The Bucs are coming off of one of the worst performances I’ve ever had the displeasure of witnessing live.
The team got Who Dat-ed 38-3 against the New Orleans Saints Sunday night on national TV, making for an embarrassing showing for the team from the 813.
But we’re moving forward, right? Onto better things? Like hopefully beating the crap out of the Carolina Panthers?
Well, hold your horses. The Panthers are a sneaky-good team, with a quarterback in Teddy Bridgewater who has a very similar play-style to Drew Brees (Bridgewater spent two years as Brees’ backup in the Big Easy). High completion percentage, not a lot of big plays down the field, a lot of checkdowns to running backs. Plus, more importantly, the Bucs might be without their starting left guard, Ali Marpet, an important piece of the Bucs’ somewhat-solid offensive line. Carlton Davis, one of the few relatively competent members of the Bucs secondary, is also questionable.
Without those two guys, a cakewalk against the Panthers is a little less probably. Not that it was going to be a cakewalk anyways. The Panthers made the first matchup between these two division rivals a pretty close game, with the Bucs narrowly taking the victory 31-17.
In any other game, this would all spell disaster for the Bucs. But Tom Brady doesn’t take losing in embarrassing fashion very well. When TB12 came to Tampa, I’m sure he didn’t have the mental image of getting run off the field by the Saints at home, so look for him to take out that frustration on a very suspect Carolina Panthers secondary. It doesn’t help the Panthers that their top corner, Donte Jackson, is questionable for Sunday with a toe injury, and their superstar running back Christian McCaffrey is still going to be out with a shoulder injury (much to the detriment of my fantasy football team).
The Bucs will beat the Panthers handily, 31-13, and hopefully they’ll run the ball more than five times. Hopefully.
Follow @ctbrantley12 on Twitter.
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This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2020.