Carolina Panthers (4-11) @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (8-7)
Sunday, December 29, 1:00 PM ET
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers really couldn’t go on the road and get a win against Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys?
For real?
This Buccaneers team has been so much fun for a lot of this season, but they are now risking potentially blowing their lead in the NFC South with the Falcons getting a win in the debut of Michael Penix Jr. and the red-hot Carolina Panthers coming to town.
Yes, I said the red-hot Carolina Panthers. The Panthers could have easily won six of their last seven games if not for a couple of really close calls in one-score games. The only game the Panthers got dog-walked, incidentally, was also against Cooper Rush and the Dallas Cowboys.
Is Cooper Rush…good? More on that later.
The Panthers are bringing Bryce Young to Tampa Bay where Dave Canales will face off against his former team. And the Pathers will be looking to play spoiler as the Bucs try to fend off the Atlanta Falcons. On paper, you would think this game is overwhelmingly going to favor the Bucs, but after their loss to the Cowboys…I’m not so sure.
Vegas is not buying into the Bucs’ loss to the Cowboys nor the second-half resurgence of Bryce Young and the Panthers. They have the Bucs winning this game by at least a touchdown (Bucs are 7.5-point favorites). I’m just not rocking with that projection this week.
The Panthers have all of the tools to pull off an upset here against a division rival. I think they are going to have the Bucs looking like Jack Sparrow walking the plank, and it’s going to take a bit of last-second heroics for Tampa Bay to be able to say the Panthers “almost caught Jack Sparrow”.
Why do I have to make a stupid pirate reference every time I’m talking about the Bucs? Sorry.
Prediction: Buccaneers win 26-24