Buccaneers' Playoff Chances: A Look at NFC Dark Horse

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00:00For the Bucs, I don't think this is a game to overreact on.

00:05I actually feel even more confident in what I said heading into it,

00:10where if you are a believer in this team, a loss is good for you.

00:15Look at Tampa Bay and the NFC market now.

00:17Dropping like a rock, 14-1, that is more than double the number of a Seattle Seahawks team.

00:23Yet the Bucs are significantly bigger favorites to host a home playoff game than Seattle.

00:28In fact, probably that game would be against Seattle, the team that they've already beaten here.

00:33For the Bucs, the goals are very simple.

00:37Get healthy, win your division.

00:40They can only get healthier, it feels like, right?

00:43Though famous last words in San Francisco.

00:45And they're still big favorites to win that division, Lisi.

00:49Yeah, I think the biggest thing, too, is we see younger players, Kev,

00:53getting incorporated in duty that maybe they wouldn't have gained

00:57throughout the regular season.

00:59Players like Sean Tucker that accounted for three touchdowns.

01:02Tez Johnson that has stepped up in the passing attack.

01:06So when you get those playmakers back, hopefully like Mike Evans

01:09and some of the others like McMillan in the passing attack,

01:12that if it's a playoff environment,

01:14Baker Mayfield has multiple targets and weapons to utilize.

01:18Once Bucky Irvin comes back,

01:21they have now a three-headed monster at the running back position.

01:24Rashad White, Tucker, and Bucky Irvin, you have fresh legs at all times.

01:29This team is potentially built as a dark horse to maybe make an NFC

01:33championship run.

01:34And I'll just say this.

01:36I know they lost to Detroit in the regular season,

01:40but if they were to meet up, let's say, in a playoff type of setting,

01:44I would still buy into Baker as an underdog in that type of situation.

01:50They never get respect.

01:52They have won playoff games with Baker Mayfield.

01:55They have played toe-to-toe with some of the best competition on their schedule,

01:59including going to Buffalo on Sunday and going toe-to-toe with them

02:03for basically 54 minutes.

02:05I mean, what more can you ask for out of this team?

02:08I think, again, they're not a perfect team.

02:12They're not going to be 17-0.

02:13But if they are an 11-win football team, they're going to be a choice

02:19to think about big picture outside the Eagles to maybe make a run.