE

SAPPHIRE METRICS QB efficiency 77 · Aggressive Balance 59 Ball security 47 Back usage 6% QB runs 1.1/game

Most exposed: ball security -- 1.9 giveaways a game

PERSONNEL off the roster — unit averages, best starters only

QB 96 WR 85 TE 80 RB 84 OL 81 DL 86 LB 75 DB 88

Best: Vita Vea DT 97 Fastest: Ted Hurst III WR 95 SPD 11 at star dev or better

YOUR NOTEBOOK what you wrote about them — private, and never a Sapphire statistic

HOW THEY PLAY the man, not the franchise — only weeks the record attributes to him, this season

Josh 🦅

Bears · his last 8 games

Balanced Runs the quarterback Takes sacks

Pass / run61% / 39% Points for / against30.1 — 29.5 Margin+0.6 Giveaways a game1.8 Sacks taken9.8% of dropbacks Lead backD'Andre Swift · 10.0/g Top targetLuther Burden III · 27% QB carries5.4 a game

nardwick

Buccaneers · his last 8 games

Throws it Gives it away Runs the quarterback

Pass / run91% / 9% Points for / against39.1 — 28.2 Margin+10.9 Giveaways a game2.0 Sacks taken4.2% of dropbacks Lead backBucky Irving · 2.2/g Top targetAdonai Mitchell · 23% QB carries1.0 a game

Counted from the weeks each man actually held his team — so a franchise that changed hands is not credited to whoever has it now. Nothing above is a playcall: the export does not carry those, and neither does this.

THE SERIES nardwick against Josh 🦅 — the men, not the teams

nardwick leads it 1-0. nardwick won the last one.

1 meeting avg 49.0 — 31.0 biggest: 18 pts to nardwick

S1 · week 9 nardwick 49 — 31 Josh 🦅 NARDWICK

Only meetings Sapphire can attribute to both men are counted — a Madden export never says who owned a team last season, so the series starts where the record does.

MATCHUP ADVANTAGES unit averages against each other — inside three points is a push

Buccaneers receivers vs Bears secondary 85 v 86 EVEN

Bears receivers vs Buccaneers secondary 82 v 88 BUCCANEERS

Buccaneers line vs Bears front 81 v 83 EVEN

Bears line vs Buccaneers front 82 v 86 BUCCANEERS

Buccaneers backs vs Bears run defence 84 v 83 EVEN

Bears backs vs Buccaneers run defence 82 v 83 EVEN

Buccaneers passer vs Bears secondary 96 v 86 BUCCANEERS

Bears passer vs Buccaneers secondary 92 v 88 BEARS

TOP PERFORMERS

Baker Mayfield QB Buccaneers 432 pass yds

Caleb Williams QB Bears 380 pass yds

Ted Hurst III WR Buccaneers 129 rec yds

Luther Burden III WR Bears 116 rec yds

Adonai Mitchell WR Buccaneers 114 rec yds

Rome Odunze WR Bears 104 rec yds

D'Andre Swift HB Bears 95 rec yds

Bucky Irving HB Buccaneers 82 rec yds

Caleb Williams QB Bears 74 rush yds

Eli Stowers TE Buccaneers 60 rec yds

🎬 The Game Recap
this game as an episode -- the score, the stars, the numbers that decided it -- and a video you can post ›

BOX SCORE

BUCCANEERS

PLAYER	C/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	SCK	LNG	RTG
Baker Mayfield QB	26/34	432	6	0	2	66	157.4

BEARS

PLAYER	C/ATT	YDS	TD	INT	SCK	LNG	RTG
Caleb Williams QB	16/35	380	2	3	4	65	68.7

BUCCANEERS

PLAYER	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	BTK	YAC	LNG	FUM
Bucky Irving HB	3	9	3	0	0	2	4	0
Baker Mayfield QB	2	5	2.5	0	0	2	4	0

BEARS

PLAYER	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	BTK	YAC	LNG	FUM
Caleb Williams QB	8	74	9.2	0	1	2	14	0
D'Andre Swift HB	10	44	4.4	2	1	6	11	0

BUCCANEERS

PLAYER	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	YAC	LNG
Ted Hurst III WR	3	129	43	2	14	66
Adonai Mitchell WR	5	114	22.8	2	13	49
Bucky Irving HB	9	82	9.1	1	66	23
Eli Stowers TE	5	60	12	1	22	19
Emeka Egbuka WR	4	47	11.8	0	10	19

BEARS

PLAYER	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	YAC	LNG
Luther Burden III WR	5	116	23.2	0	23	50
Rome Odunze WR	3	104	34.7	1	41	65
D'Andre Swift HB	4	95	23.8	0	46	28
Zavion Thomas WR	2	53	26.5	1	11	29
Colston Loveland TE	2	12	6	0	0	14

BUCCANEERS

PLAYER	TKL	SCK	INT	PD	TD
Benjamin Morrison CB	4	0	0	4	0
Vita Vea DT	3	2	0	0	0
Jacob Parrish CB	3	0	0	1	0
Shemar Stewart REDG	2	2	0	0	0
Keionte Scott CB	2	0	1	0	0
Zyon McCollum CB	2	0	0	2	0
Troy Andersen MIKE	1	0	0	0	0
Antoine Winfield Jr FS	1	0	0	2	0
Cor'Dale Flott SS	1	0	1	1	1
Kelee Ringo FS	0	0	1	0	0

BEARS

PLAYER	TKL	SCK	PD
Minkah Fitzpatrick SS	5	0	1
Tyrique Stevenson CB	4	0	0
Dillon Thieneman SS	3	0	0
Montez Sweat LEDG	2	2	0
Kyler Gordon CB	2	0	1
Zion Young LEDG	1	0	0
Devin Bush MIKE	1	0	1
Xavier Woods FS	1	0	3
Beanie Bishop Jr CB	1	0	0

BUCCANEERS

nothing recorded

BEARS

PLAYER	FG	XP	LNG
Cairo Santos K	1/1	2/3	21

RECENT FORM

Buccaneers

W 49–42 vs Falcons WK 8

W 28–27 vs Panthers WK 7

L 28–31 vs Steelers WK 6

Bears

L 16–19 vs Seahawks WK 8

W 47–36 vs Patriots WK 7

W 28–10 vs Falcons WK 6

TEAM STATS

Buccaneers		Bears
446	TOTAL YARDS	498
432	PASSING YARDS	380
14	RUSHING YARDS	118
2	SACKS ALLOWED	4
4	SACKS MADE	2
0	GIVEAWAYS	3
3	TAKEAWAYS	0

Bold is the side that won that line. Giveaways come off a team's own offensive rows and takeaways off its own defensive rows — two separate payloads, so they need not tie out against each other.

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD

1 BUCCANEERS — 0 BEARS

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