need help<\/a>\u00a0to get in.<\/p>\nFirst, they must beat Carolina on Saturday to snap a four-game losing streak. Then, the Falcons have to lose or tie to the Saints on Sunday.<\/p>\n
If that happens, the Buccaneers (7-9) would secure their fifth straight NFC South title and second with a losing record under coach Todd Bowles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have to win the game on Saturday and then we\u2019ll see,\u201d Bowles said Tuesday. \u201cWe\u2019ve made this bed (and) we understand that. We can\u2019t do anything on Sunday unless we win Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a team that started 3-0, 5-1 and was 6-2 at the bye, it\u2019s taken a lot of poor football to reach this point. The Bucs had a soft schedule over the past month and still couldn\u2019t beat teams with losing records. They lost at home to the Saints, blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead at home to the Falcons, lost at Carolina and to a backup quarterback in Miami.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m stunned to be in this position \u2014 it\u2019s disappointing, it\u2019s frustrating and it\u2019s part of the ebbs and (flows) of the season,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cThis is the first season we\u2019ve gone through something like this at the end of the season, so you try to make the best of it, and you try to come out of it. You put your head down and you keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Baker Mayfield, who played at an MVP caliber over the first month of the season, has thrown critical interceptions in the fourth quarter in each of the past three losses. He had his full complement of wide receivers in only those three games this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s how well can you execute,\u201d he said. \u201cYou look at the things we\u2019ve messed up in these last few games, you\u2019ve got to be able to do the little details, right. Everything \u2014 you never know when that play is going to really make the difference. So, be on your p\u2019s and q\u2019s on normal downs and distances, and obviously, third downs and red zone (we) have to be really locked in. How well can we do our jobs? That\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pro Bowl left tackle Tristan Wirfs missed the previous game because of a toe injury and didn\u2019t practice Tuesday. Cornerback Jamel Dean (shoulder), cornerback Benjamin Morrison (hamstring) and linebacker Anthony Nelson (knee) also didn\u2019t practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (AP) \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers showed up for practice on Tuesday for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[2205,28,115,4548,110,135,4547,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-101072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-associated-press","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-professional-football","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tampa","14":"tag-tampa-bay-bucs","15":"tag-tampa-headlines","16":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101072","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}