– The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Carolina Panthers, 16-14, to improve to 8-9 on the season and regain a share of the NFC South lead. With a win by the New Orleans Saints over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday, or a tie, the Buccaneers would earn their sixth straight playoff berth and claim their fifth straight division title. In doing so, the Buccaneers would become the first NFC team since the 1992\u20131996 Dallas Cowboys to win five straight division titles. The Buccaneers would also join the Buffalo Bills as the only teams in the NFL to make the playoffs in each of the past six seasons (2020\u201325).<\/p>\n
– The Buccaneers have reached at least eight wins for the sixth consecutive season, which ties the longest-such streak in franchise history (1997\u20132002). Currently, only Pittsburgh (22 seasons), Baltimore (10), Buffalo (7) and Green Bay (7) have longer active streaks.<\/p>\n
– The victory marked Tampa Bay\u2019s sixth straight home win against the Panthers, their longest active home winning streak against any opponent. The six straight home wins is tied for their longest home winning streak against a single opponent in franchise history, joining a six-game stretch against Washington from 1994\u20132007 and a six-game stretch versus Minnesota from 1998\u20132008.<\/p>\n
– Saturday\u2019s win was Tampa Bay\u2019s sixth straight game decided by four or fewer points, the second-longest streak in franchise history behind a seven-game run between the 2000 and 2001 seasons. It is the longest such streak within a single season in team history.<\/p>\n
– The Buccaneers allowed just 19 rush yards on the day, their fewest in a single game since Week 4 of the 2021 season against the New England Patriots (-1). The 19 yards allowed is the ninth-fewest allowed in a single game in franchise history.<\/p>\n
– Carolina averaged 1.36 yards per carry (14 carries for 19 yards) on Saturday, the seventh-worst average in their franchise history. Conversely, the 1.36 average allowed was Tampa Bay\u2019s 12th-lowest mark allowed in a single game in Buccaneers franchise history. The 1.36 mark was the second-lowest allowed by any team in a single game this season, trailing only the 1.25 figure allowed by the Pittsburgh Steelers against the Detroit Lions in Week 16.<\/p>\n
– The Buccaneers yielded just 16 first downs to Carolina on Saturday, their third-fewest allowed in a single game this season. Tampa Bay allowed the Panthers to gain just one rushing first down on the day, its fewest allowed in a game this season and fewest since Week 15 of the 2024 season against the Los Angeles Chargers.<\/p>\n
– Tampa Bay limited Carolina to 1-of-8 (12.5%) on third down attempts on Saturday, with the one conversion allowed marking the fewest the Buccaneers have permitted in a game this season and the fewest since Week 15 of the 2024 season against the Los Angeles Chargers (zero). Similarly, the 12.5% conversion rate was Tampa Bay\u2019s lowest success rate allowed in a game since that same Chargers game (0-for-6; 0%).<\/p>\n
– LB Lavonte David finished with a team-high six tackles and one fumble recovery. In recording six tackles on the night, David tied Pro Football Hall of Famer Derrick Brooks for sixth place all-time in tackles recorded by StatsPass with 1,714. Per StatsPass records, David and Brooks are tied as Tampa Bay\u2019s all-time leading tacklers.<\/p>\n
– David\u2019s fumble recovery was his 35th career takeaway, joining him with Pro Football Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Brian Urlacher as the only players with 40+ sacks and 35+ takeaways since at least 1982. In his career, David has 21 career fumble recoveries, a franchise record, most among all active players, and second-most among all players since 1991 (Jason Taylor, 29).<\/p>\n
– OLB Yaya Diaby added four tackles, including his team-leading 13th tackle for loss of the year. The 13 tackles for loss are tied (also, 2024) for his career high. Diaby is 1-of-7 players since 2008 with 12+ tackles for loss in each of their first three seasons (also, Lavonte David, Maxx Crosby, Aaron Donald, Khalil Mack, Micah Parsons and J.J. Watt).<\/p>\n
– CB Jacob Parrish contributed three tackles, one pass defensed and one interception. The interception marked his second of the year, joining Week 11 at Buffalo.<\/p>\n
– S Antoine Winfield Jr. recorded three tackles and one pass defensed. The pass defensed marked his eighth of the year, which are his second-most in a single season of his career.<\/p>\n
– CB Benjamin Morrison logged two tackles and his first career fumble recovery, smothering the loose ball on the final play of the game.<\/p>\n
– In his first game back from injury, DL Calijah Kancey produced one quarterback hit. He\u2019s 1-of-12 interior defensive linemen since the start of the 2023 season to average over one quarterback hit per game.<\/p>\n
– The Buccaneers ran for 140 yards across 42 carries, posting a new season-high in rushing attempts in a single game. The 140-yard performance was Tampa Bay\u2019s 11th 100-yard rushing performance this season, tied for the eighth-most such games of any team this year.<\/p>\n
– On the season, the Buccaneers ran for 1,947 yards, the eighth-most in a single season in club history. Their 4.13 yards per carry average is the ninth-best mark in team history.<\/p>\n
– Tampa Bay posted a season-best 37:25\u201322:35 time of possession margin.<\/p>\n
– QB Baker Mayfield completed 16-of-22 passes (72.7%) for 203 yards and one touchdown with one interception to produce a 97.3 passer rating. He added four carries for 31 rushing yards on the night. With his 31 rushing yards,Mayfield increased his season total to a career-high 382 rushing yards.<\/p>\n
– TE Cade Otton finished as Tampa Bay\u2019s leading receiver on Saturday, bringing in seven receptions for 94 yards and one touchdown. The touchdown grab marked his first of the season, and with it he surpassed Ron Hall (10) for ninth, and tied Calvin Magee and Alex Smith (11) for the seventh-most receiving touchdowns among tight ends in franchise history. Otton\u2019s 94 receiving yards on the day marked a new season-high, and was the second-highest output in a single game in his career, trailing only Week 7 of the 2024 season vs. Baltimore (100).<\/p>\n
– WR Mike Evans brought in two catches for 34 yards. In doing so, he surpassed Jason Witten (13,046) for the 21st-most receiving yards in NFL history.<\/p>\n
– K Chase McLaughlin went 3-for-4 on field goal tries on the day, 29, 36 and 48 yards out. It marked McLaughlin\u2019s fifth game this season with three-or-more made field goal attempts. With his 10 total kicking points on the night, McLaughlin surpassed Ryan Succop (384) for the eighth-most points scored in franchise history.<\/p>\n
(Courtesy of the Buccaneers Communications Department.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"– The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Carolina Panthers, 16-14, to improve to 8-9 on the season and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[211,7,6,704,250,64674,2597,2596],"class_list":{"0":"post-653348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-buccaneers","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-tampa-bay","12":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","13":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers-game-information","14":"tag-tampabay","15":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115837112606481048","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653348","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=653348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}