Tampa Bay Buccaneers Week 12 playoff picture: Bucs take a step forward on their bye week
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't play on Sunday, enjoying a bye week to rest many hurting bodies and get set up for a key stretch run to what they hope is their fifth straight postseason appearance. However, despite not being on the field, they now stand even closer to a possible playoff spot than they […]
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn't play on Sunday, enjoying a bye week to rest many hurting bodies and get set up for a key stretch run to what they hope is their fifth straight postseason appearance.
However, despite not being on the field, they now stand even closer to a possible playoff spot than they did before.
The Bucs now sit just one game back in the loss column from the NFC South-leading Atlanta Falcons. Atlanta suffered a 38-6 drubbing at the hands of the Denver Broncos on Sunday afternoon, showing warts that the Buccaneers weren't able to expose in their two matchups this season.
As such, the path to the NFC South remains one that's very possible for the Buccaneers. In fact, out of all teams in the NFL.com playoff predictor that are on the outside looking in, the Bucs have the best playoff percentage chance right now at 41%. Again, that's largely due to their proximity to the Falcons for the division lead. The Falcons also have games coming up the next two weeks against the 7-3 Los Angeles Chargers and at the 8-2 Minnesota Vikings.
Things are a little bit tougher in the wild card race, although the Bucs did get some help there as well.
Seattle snatched a late victory from San Francisco, knocking the 49ers down to 5-5. Since they hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bucs by virtue of their Week 10 win, Tampa Bay needs to see San Francisco either win the NFC West or fall below them in the wild card standings.
Things were almost great, had the Chicago Bears knocked off the Green Bay Packers. However, the Packers blocked a 46-yard field goal as time expired to continue their dominance over their division rival and make the wild card race that much tougher for the Bucs.
At this point, the most attainable goal is the division for Tampa Bay. We'll find out starting this weekend against the Giants if they can take a step towards turning their 2024 season around.
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