The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been in an extended rut lately, dropping five of their last six games, raising some serious concerns about the team’s playoff hopes. That being said, the team received a bit of luck following the Carolina Panthers’ loss to the New Orleans Saints, allowing the Bucs to take possession of first place in the NFC South.
Now that the Buccaneers and Panthers are going to have to play each other twice before the end of the regular season, Tampa controls its own destiny. It’s been an up-and-down season for the Bucs, with injuries contributing to the team’s inconsistency all year long. Well, for the first time in a long time, the Bucs might be close to 100%.
Todd Bowles Provides Insight About Team’s Injury Status
The Buccaneers’ season could very well be determined by how they perform on Sunday against the Panthers. Although mathematically, they only need to win two of their three remaining games, the team needs to treat it as a do-or-die situation. Luckily for the Bucs, it appears that it might be all hands on deck for the pivotal matchup.
“Everybody’s in play,” Bowles explained to the media. “It’s been a long time.”
Despite having several players such as Zyon McCollum and Ben Bredeson on the IR, the Bucs have no players with any questionable or game-time decision designations heading into the showdown with the Panthers.
Thanks to this improvement from a health perspective, head coach Todd Bowles and the rest of the coaching staff will have to make a difficult decision for seemingly the first time all season: determining which players won’t play without health being a factor.
“We’ve got a lot of guys up, it’s going to be hard putting a lot of people down,” Bowles continued.
Thanks to the return of wide receivers Mike Evans and Jalen McMillan last week, as well as Bucky Irving and Chris Godwin Jr. over the last month, the Buccaneers’ offense should be able to fire on all cylinders finally. The Panthers have struggled to shut down opponents this year, ranking 27th in the NFL according to PFSN’s Defense Impact rankings.
It is worth noting, however, that the Buccaneers’ considerable health improvement puts more pressure on head coach Todd Bowles and his staff to right the ship. Bowles has been in the hot seat throughout this rough stretch, and he won’t be able to use injuries as an excuse if the team fails to execute against Carolina this weekend.
