Buccaneers 43, Panthers 13
October 25th, 2026
Did the Bucs rally around injured Baker Mayfield? Or does this team simply roll when Bucky Irving has a huge day? Or is the Tampa Bay defense truly becoming a powerful force?
The answers are unclear, but Tampa Bay did just tighten up the NFC South landfill in a huge way by choking out Carolina at the Panthers’ crib.
The Panthers lead the division at 3-3. The Bucs moved their sad record to 2-5 but are tied with the Saints (2-5), which lost 16-10 to the Steelers in France. The miserable Falcons knocked off the 49ers in Atlanta and are now 3-4.
Joe adored this throwback win. All the running backs and the offensive line were dominant. The Bucs ran for a whopping 147 first-half yards on 30 carries. And it didn’t stop there. That Bucs damn near doubled that rushing total. It was straight out of 1995.
Mayfield had just 9 pass attempts at the halftime break and 11 all game. Meanwhile, the game already was over by halftime, as the Bucs rung up a 33-6 lead.
And they didn’t blow it!
What a wacky Bucs team. Joe is not a believer, but Joe always roots for a W and things will get fun if the Bucs can beat up on the Falcons in Tampa next Sunday — and then head to the Bears for Sunday Night Football on Nov. 9.
The playmaking defense returned early. Zyon McCollum had a key interception, and Tykee Smith’s extra-point block turned into a scoop-and-score (2 points!) for McCollum. And then came the sacks — in bunches.
Heck, three consecutive Panthers plays in the third quarter ended in sacks. Two were by formerly sackless YaYa Diaby and one by Vita Vea.
The sacks total ended at five, same as in last week’s loss, with Diaby notching his first three of the season.
Joe is so happy for Bucs fans. Joe and every other fan sincerely deserved this “W.” It’s the first Bucs blowout win since beating the Saints 23-3 on Oct. 26 of last year.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:47 pm
Let’s go. What a defensive performance against the league leading QB in Bruce young.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:48 pm
This this is the most points we’ve scored since the Buffalo game last year
October 25th, 2026 at 3:48 pm
LFG Bucs
October 25th, 2026 at 3:48 pm
Thank You Bucky! Great Game!!!!
October 25th, 2026 at 3:49 pm
bowles has got to go
October 25th, 2026 at 3:50 pm
thank you to every facet of the team today. total team win. love to see it
October 25th, 2026 at 3:51 pm
it looks like the 49ers game might not be over yet.. 26-20 and still 5 min left
October 25th, 2026 at 3:51 pm
Panthers intentionally tanked the game so that the Bucs don’t fire Bowles.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Congrats baker, Bucky , special teams, defense, offense. This was a team win!
October 25th, 2026 at 3:52 pm
Jimmy enjoy the win for a few minutes before everyone resumes fire bowles
October 25th, 2026 at 3:53 pm
Wow – shocked! Great game, Bucs.
Mayhaps there’s some “hope” for this season?
Let’s see if they can stack another win next week, and look good doing it, mayhaps THEN I will have more interest in this team.
Lastly, I did NOT think the Bucs could run this way, and a few days ago, I felt (and commented) it would either be a low-scoring affair or lots of points. We got lots of points, thankfully.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:53 pm
Wow the Bucs players espec Defense were dominant, the O-line was dominant and less Baker is better! The run game was dominant. Every week just replay this game till it breaks. Never seen such a run powerful game as this.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:53 pm
Everyone get your comment vaccine before more people follow jimmy and plague us with more negativity, even after a dominant win.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:53 pm
26-20 Atlanta is up but San Fran is taking over at the Falcon’s 40 after a 20 yard punt.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:54 pm
Like it ir not: Rod Munch was correct. He said (WHEN BAKE CAME BACK THE BUCS WOULD WIN AGAIN). You all know he is the most informative commentator on Joebucfan.com. Where he is usually correct on his football analysis. I missed him in the game time thread. Remember he kept saying it over and over.
October 25th, 2026 at 3:55 pm
firethecannons… turns out no jalon is the way to go. o-line looks better defense is playing great. run game is on fire. gives baker time to heal, and haters like you get to cry like a baby that baker is playing
October 25th, 2026 at 3:57 pm
Purdy threw an interception
October 25th, 2026 at 4:01 pm
I guess the answer is.. only let Baker throw 10 times a game.
