Niners Nation
The Carolina Panthers are 7-2 in close games, while the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 5-6. Both teams are in the bottom 20 in point differential. Tampa Bay is 31st in average margin of victory, while the Panthers are 29th. The NFC South, everybody.
We have ourselves as close to a play-in situation as it gets between the Panthers and Buccaneers…kind of. As we discussed in the NFC Playoff picture ahead of Week 18’s games, the Panthers could lose this game and still make the playoffs. They’ll need some help from the Atlanta Falcons.
Tampa Bay needs a win and the Falcons to lose.
No matter what ends up happening in San Francisco’s game Saturday, the winner of this game could play the 49ers soon.
If the 49ers win Saturday night to take the one seed, they could see the NFC South winner in the divisional round if all the home teams win on Wild Card weekend.
If the 49ers lose Saturday night and the Rams lose on Sunday, San Francisco would be the five seed and travel to the winner of the NFC South in the Wild Card round.
Based on how they’ve played this year, the Bucs don’t deserve to be in the postseason. Baker Mayfield lives on the injury report and plays like a quarterback who has been perpetually banged up. He’s a different quarterback than the one the San Francisco 49ers faced back in Week 6. In that game, Mayfield had an average yards per attempt of 11.1. He’s only had two games with over seven yards per attempt.
Bryce Young has outplayed Mayfield this year, which is how both teams have arrived at Week 18. Carolina is ahead of schedule. It showed last week, and it should again here against Todd Bowles, who has seemingly spent the past month calling out his team.
The talent level for the Bucs should prevail on Saturday afternoon. We’ll find out on Sunday whether that’s enough for Tampa Bay to make the playoffs.
