CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Bucky Irving ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns, and Tampa Bay forced four turnovers as the Buccaneers hammered the Carolina Panthers 43-13 on Sunday in Baker Mayfield\u2019s return.<\/p>\n
Mayfield, who missed the previous three games with a dislocated right thumb, attempted just 11 passes and threw for 64 yards while wearing a protective glove on his right hand. That was more than enough for him to improve to 7-1 against the Panthers, including 6-1 since joining the Bucs (2-5).<\/p>\n
Mayfield didn\u2019t need to do much because Tampa Bay\u2019s run game, defense and special teams dominated. The Bucs had 258 yards on the ground, with Sean Tucker adding a 46-yard touchdown run to put Tampa Bay up by 37.<\/p>\n
Carolina’s Bryce Young turned the ball over three times. Al-Quadin Muhammad had a strip-sack of Young that Calijah Kancey returned 32 yards for a touchdown.<\/p>\n
Young was sacked five times and finished 14 of 27 for 163 yards with two interceptions and a touchdown.<\/p>\n
The Bucs’ special teams recovered a muffed punt by David Moore and blocked an extra point and returned it for 2 points to build a 33-6 lead at halftime.<\/p>\n
The Bucs set the tone from the start, winning the coin toss and electing to receive. Tampa Bay marched 70 yards in 14 plays, with Irving going in for a 4-yard touchdown.<\/p>\n
Even when things appeared to be going right for the Panthers (3-3), something immediately went wrong.<\/p>\n
After Young found a streaking Darren Waller down the middle of the field for a 50-yard touchdown to cut Tampa Bay’s lead to 17-6, the Bucs blocked the ensuing extra point and Zyon McCollum returned it 70 yards to the end zone. As a result, the Panthers netted just four points on the TD.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tKuechly gets his Hall of Fame ring<\/p>\n
The Panthers honored Luke Kuechly at halftime as the former middle linebacker received his Hall of Fame ring as part of a busy afternoon. Kuechly also hit the \u201cKeep Pounding\u201d drum before the game and served as a broadcaster for the Panthers’ radio network.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tInjuries<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay: RB Kenny Gainwell briefly left with a hip injury in the second half but returned. He finished with 14 carries for 88 yards.<\/p>\n
Carolina: RT Taylor Moton, who missed the first four games of the season with blood clots in his lung, was carted off the field in the third quarter with a left ankle\/fibula injury and did not return. <\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tUp next<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay: Host Atlanta on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Carolina: At Green Bay on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
\n See AP\u2019s full NFL coverage here\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) \u2014 Bucky Irving ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns, and Tampa Bay forced four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1036984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[81894,2910,211,7,6,704,250,2597,2596],"class_list":["post-1036983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-ap-sports","tag-associated-press","tag-buccaneers","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/117503447715407765","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}