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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 33-16 on Sunday to improve to 3-0 on the season. That can only mean it’s time for Carter Brantley’s weekly article “Captain’s Table/Walk the Plank.”

In every way, Baker Mayfield was absolutely on point Sunday afternoon. During the game, he made all the right decisions. Whether it was moving in the pocket to avoid taking a sack while maintaining his vision down field, or if it was being patient waiting for plays to develop, or even getting the ball out quick when he needed to, Baker was doing his thing. And then after the game ended, he was even confronted with some weird in-booth comments from Tom Brady about how he wasn’t running a “daycare” when playing for the Bucs in response to comments made by Baker, and Mayfield took it completely in stride, making Brady look like kind of a dick.

Like the captain of the offense we just mentioned, Lavonte David was absolutely on-point all day. He had a strip-sack of Jalen Hurts, one of 2 he had against Philly, where he managed to jump the snap and absolutely blow up Saquon Barkley in pass protection, and then overcome missing Hurts after the QB made a nice side step by sticking with the play and coming back around to hit the QB and force the ball out. That play alone was worth so much for this Buccaneers team, as they were struggling to slow down the Eagles driving down the field trying to make a comeback.

Much could have been said last week about Mike Evans performance. He wasn’t good. He was a nonfactor. Well, take all those statements and flip them in this game against a young Eagles secondary. He was quite good. He was a huge reason why the Bucs came away with a victory. And most importantly, he broke the Bucs’ all-time scoring record, passing kicker Martin Gramatica.

Could I have broken this down into Rachaad White and Bucky Irving? Sure, but grouping them together seems fitting, because they complimented each other quite well Sunday, both on the ground and through their receiving abilities. I was concerned the Buccaneers had 2 of the same player when they made the Bucky pick in this past draft, but it turns out that’s not such a bad thing, as Irving has been dynamic in his role to start the season.

I mean, come on man. You’re up in the booth, back in Tampa for the first time since retirement, couldn’t you have just side-stepped the Baker quote? I get it might’ve been a bit harsh out of context, with Baker talking about bringing the joy back or whatever, but it could’ve been as easy as “Hey, I’m so happy for Baker going out there and doing his thing, they’re doing a great job in Tampa of putting together some successful seasons, I miss playing with these guys and hope they feel the same way.” He could’ve even included some self-aware, self-deprecating joke, or even leaned into being a hardass a bit without insulting Baker, sort of Michael Jordan-style. Instead, he just came across as a bitter old man. He’s the GOAT, but he could’ve handled that better.