Sooners in the NFL: Mark Andrews and Baker Mayfield Battle on Monday Night Football

It was a battle between the best friends on Monday Night Football, and Mark Andrews got the last laugh.

Dec 2, 2017; Arlington, TX, USA; Oklahoma Sooners quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) and tight end Mark Andrews (81) look on during the second half against the TCU Horned Frogs in the Big 12 Championship game at AT&T Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images / Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

After a week full of media shenanigans, best friends Baker Mayfield and Mark Andrews finally squared off on the football field on Monday Night Football.

Andrews had his most impressive game of the season, as Baltimore cruised to a 41-31 road victory in Tampa Bay.

After the first drive of the game, it looked like the Buccaneers offense had a big night in store. Mayfield hit his favorite target Mike Evans for a 25-yard touchdown strike, and followed it up by marching the ball down to the 5-yard line on the very next possession. Then, things went south.

Evans dropped a touchdown, Mayfield threw two interceptions and the Bucs quickly fell out of the game. Baltimore took advantage by finding Andrews, Mayfield’s former favorite OU target, helping him rediscover his role within the offense. 

Andrews caught all four of his targets for 41 yards and two touchdowns. The Oklahoma product was held out of the end zone for the first five weeks of the season — and now has three touchdown grabs in two weeks.

Mayfield put together a nice game for the stat sheet, but he racked up a lot of yards late in the fourth quarter as Tampa Bay tried to make a miracle happen. All in all, the former Heisman winner completed 31-of-45 passes for 370 yards and three touchdowns. His two interceptions were costly, though, and pitted the Bucs too deep in the hole.

Former Oklahoma wide receiver Sterling Shepard got in on the action too, catching one pass for 15 yards and snagging a 2-point conversion.

According to Mayfield’s midweek jokes, don’t expect the former quarterback/tight end duo to do much talking on the phone now that the game’s over. Despite being best friends, Mayfield joked that he and Andrews don’t communicate much during the season.

"Even though Mark and I are best friends, him and I don't talk in-season. He's a weirdo. He can't exactly separate friendship and football," Mayfield said.

"He struggles with that on a year-to-year basis. There's a few months at a time when we're friends again, but for right now, no. It hurts. It hurts my feelings. Guy was in my wedding, won't talk to me."

Andrews is usually a reserved guy with a quiet personality, but even he got in on the fun.

"He's one of my best friends,” Andrews said with a smile. “We've been close for such a long time. No quote from me, but always good to see Bake being Bake," Andrews said.

"He kind of laid it out there. But, you know, he wasn't 100 percent factual. I think I was the last one to hit him up. We exchanged some words a couple weeks back, but I was the one that initiated it."

Both Mayfield and Andrews are finding their groove early on in the season. Mayfield has been one of the best quarterbacks, and Andrews is finally back on track.

On the season, Mayfield leads the NFL in touchdown passes with 18. He also boasts a 70.9 percent completion percentage, which would be a career-high. Andrews, on the other hand, now has 227 receiving yards and three touchdowns and passed Todd Heap as Baltimore's all-time career touchdown leader for tight ends.