It’s only Week 5, but Buccaneers receiver Emeka Egbuka continues to look like a bona fide offensive rookie of the year candidate.
Egbuka caught a 20-yard touchdown, and a two-point conversion to give the Buccaneers a 21-14 lead over the Seahawks.
Egbuka now has five receiving touchdowns in his young career. He’s become just the fourth rookie in the last 40 seasons to have at least five receiving touchdowns in his team’s first five games — joining Randy Moss in 1998, Calvin Ridley in 2018, and Ja’Marr Chase in 2021.
Egbuka has three receptions for 53 yards on Sunday.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield is 20-of-22 for 199 yards with a touchdown midway through the third quarter.
The Seahawks have successfully doubled up to take a one-point lead over the Buccaneers.
After scoring a touchdown with six seconds left in the first half, Seattle scored again to open the third quarter with running back Zach Charbonnet’s 5-yard touchdown run.
Charbonnet’s score capped a quick four-play, 77-yard drive. Quarterback Sam Darnold hit receiver Dareke Young for a 36-yard pass on the second play of the drive. Then Kenneth Walker got the offense down to the 5-yard line with a 31-yard run.
Charbonnet did the rest from there.
Seattle now is averaging 8.2 yards per play on their 28 offensive snaps.
A missed field goal and a giveaway had kept the Seahawks off the scoreboard in the first half of Sunday’s matchup against the Buccaneers.
But Seattle engineered a successful two-minute drive to get on the board with a 6-yard touchdown from Sam Darnold to Jaxon Smith-Njigba with six seconds left in the second quarter.
Still, the Bucs lead 13-7 at halftime.
Darnold finished the first half 13-of-17 for 130 yards with his touchdown. Cooper Kupp has four catches for 41 yards while Smith-Njigba has four catches for 35 yards with his TD.
The Buccaneers had gotten out to a 13-0 lead, in part due to the Seahawks getting a little too cute.
Midway through the second quarter, Jalen Milroe came in for a play on first-and-10 at the Tampa Bay 38. Milroe fielded the snap and ran a sprint option to the left with running back Kenneth Walker. But Milroe’s pitch to the running back was behind Walker and the ball ended up on the ground as a fumble.
Safety Tykee Smith recovered the loose ball to give the Bucs an extra possession.
Seven plays and 59 yards later, the Bucs were in the end zone.
Quarterback Baker Mayfield finished the first half 14-of-16 for 126 yards, with one of his incompletions being a clear drop.
Rookie Emeka Ebuka has two catches for 33 yards while Cade Otten has three receptions for 56 yards.
The Seahawks will have a chance to double up, as they’ll receive the second-half kickoff.
After a holding penalty that wiped out a late touchdown in the Week 4 Thursday night game between the Seahawks and Cardinals, Seattle receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba said to referee Alex Kemp, “That’s some bullshit.” Kemp, along with anyone who was watching the game, heard it.
It should have drawn a flag. It did not, however, draw a fine.
Smith-Njigba’s name did not appear on the list of fines imposed by the league in the aftermath of all Week 4 games.
A pair of $11,593 taunting fines were issued for the game — one on running back Kenneth Walker III and one on cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Walker was flagged; Witherspoon was not.
Meanwhile, Smith-Njigba needs 98 receiving yards on Sunday against the Buccaneers to be the first player in Seahawks history with 500 or more receiving yards through the first five games of a season. And it can happen in the team’s 50th season, against the franchise that entered the NFL with the Seahawks in 1976.
Tom Brady and Peyton Manning have made their lists of the greatest receivers in NFL history.
In a recent episode of Rushmore on X, Brady and Manning discussed and debated their choices for the faces that should appear on the Mt. Rushmore of receivers. Both chose three wide receivers and a tight end.
Manning picked Jerry Rice, Marvin Harrison, Raymond Berry and Tony Gonzalez.
Brady picked Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald and Rob Gronkowski.
Manning picked one of his former teammates, Harrison, while Brady chose two of his, Moss and Gronkowski.
That Rice was the first choice of both Manning and Brady shows the extent to which he is viewed as the greatest receiver in NFL history, with no real debate. The debate, whether among sports fans or Hall of Fame quarterbacks, is usually the same: Not who’s the best wide receiver in NFL history, but who’s the second-best, after Rice.
