{"id":94128,"date":"2025-12-23T21:11:24","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/94128\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T21:11:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T21:11:24","slug":"bucs-visit-miami-on-sunday-with-playoffs-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/94128\/","title":{"rendered":"Bucs visit Miami on Sunday with playoffs on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-8) will make their final road trip of the regular season this Sunday, heading south to take on the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n

After losing six of their last seven games in an epic collapse, head coach Todd Bowles is on the hot seat. But he\u2019s not listening to the critics calling for his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cI listen to nothing but music when I leave here,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cI made a pact when I started coaching to never listen to anything else. Outside noise to me is just outside noise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bucs lost grip on first-place in the NFC South with last week\u2019s loss at the Carolina Panthers. But they know exactly what to do to get it back.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything we want is still right in front of us despite everything that\u2019s gone on,\u201d quarterback Baker Mayfield said. \u201cWe can win out, make the playoffs, and still have our goals ahead of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The road ahead for Tampa Bay is simple, even though its recent stretch hasn\u2019t been inspiring. The Bucs must beat the Panthers in Week 18. But there is one scenario that would eliminate the Bucs one game early. If Tampa Bay loses at Miami on Sunday and the Panthers beat the Seahawks, Carolina wins the division.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love to be in a different spot right now, don\u2019t get me wrong,\u201d Mayfield said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been here before. You can rely on those experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

It starts with Mayfield. His play has declined since the Bucs’ 6-2 start to the season, especially in turnover production. Mayfield only threw two interceptions in the first nine games, but he has six picks in the last six games.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can point to a number of things, but based on the last game I thought I played decent, just a matter of executing in the two-minute drive,\u201d he said. \u201cIf that interception doesn\u2019t happen, played a clean game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can have better play calling as well,\u201d Bowles added. \u201cIt\u2019s not one thing that contributes to that or one guy. It\u2019s a combination of things we got to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bucs and Dolphins kick off at 1 p.m. on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Holiday car rental warning: How photos saved one traveler hundreds of dollars<\/p>\n

Tampa man’s quick documentation prevented the collections agency from charging him for bullet hole damage he claimed didn’t happen on his watch.<\/p>\n

Holiday car rental warning: How photos saved one traveler hundreds of dollars<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-8) will make their final road trip of the regular season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":94129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[205,11150,8730,22572,123,125,124,9659,208,9661],"class_list":["post-94128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-abc-action-news","tag-abc-action-news-sports","tag-buccaneers","tag-mayfield","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news","tag-tampa-bay-sports","tag-wfts","tag-wfts-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94128","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=94128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}