Panthers vs Bucs — PREVIEW
2 min read
Featured Image Courtesy of Eric White | NSPN Champa Bay TV
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have as many quality wins as anybody.
20-16 at Detroit.
33-16 over Philadelphia.
37-20 against Washington.
40-17 at the Los Angeles Chargers.
All four should be playoff-bound.
Unfortunately, the Buccaneers’ season will be judged on two losses to Atlanta and last week in Dallas.
Kirk Cousins quarterbacked the two Atlanta victories. Cousins has since lost his starting job.
At Dallas, backup quarterback Cooper Rush did the deed.
There ain’t no way, no how a playoff team and possible division champ should lose to a backup quarterback, especially when you are making a playoff run.
The Buccaneers close at home with Carolina and New Orleans. The Buccaneers beat both earlier in the season and should be favored to beat both again.
Yet, even if they pound both teams by triple digits and finish 10-7, their season will be over if Atlanta wins its final games over Washington and the Panthers. The Bucs can blame nobody but themselves.
Cousins threw for eight of his 18 touchdowns against the Buccaneers. No playoff defense should allow that. Both teams now stand at 8-7 and the Falcons control the tiebreaker over Todd Bowles and company.
And Carolina’s Bryce Young should have plenty of confidence facing the Buccaneers. Young passed for 298 yards and a touchdown against the Bucs in an overtime loss earlier this month. It’s no secret Young has struggled since being the top pick in the 2023 draft, but he certainly had his moments against the Buccs’ defense.
Then again, most quarterbacks have had their way with the Bucs defense. They are rated next-to-last against the pass. That’s 31 out of 32 teams. What’s really frustrating is that Bowles is his own defensive coordinator.
Listen to every announcing crew, they all point out the Buccaneers are one of the better teams defending the run. They should say, that most teams don’t want to waste their time gaining three or four yards running against this defense when big plays are right there for the taking passing against it.
Thanks to losses to Cousins and Rush, all Bowles can say is .. “my bad!”
Written by: AL Keck
