INJURY REPORT<\/p>\n
DNP: Did not participate in practice<\/p>\n
LP: Limited participation in practice<\/p>\n
FP: Full participation in practice<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0OLB Rueben Bain Jr. (groin) \u2013 WEDS: DNP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0QB Baker Mayfield (illness) \u2013 WEDS: FP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0WR Jalen McMillan (knee) \u2013 WEDS:\u00a0FP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0CB Anthony Nelson (shin) \u2013 WEDS: DNP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0CB Jacob Parrish (back) \u2013 WEDS: FP<\/p>\n
\u2022 LB Josiah Trotter (shoulder) \u2013 WEDS: DNP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0RB DeeJay Dallas (toe) \u2013 WEDS:\u00a0LP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0DL Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins (oblique) \u2013 WEDS: LP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0LB Jake Golday (ankle) \u2013 WEDS:\u00a0DNP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0RB Aaron Jones (knee) \u2013 WEDS:\u00a0DNP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0T Brian O’Neill (knee) \u2013 WEDS: LP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0DL Jalen Redmond (elbow) \u2013 WEDS: LP<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0C Nick Samac (knee) \u2013 WEDS: LP<\/p>\n
\u2022 P Brett Thorson (right hamstring) \u2013 WEDS: DNP<\/p>\n
BUCCANEERS’ UNIFORM COMBINATION<\/p>\n
The Buccaneers will wear white jerseys and pewter pants in Week Three.<\/p>\n
WEATHER FORECAST<\/p>\n
Mostly cloudy. High of 84 (feels like 86), low of 67, no rain expected, 45% humidity, winds out of the NW at 6 mph.<\/p>\n
GAME REFEREE<\/p>\n
Head referee: Scott Novak (13th season, eighth as referee)<\/p>\n
BETTING LINE<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Favorite:\u00a0Vikings\u00a0(-1.5)<\/p>\n
INDIVIDUAL STAT LEADERS<\/p>\n
Points Scored: K Chase McLauglin,\u00a022<\/p>\n
Touchdowns:\u00a0WR Emeka Egbuka\/RB Bucky Irving\/QB Baker Mayfield\/LB Josiah Trotter,\u00a01<\/p>\n
Passing Yards: QB Baker Mayfield,\u00a0398<\/p>\n
Passer Rating: QB Baker Mayfield,\u00a086.6<\/p>\n
Rushing Yards: RB Bucky Irving,\u00a0134<\/p>\n
Receptions:\u00a0RB Bucky Irving,\u00a011<\/p>\n
Receiving Yards: WR\u00a0Chris Godwin,\u00a086<\/p>\n
Interceptions:\u00a0LB Josiah Trotter,\u00a01<\/p>\n
Sacks:\u00a0DL A’Shawn Robinson\/LB Josiah Trotter\/OLB David Walker,\u00a01.0<\/p>\n
Tackles: LB Josiah Trotter, 21<\/p>\n
Points Scored: K\u00a0Will Reichard,\u00a016<\/p>\n
Touchdowns:\u00a0WR Justin Jefferson,\u00a02<\/p>\n
Passing Yards: QB\u00a0Carson Wentz,\u00a0276<\/p>\n
Passer Rating: QB\u00a0Carson Wentz,\u00a0106.4<\/p>\n
Rushing Yards: RB\u00a0Aaron Jones,\u00a0145<\/p>\n
Receptions:\u00a0WR Justin Jefferson,\u00a011<\/p>\n
Receiving Yards:\u00a0WR Justin Jefferson,\u00a0147<\/p>\n
Interceptions:\u00a0CB Byron Murphy\/CB James Pierre,\u00a01<\/p>\n
Sacks:\u00a0OLB Dallas Turner,\u00a03.0<\/p>\n
Tackles: LB Blake Cashman, 17<\/p>\n
TEAM STAT RANKINGS<\/p>\n
Scoring Offense:\u00a016th\u00a0(23.0\u00a0ppg)<\/p>\n
Total Offense:\u00a0t-19th\u00a0(297.5\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Rushing Offense:\u00a0t-12th\u00a0(113.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Passing Offense:\u00a023rd\u00a0(184.5\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
First Downs Per Game:\u00a0t-18th\u00a0(18.0)<\/p>\n
Third-Down Pct.:\u00a09th\u00a0(46.2%)<\/p>\n
Sacks Per Pass Attempt Allowed:\u00a028th\u00a0(11.29%)<\/p>\n
Red Zone TD Pct.: t-26th (37.5%)<\/p>\n
Scoring Defense:\u00a025th\u00a0(28.0\u00a0ppg)<\/p>\n
Total Defense:\u00a013th\u00a0(309.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Rushing Defense:\u00a04th\u00a0(75.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Passing Defense:\u00a021st\u00a0(234.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
First Downs Allowed Per Game:\u00a0t-22nd\u00a0(20.5)<\/p>\n
Third-Down Pct. Allowed:\u00a025th (48.2%)<\/p>\n
Sacks Per Pass Attempt:\u00a027th\u00a0(4.62%)<\/p>\n
Red Zone TD Pct. Allowed:\u00a07th\u00a0(37.5%)<\/p>\n
Turnover Margin: 30th (-4)<\/p>\n
Scoring Offense:\u00a014th\u00a0(24.0\u00a0ppg)<\/p>\n
Total Offense:\u00a032nd\u00a0(242.5\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Rushing Offense:\u00a0t-12th\u00a0(113.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Passing Offense:\u00a031st\u00a0(129.5\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
First Downs Per Game:\u00a029th\u00a0(15.0)<\/p>\n
Third-Down Pct.:\u00a015th (39.3%)<\/p>\n
Sacks Per Pass Attempt Allowed:\u00a031st\u00a0(13.64%)<\/p>\n
Red Zone TD Pct.: t-4th (80.0)<\/p>\n
Scoring Defense:\u00a04th\u00a0(12.5\u00a0ppg)<\/p>\n
Total Defense:\u00a025th\u00a0(358.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Rushing Defense:\u00a014th\u00a0(100.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
Passing Defense:\u00a028th\u00a0(258.0\u00a0ypg)<\/p>\n
First Downs Allowed Per Game:\u00a0t-14th\u00a0(18.0)<\/p>\n
Third-Down Pct. Allowed:\u00a08th\u00a0(29.6%)<\/p>\n
Sacks Per Pass Attempt:\u00a05th\u00a0(10.39%)<\/p>\n
