{"id":98373,"date":"2025-12-29T04:42:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98373\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T04:42:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T04:42:12","slug":"buccaneers-blessed-to-have-shot-at-nfc-south-title-after-sundays-loss-to-dolphins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/98373\/","title":{"rendered":"Buccaneers ‘blessed’ to have shot at NFC South title after Sunday’s loss to Dolphins"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite a depressing loss in Miami, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers remain alive in the NFC South.<\/p>\n

The Bucs looked cooked in a 20-17 loss<\/a> on Sunday, trailing by double digits for long stretches, letting seventh-round rookie Quinn Ewers<\/a> dice up the defense, and Baker Mayfield<\/a> turned the ball over three times. Yet, with the Carolina Panthers losing at home to Seattle, Tampa, at 7-9, still has a chance to take the division title in Week 18<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Here’s the thing,” Mayfield said after the loss, via the Associated Press<\/a>. “We still have a chance next week. We’ve been blessed with a chance next week, and guys need to handle it the right way. Lavonte (David)<\/a> spoke to the team after the game and hit the nail on the head, so we’ve got to respond.”<\/p>\n

After an opening-drive touchdown, the Bucs couldn’t get out of their own way. Mayfield threw two interceptions and fumbled in the fourth quarter. The flubs overshadowed a 346-yard passing performance in which he spammed short tosses. Of Mayfield’s 33 completions, 32 came under 20 yards. He went 1 for 7 for 33 yards and two interceptions on deep passes.<\/p>\n

“We didn’t deserve it,” said wideout Mike Evans<\/a>, who caught 3 of 7 targets for 31 yards and a touchdown. “They played like they had a chance at the playoffs, and we played like we were ready to go home.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite a depressing loss in Miami, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers remain alive in the NFC South. The Bucs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5267,9909,10800,115,5265,5269,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-98373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-around-the-nfl","9":"tag-baker-mayfield","10":"tag-mike-evans","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-no-minute","13":"tag-regular-season","14":"tag-tampa","15":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98373","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=98373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}