Even though we’re used to the bad product over the last two months, it’s still pretty wild to think the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ final game of the 2025 season could be a regular season game.

But as Todd Bowles said Monday, they’ve made their bed. The Buccaneers’ inability to win a bad NFC South division has left them in a spot where not only do they need to beat the Carolina Panthers on Saturday – the New Orleans Saints have to beat the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday or else the Panthers get into the playoffs via the NFL’s three-way tiebreaker for division teams.

Of course, though, the Bucs have to take care of business on Saturday, but will they?

Let’s talk about why or why not and make some final score predictions along the way.

Panthers 27, Buccaneers 17

The Bucs simply haven’t found any solutions to their problems over the last several weeks while teams continue to figure out more ways to beat them. They’ve fallen behind the 8-ball and now they have to play the Panthers for the second time in less than 14 days.

Baker Mayfield and the offense remain inconsistent and mistake-prone and unfortunately for Mayfield, Ejiro Evero runs a lot of single-high coverage shells. The difference in Mayfield’s production against two-high and single-high shells is staggering, and not in a good way.

On top of that, the rushing attack is unreliable and honestly, it doesn’t seem like Josh Grizzard knows what to do with Bucky Irving and the rest when it comes to game-planning. Grizzard and Bowles were adamant about getting 30+ carries against the Panthers in Week 16 and then handed the ball off just 13 times in a game they were never out of vs. the Miami Dolphins in Week 17.

Then there’s the defense – the bane of the Bucs’ existence over the back half of the season. Bowles will be down both starting corners in Jamel Dean and Zyon McCollum and while Calijah Kancey should make his return, it’s a complete toss-up as to what kind of effect he has on the game.

The Panthers offense should be able to find balanced success to keep the defense off-kilter and that will create enough plays to put Carolina ahead of a struggling Bucs offense. That’ll be the difference in the knockout blow that ends Tampa Bay’s season and creates a pivotal offseason that will define the direction of the franchise.

– Evan Winter, A to Z Tampa Bay

Panthers 26, Buccaneers 23

The not-quite-de-facto NFC South championship game won’t be terribly dissimilar to what we saw between the two teams just a couple of weeks ago. The Bucs’ defense, despite getting some big-time help in Kancey, won’t get enough pressure on Bryce Young, and with Jamel Dean out, Tet McMillan makes Tampa Bay’s secondary pay repeatedly.

The Bucs’ offense is able to move the ball in a relatively balanced fashion again – they had 169 rushing yards two weeks ago – but once again, they can’t finish in the end zone after crossing the 20-yard line. One too many field goals sends Tampa Bay into the offseason in one of the worst slides in recent memory. 

– Craig Smith, A to Z Tampa Bay

Panthers 24, Buccaneers 21

Similar to last time, I see this being a close game that comes down to the wire. To me, the Buccaneers still feel like a team crawling to the finish with little to no motivation other than saving their own jobs compared to how the vibes are in Carolina. Dave Canales has done a great job rallying his team together after a loss this season and Saturday won’t be any different.

With the opportunity to end this once and for all, I see Bryce Young adding another game-winning drive to his resume securing a walk-off field goal to help punch the last minute ticket to the playoffs. Even if the Panthers somehow manage to lose this one, the team still has the fail-safe on Sunday if the Falcons can beat the Saints.

– Kole Noble, A to Z Carolina

Final Word

It’s simply impossible to trust this Buccaneers team and while the Panthers are a middling team at best, they’ve given outsiders way more reasons to trust them than the Bucs have and that’s inarguable.

We’ll see if the Bucs can give folks a reason to believe in them again, but it’s going to take the best effort they given in months and that’s not something a team just can snap out of, as Bowles mentioned a couple of weeks ago.

If they don’t it’s lights out and if that’s not enough of a motivator, then nothing is.

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