{"id":647105,"date":"2026-01-02T03:15:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:15:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/647105\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T03:15:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T03:15:28","slug":"bucs-focused-on-beating-panthers-but-need-help-to-win-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/647105\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs focused on beating Panthers, but need help to win division"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said the team had a good week of practice and had good energy.<\/p>\n

But, they\u2019ve had that before and not played well when it counts.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Bucs\u00a0focused on beating Panthers, but need help to win division<\/p>\n

Bucs focused on beating Panthers, but need help to win division<\/p>\n

The Bucs have lost seven of their last eight games, but can still make the playoffs if they beat the Carolina Panthers on Saturday and the Atlanta Falcons lose or tie against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t control the outcome of the Saints-Falcons game, but we can control how we come out with good effort, good attitude,\u201d left tackle Tristan Wirfs said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHave to have a short memory. I do,\u201d quarterback Baker Mayfield added. \u201cI know what the priority is, and that\u2019s win on Saturday. To be able to completely forget what\u2019s going on, no. Being the competitor I am, I\u2019m frustrated with where we\u2019re at.\u201d<\/p>\n

You don\u2019t have to look too far back to find the last meeting between Tampa Bay and Carolina. The two sides met less than two weeks ago in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

In that Week 16 game, the Panthers beat the Bucs 23-20 to take over first place in the NFC South.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey know what you\u2019re going to do already. We just saw you two week ago,\u201d Wirfs said. \u201cIt is like a little game of chess. Just trying to get a leg up on them, who has better hand placement, who has pad level. I think that\u2019s what it comes down to in the trenches. You know their moves, maybe they were holding something back in the first game now they\u2019re going to bring it out in this game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPenalties and little things that shot ourselves in the foot on offense is what really killed us in that game,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cOn multiple drives, penalties and false starts, and just being able to pick up the pressures when they\u2019re there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bucs and Panthers kick off at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Share Your Story with Kyle Burger

For Tampa Bay 28 Sports Anchor Kyle Burger, pride in our local teams goes beyond college and the pros. Sports connect us as communities and families. You can connect with Kyle to share your passion for your local athletes below.
.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County woman nearly loses $10k to elaborate sheriff’s office phone scam<\/p>\n

Sheri Amarillas was sitting in her car on a Tuesday morning, about to walk into an appointment after dropping her kids off at school, when she received a voicemail that would lead to an hour-and-a-half ordeal with sophisticated scammers.<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County woman nearly loses $10k to elaborate sheriff’s office phone scam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said the team had a good week of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2077],"tags":[15759,39102,211,2956,7070,7,6,236,9,704,250,39103,2597,2596,15762,39104],"class_list":["post-647105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-abc-action-news","tag-abc-action-news-sports","tag-buccaneers","tag-bucs","tag-division","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-panthers","tag-sports","tag-tampa-bay","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-bay-sports","tag-tampabay","tag-tampabaybuccaneers","tag-wfts","tag-wfts-sports"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115823334232713551","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647105","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=647105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}