{"id":896416,"date":"2026-05-20T13:39:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:39:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896416\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:39:16","slug":"nfl-com-bucs-finish-8-9-no-playoffs-joebucsfan-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/896416\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL.com: Bucs Finish 8-9, No Playoffs – JoeBucsFan.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

NFL.com predicts sad season.<\/p>\n

If a pair of stenographers typing for the NFL\u2019s house organ are correct, it\u2019s going to be another torturous December around these parts.<\/p>\n

Ali Bhanpuri and Tom Blair of NFL.com decided to pick the winner of every game in the NFL this fall. And the Bucs, once again, will finish with a losing record and will miss the playoffs.<\/p>\n

If that happens, we have a pretty good idea of Team Glazer might react.<\/p>\n

And both of those guys have the Dixie Chicks winning the division. It\u2019s always the Dixie Chicks for the national media types. When in doubt, it\u2019s the Dixie Chicks.<\/p>\n

Some things never change.<\/p>\n

Blair states his reason for the Bucs missing the playoffs for the second straight season is that he has Baker Mayfield fatigue. Each year, he banks on Mayfield turning the corner and joining elite quarterbacks in leading their teams to a Super Bowl run.<\/p>\n

Blair must have been listening to \u201cThe Who.\u201d He said he won\u2019t get fooled again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I seem to fall for Baker Mayfield and the Bucs every year, and a rollicking 6-3 first half should suck me in again \u2014 only for the bottom to fall out with another post-bye slump. The Lions, Chargers and Rams complicate things, but the main culprit is once again an inability to beat division rivals (the Saints in Week 15 and the Falcons in Week 16) down the stretch until a too-little, too-late final gasp, in this case in New Orleans. I\u2019m not completely discounting the possibility that additions made to the defense (Rueben Bain Jr.) or improved health on the O-line keeps the Bucs viable for longer this time around, maybe giving them the chance to flip another one of those NFC South matchups or upset one of the two L.A. squads. In fact, that\u2019s a good note to tuck away for later, when November recency bias takes hold. For now, the lingering disappointment of 2025 is still obviously the most important thing to factor in here.<\/p>\n

Joe feels Blair\u2019s pain. The Bucs losing seven of their final nine games really rattled Joe. And Joe isn\u2019t ready to believe the Bucs have better personnel than last year.<\/p>\n

If Mayfield can put this team on his back after the bye the way he did in several wins before the bye, Joe would feel a lot better.<\/p>\n

Bhanpuri has the Bucs going 3-3 in the crappy NFC South. Blair has the Bucs going 2-4 in crappy NFC South games.<\/p>\n

Here is how Bhanpuri and Blair see the Bucs\u2019 season playing out:<\/p>\n

Schedule, Ali\u2019s Picks, Tom\u2019s Picks
Week 1: at Bengals L L
Week 2: vs. Browns W W
Week 3: vs. Vikings L W
Week 4: vs. Packers L W
Week 5: at Cowboys W W
Week 6: vs. Steelers W W
Week 7: at Panthers L L
Week 8: vs. Falcons W L
Week 9: at Bears W W
Week 10: BYE \u2014 \u2014
Week 11: at Lions L L
Week 12: vs. Panthers W W
Week 13: vs. Chargers W L
Week 14: at Ravens L L
Week 15: vs. Saints W L
Week 16: at Falcons L L
Week 17: vs. Rams L L
Week 18: at Saints L W
Final Record: 8-9 8-9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NFL.com predicts sad season. If a pair of stenographers typing for the NFL\u2019s house organ are correct, it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":896417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[2599,2598,7,6,84,250],"class_list":["post-896416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl-playoffs","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-football","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-playoffs","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116607186581353995","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896416","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=896416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/896417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}