TAMPA (WFLA) – As the Buccaneers regular season comes to a close. The NFC South champions are not looking past their week 18 opponent the Carolina Panthers as they look to lock up the NFC’s no.2 playoff spot.
The defending Super Bowl champions are not planning to rest healthy starters for the team’s regular-season finale against their NFC South rival who have lost six straight and 11 of their past 13 games overall.
Depending on what happens on Sunday, the Buccaneers will host a playoff game as either the second, third or fourth seed, and they’ll face either the San Francisco 49ers, Philadelphia Eagles or Arizona Cardinals in Round One.
The game Florida many Buccaneers fans will want to keep an eye on is between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams.
A Rams loss would clinch the Buccaneers the no. 2 seed in the NFC, however, a 49ers win would also clinch the elimination of the New Orleans Saints, a team that the Buccaneers have lost to twice this season.
The Buccaneers defeated the Eagles in week 6 of the regular season but will be without key components of their offense from that matchup including wide receiver Antonio Brown who had 9 catches for 93 yards and a touchdown.
For Sunday’s game against the Panthers, the Bucs will be without starting RB’s Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette as well as key members of the defense including Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul.
As bad as that all sounds, Buccaneers Head Coach Bruce Arians provided some hope after practice for the Bucs’ postseason.
“Hopefully, we’ll have almost everybody back defensively next week, so we’ll wait and see how that goes,” Let’s win this week and set a franchise record for a number of wins because it’s a big goal, Florida man. 13 wins is huge.”
