TAMPA, Fla. — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-7) playoff chances are slim, but there is still hope.
The Bucs are only one game out of first place in the NFL South despite losing six of its last seven games. Coach Todd Bowles even said after their Week 12 loss at the Colts, “it feels like we’re ten games out.”
Tampa Bay will try to stop bleeding this Sunday and get a win against the one-win Carolina Panthers.
“Yeah, it’s got to start Sunday,” Bowles said Wednesday. “We don’t care if it’s a 12-0 team or a 1-10 team. We got to start with ourselves. We have to play hard no matter who we are playing on Sunday.”
“My mindset right now and it should be for the whole team, we are in a playoff mode mentality,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said. “We have to take care of business each week to move on and to get where we want to go. We don’t have any more room. There is no slack.”
The Bucs looked like a team on the rise winning three of their first four games — then to suddenly nose dive. But the players say the locker room still has a positive mindset.
“It’s hard, it’s extremely hard losing like this,” wide receiver Mike Evans said. “Fortunately for us, our goals are still there. It can still be accomplished. That’s what is keeping me balanced right now.”
“Obviously, it’s not what we had planned,” Mayfield added. “But at a certain point, just look in the mirror. Get your job fixed and try to elevate everyone else around you.”
Carolina (1-10) may only have one victory, but Evans expects to see a dangerous Panthers team on Sunday after they fired head coach Frank Reich on Monday.
“I see it a lot this year in college where an interim coach steps in or a new coach steps in,” Evans said. “It’s a different type of energy, and they have nothing to lose.”
The Bucs and Panthers will kick off at 4:05 p.m. on Sunday.
