{"id":425699,"date":"2026-10-12T17:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425699\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T17:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:02:35","slug":"week-5-nfc-south-update-are-the-buccaneers-still-last-in-the-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/425699\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 5 NFC South Update: Are the Buccaneers Still Last in the Division?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9u\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/buccaneers\/onsi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tampa Bay Buccaneers <\/a>got their big win in Week 5 out of the way early, beating the Dallas Cowboys 24-16 at AT&amp;T Stadium. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9z\">They got to have the rest of the week off and sit back on Sunday while the rest of the league played its Sunday slate. Two other teams in the NFC South played their games, while the Carolina Panthers took the Sunday off too \u2014 they were on their bye week, though.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a4\">Here&#8217;s how the Atlanta Falcons and the New Orleans Saints did, and where the Bucs sit in the division \u2014 their win changed some things around in the NFC South. <\/p>\n<p>Buccaneers No Longer Last in the NFC South<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01m4q6venm774yqa1khd.jpg\" alt=\"Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles reacts during the second half against the Cleveland Browns\" title=\"Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles reacts during the second half against the Cleveland Browns\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"al\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Tampa Bay Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles reacts during the second half against the Cleveland Browns | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Team<\/p>\n<p>W<\/p>\n<p>L<\/p>\n<p>T<\/p>\n<p>Pct. <\/p>\n<p>PF<\/p>\n<p>PA<\/p>\n<p>Home<\/p>\n<p>Away <\/p>\n<p>Strk<\/p>\n<p>Carolina Panthers<\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>.500<\/p>\n<p>121<\/p>\n<p>109<\/p>\n<p>1-1<\/p>\n<p>1-1<\/p>\n<p>W1<\/p>\n<p>Atlanta Falcons<\/p>\n<p>2<\/p>\n<p>3<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>.400<\/p>\n<p>119<\/p>\n<p>122<\/p>\n<p>0-2<\/p>\n<p>2-1<\/p>\n<p>L1<\/p>\n<p>Tampa Bay Buccaneers<\/p>\n<p>1<\/p>\n<p>4<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>.200<\/p>\n<p>100<\/p>\n<p>112<\/p>\n<p>0-3<\/p>\n<p>1-1<\/p>\n<p>W1<\/p>\n<p>New Orleans Saints<\/p>\n<p>1<\/p>\n<p>4<\/p>\n<p>0<\/p>\n<p>.200<\/p>\n<p>118<\/p>\n<p>151<\/p>\n<p>0-3<\/p>\n<p>1-1<\/p>\n<p>L3<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"av\">The Panthers technically lead the division because they did not play a game on Sunday, so they still sit at 2-2. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b0\">The Atlanta Falcons played a close overtime thriller with the Baltimore Ravens, but they lost 30-23 after a backbreaking Tua Tagovailoa interception late in overtime. As a result, they sit in second with the same amount of wins as Carolina but with an extra loss due to the bye-week discrepancy. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b5\">The New Orleans Saints lost their game against the Minnesota Vikings 23-13, which drops them to 1-4 on the year. That game propelled the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to third place in the division, not last, due to New Orleans&#8217; NFC South loss against the Falcons and their much poorer point differential. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ba\">The craziest thing? With Atlanta&#8217;s loss on Sunday night, the Bucs are just one game back from the NFC South lead. It would be a surprising turn of events, but if Tampa Bay were to get something going here quickly, the division would still be very much in reach for the Bucs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bf\">That turnaround continues next Sunday. The Bucs face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they&#8217;ll try to beat them in Raymond James Stadium to move to 2-4 on the year. A win would be great for Tampa Bay&#8217;s upward projection, but a loss would plummet them to 1-5 and put most in the organization right back in the hot seat. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bq\">Sign up to our\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/buccaneers\/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BucsGameday?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/bucsgameday?s=21&amp;t=nyCeWGVWMsSpULqWCupqGA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">X<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/buccaneersgameday?igsh=NWVob203dzZpYnp0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for the latest news.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-DqWrLptv.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"bw\">Follow<\/a><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Tampa Bay Buccaneers got their big win in Week 5 out of the way early, beating the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-425699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425699","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=425699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}