October 25th, 2026 at 4:04 pm
Very impressive team win today and it counts a little more being our first division game. Good team win and that’s how you impose your will on another team with the ground game. Predictable doesn’t matter when they can’t stop it
October 25th, 2026 at 4:08 pm
2 picks for Purdy? 49ers losing. Poor guy doesn’t have his injury prone favorite receiver to bail him out.
October 25th, 2026 at 4:14 pm
Yup, Falcons will win. The landfill is such an appropriate nickname. 2 teams with 3 wins and 2 teams with 2 wins. UGH!
October 25th, 2026 at 4:14 pm
We are 2-1 in the 2nd quarter of the season ! It’s not over yet 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️
October 25th, 2026 at 4:15 pm
Insane game and win! Holding off on any Bucs bashing this week. Great job!!
October 25th, 2026 at 4:18 pm
Next we need to blow out the falcons
October 25th, 2026 at 4:24 pm
I’m still sticking with my original 10-7 prediction because why not?
October 25th, 2026 at 4:47 pm
GMC Hater, I had the same thought. Obviously not a real thing but if Panthers wanted to play some 3D chess they should have blown this game. Give Bucs hope, don’t be sellers.
Only thing better than winning the division this season for the Panthers is winning it 3 years in a row cause you helped sucker the Bucs into keeping Bowles around.
October 25th, 2026 at 5:14 pm
I’d trade winning out with keeping Todd around another year. After all, this defense has been balling out all year and seems to be getting stronger. Freaking YAYA got 3 sacks. My Bucs Defense scored 62 points for my fantasy team!!! This is no fluke folks. If we can run like that every game… BTW Add T-Mac to the list of #1 receivers we have shut down.
October 25th, 2026 at 5:22 pm
You know how we usually suck in the middle of the season? Well, maybe we did it early this year and will finish 10-7? Be nice.
October 25th, 2026 at 5:32 pm
I was not expecting that. The Bucs ran wild the entire game. MAYFIELD only had to throw the ball 11 times. Next week’s game is in Atlanta. Will they be running first like they did in Charlotte?
I get it. Limiting throws protects Baker’s thumb and allows his thumb to heal. The bye week is 2 weeks away. The Bucs locker room players meeting only definitely lit a fire for this team.
There is now hope for this team. Let’s take it a week at a time.
October 25th, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Now we can read good stuff all week. What a win.
October 25th, 2026 at 6:04 pm
Yes, when we play terrible teams, we have a 50-50 shot at winning. 10-90 if it’s a one score game. Let’s not pat ourselves on the back too hard over that.
I would think if anything, this game should show bowles (why he hasn’t caught on yet, I’ll never understand) that it’s WAY easier to play defense when you have a big lead. You know, like we did when BA was coach. But this is the issue with bowles, he FUNDAMENTALLY doesn’t understand these concepts. That top 2 offense scored too fast and wore out his defense (per bowles). Now the offense has been neutered, and the defense is worn out from being on the field all day. Sounds like his defense is gonna be gassed no matter what (according to bowles), so I’d rather them be gassed and we’re scoring 30 a game than gassed and we’re scoring 18 a game.
But queue the line that everyone repeats ad nauseam “bowles has forgotten more about defense than I’ll ever know.” Really? Did he forget all the important parts? And what good is all that knowledge if the result is having a pass defense (sorry todd, for everyone else this is a passing league in 2026) ranked in the 20s every season?
This is another of the MANY problems that keeping bowles caused. I’m of the mind we should embrace the tank. Absolute best of the best realistic result this season is a loss in the wildcard round and a pick in the mid to late teens. We’ve been there, it SUCKS there. So I want to lose out. But I do love the Bucs and could be happy when we win regardless, IF winning didn’t increase the possibility that the Glazers would keep bowles. So with that still being a possibility, I can’t even half enjoy a single win this team gets. And that’s sad. Luckily we’ll probably only see 2-3 more this season.
#andSTILLFIREbowles
October 25th, 2026 at 6:12 pm
The real question is: What team was this and what did you do with the yucs?
October 25th, 2026 at 6:15 pm
Good to know that Godwin even on a check down, still cant catch a cold.