Rapid Reactions: Bucs beat Panthers 9-0 to clinch NFC South Division

[Grahamburn]

27-10!

[mdb1958]

I'll be good with winning not pretty.

This has the makings of a 17-14 type game.

I always lean to where they play how I want them to play - so I'm thinking 42 to 0. Maybe Hall blasting out three sacks.

Think one way and accept another..

[MRM]

Did they play down to the Panthers' level and only did just enough to win and get out of there? They didn't play with a lot of urgency.

[Miller4Prez64]

Did they play down to the Panthers' level and only did just enough to win and get out of there? They didn't play with a lot of urgency.

Our QB was injured and uncomfortable the whole game and our run game was buns as usual. Though I give them credit for running the ball at the very end of the game to put it away. If Baker is healthy he gives us a shot but as we saw yesterday and in 2021, him being tough and playing through injuries doesn’t actually help his team. Hell we saw it with an elite QB this year in Burrow. The Bengals played way better with a healthy Browning at QB than early in the season with an injured Burrow. Trevor Lawrence as well, he played through injuries and the Jaguars fell apart. Only game they won down the stretch was with a healthy Beathard at QB.

[Bootz]

Did they play down to the Panthers' level and only did just enough to win and get out of there? They didn't play with a lot of urgency.

17 games in a season. You're bound to have a dud here or there. But we did some good things yesterday. Defense was damn near perfect. Mclaughlin was perfect as he has been all season. The run game was active. We protected the football.

I feel good about this team going into the playoffs.

[GreatTimes]

Did they play down to the Panthers' level and only did just enough to win and get out of there? They didn't play with a lot of urgency.

17 games in a season. You're bound to have a dud here or there. But we did some good things yesterday. Defense was damn near perfect. Mclaughlin was perfect as he has been all season. The run game was active. We protected the football.

I feel good about this team going into the playoffs.

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

[Xandtar]

You know, this game got me thinking...

We didn't play well on offense. We gave up some big plays on defense. The Panthers screwed up scoring two TD's which is fortunate. But I remember a thread from a few years ago asking which would you rather have, one season of Lombardi and a bunch of years of pure suckage OR many years of playoff berths but no ring? I said at the time, take the Lombardi now and then to hell with the pure suckage, we still get playoff berths, why the hell not. And look, it happened.

Do you remember that magical year? Even with a high-powered offense led by Tom Brady, almost no one among us openly speculated when we got the wild card spot that we were able and likely to win it all, take that Lombardi. But we did. One game at a time. I rememberwhen along the way we'd won the NFC Championship and the story goes one player was crying with joy in the locker room. Tom looked at him and said, 'we haven't won anything yet'. We still have many players from that team, three years more experienced than then. We still have those that remember, and lead.

Because of the way things played out, not only with the Bucs but with our opponents as a whole in a year where the AFC was better than the NFC, we played just well enough in the regular season to make the playoffs. Again. For the fourth year in a row. The ONLY team in the NFC that can say that. We got the dream of multiple playoff berths even without Tom Brady. That means we can dream again about being Super Bowl champions with the same level of conviction as we have of winning the billion-dollar lottery pot. Or we can all go glass-half-empty and say, "Well the Bucs are gonna suck and look like crap in the wild card round". Who the hell knows which team will show up? We know at their very best our Bucs can compete with anybody in the NFL. We know at their worst they can leave us all embarrassed as hell at the water coolers out there next week. And if that's so, okay. This was supposed to be a throwaway year anyway. No one can take three straight NFC South titles away from us. But maybe, just maybe, our HC will get his head straight and our players will perform above expectations, putting us in the divisional round. Away to the Niners, or Cowboys, or even Lions, or home against the Rams, not important at all. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

[Bootz]

17 games in a season. You're bound to have a dud here or there. But we did some good things yesterday. Defense was damn near perfect. Mclaughlin was perfect as he has been all season. The run game was active. We protected the football.

I feel good about this team going into the playoffs.

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

Yep. Good thing.

[Buc2]

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

Yep. Good thing.

Right? Iirc, didn't the Bucs drop a couple INTs in that game as well? But no one wants to talk about that. Call it luck. Call it whatever you want. Shit happens. If not for the strip/sack fumble recovery, we could have had at least 3 missed turnover opportunities as well.

[kaimaru]

17 games in a season. You're bound to have a dud here or there. But we did some good things yesterday. Defense was damn near perfect. Mclaughlin was perfect as he has been all season. The run game was active. We protected the football.

I feel good about this team going into the playoffs.

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

Haven't you heard the saying? If DBs could catch, they would be wide receivers, How many has our DBs dropped this year?

[Bootz]

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

Haven't you heard the saying? If DBs could catch, they would be wide receivers, How many has our DBs dropped this year?

I think Carlton Davis had a potential pick 6 bounce off the palms of his hands.

[GreatTimes]

Good thing the Panters DB's had hands of stone, otherwise Baker would have had 3 picks against him.

Haven't you heard the saying? If DBs could catch, they would be wide receivers, How many has our DBs dropped this year?

Dion Sanders didn't suffer from that ailment.

[kaimaru]

Haven't you heard the saying? If DBs could catch, they would be wide receivers, How many has our DBs dropped this year?

Dion Sanders didn't suffer from that ailment.

Deon Sanders played offense, defense, and special teams. That's like using Brady as an example

[Babeinbucland]

No one is going to want to see this team in the playoffs.


I mean that literally, no one wants to see this level of play in the playoffs

Most of us didn’t want to see it in the regular season

[Babeinbucland]

You know, this game got me thinking...

We didn't play well on offense. We gave up some big plays on defense. The Panthers screwed up scoring two TD's which is fortunate. But I remember a thread from a few years ago asking which would you rather have, one season of Lombardi and a bunch of years of pure suckage OR many years of playoff berths but no ring? I said at the time, take the Lombardi now and then to hell with the pure suckage, we still get playoff berths, why the hell not. And look, it happened.

Do you remember that magical year? Even with a high-powered offense led by Tom Brady, almost no one among us openly speculated when we got the wild card spot that we were able and likely to win it all, take that Lombardi. But we did. One game at a time. I rememberwhen along the way we'd won the NFC Championship and the story goes one player was crying with joy in the locker room. Tom looked at him and said, 'we haven't won anything yet'. We still have many players from that team, three years more experienced than then. We still have those that remember, and lead.

Because of the way things played out, not only with the Bucs but with our opponents as a whole in a year where the AFC was better than the NFC, we played just well enough in the regular season to make the playoffs. Again. For the fourth year in a row. The ONLY team in the NFC that can say that. We got the dream of multiple playoff berths even without Tom Brady. That means we can dream again about being Super Bowl champions with the same level of conviction as we have of winning the billion-dollar lottery pot. Or we can all go glass-half-empty and say, "Well the Bucs are gonna suck and look like crap in the wild card round". Who the hell knows which team will show up? We know at their very best our Bucs can compete with anybody in the NFL. We know at their worst they can leave us all embarrassed as hell at the water coolers out there next week. And if that's so, okay. This was supposed to be a throwaway year anyway. No one can take three straight NFC South titles away from us. But maybe, just maybe, our HC will get his head straight and our players will perform above expectations, putting us in the divisional round. Away to the Niners, or Cowboys, or even Lions, or home against the Rams, not important at all. We'll cross that bridge if we come to it.

And let’s remember that we put up 37 points against the Texans