Red Zone TD Pct. Allowed:\u00a03rd\u00a0(14.3%)<\/p>\n
Turnover Margin: t-1st (+3)<\/p>\n
WHAT TO WATCH FOR<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0A Tampa Bay victory\u00a0on Sunday would\u00a0be notable for General Manager Jason Licht in that it would be the team’s 100th\u00a0victory, including playoffs, since he stepped into his current post in 2014. He would become the first general manager in franchise history to reach 100 wins.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Baker Mayfield is two\u00a0touchdown passes away from reaching 200 in his career in the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Mayfield\u00a0is close to moving into the top five in franchise history in passing yards. He currently ranks seventh with 12,635 yards, but\u00a0he\u00a0only needs\u00a016 more to leapfrog Doug Williams (12,648) for sixth place. If he has a particularly productive outing against the Vikings and gets\u00a0335 yards or more, he will also pass Trent Dilfer (12,969) for fifth place.<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Safety Antoine Winfield Jr. has nine career interceptions. With one more, he would become just the 16th defensive back in NFL history to combine 10 interceptions with\u00a0at least 15 sacks and at least 500 tackles. Only five of those 16 were able to do so in their first seven seasons: Bill Bates, Dave Duerson, Rondey Harrison, Derwin James and Adrian Wilson.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Kicker Chase McLaughlin has scored 414 points since joining the Buccaneers in 2023. With one more field goal, he would jump over both Donald Igwebuike (416) and Matt Bryant (416) for the sixth most points scored in Bucs history. If McLaughlin gets three field goals, he would join Martin Gramatica, Michael Husted and Connor Barth as the only kickers in team annals to get to 100 successful field goals.<\/p>\n
NOTABLY QUOTABLE<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Head Coach\u00a0Todd Bowles\u00a0on\u00a0whether QB Baker Mayfield is trying to do too much: “No, I think anytime you don’t play well, it starts with the coaches. It starts from me, then the offensive coaches, then the players as well all around him. We’ve got to make sure that he’s doing the right thing, and he makes sure he does the right thing. He studies the right way. We’ve got to execute better. Obviously, we’ve got to call plays better and we’ve got to game plan better, so it’s all-inclusive with the offensive line and the quarterback, the [wide] receivers and the running backs and the coaches.”<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Quarterback\u00a0Baker Mayfield\u00a0on\u00a0frustrations regarding the Buccaneers’ offense:\u00a0“[I’m] frustrated because it’s close. You can feel it. You can see it. We’re moving the ball at times, and then just shooting ourselves in the foot. So, that makes it more frustrating when you know you’re right there. Our group is more than capable of handling stuff like this, but we [have to] really be self-critical, look at the tape, get stuff fixed and [we] just can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over.”<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Tackle\u00a0Tristan Wirfs\u00a0on what\u00a0limited the offense against Cleveland:\u00a0“I thought we were moving the ball well – a couple drives stalled out with some penalties.\u00a0They’re all post-snap penalties \u2013 guys are trying to play hard\u00a0\u2013\u00a0there’s never a question of the effort in this room. I think everybody cares a lot and everybody feels sick about it.”<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Wide receiver\u00a0Jalen McMillan\u00a0on returning to action last week in a limited capacity and now being ready for more:\u00a0“It felt so good, bro. Just being out so long had me in such a dump. I was just trying to get my mental right for this day and, yeah, it came and I’m healthy and I’m feeling good, so I’m ready.”<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Linebacker\u00a0Alex Anzalone\u00a0on whether the locker room believes they can dig themselves out of the\u00a00-2\u00a0hole:\u00a0“For sure, yeah. We’ve got the guys, we’ve got the right group. It’s just a matter of putting it together and in my experience, you hit adversity at different points in a season and we’re hitting it\u00a0early and we’ll see where it goes. But this isn’t something that’s necessarily new to me. I’ve been in situations like this before, we just got to dig ourselves out of it.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INJURY REPORT DNP: Did not participate in practice LP: Limited participation in practice FP: Full participation in practice…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[589,7874,135,137,136,161674],"class_list":["post-409254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-featured","tag-game-preview","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-week-3-2026-vikings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409254","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=409254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}