Bucs “Not Your Typical 2-5 Team”
October 30th, 2026
Not done yet.
No, the Bucs are not your ordinary 2-5 team.
How many 2-5 teams find themselves in the thick of a playoff chase with 10 games to go? The Bucs!
The Bucs are certainly a work in progress. The defense is sound after finding ways to get quarterbacks on the ground the past two games. Young players are rising to the occasion.
The offense? Well, that’s a work in progress. Sure, it was awesome to see the Bucs curb-stomp the Stinking Panthers with a devastating running attack. But how often in a passing league will the Bucs get away with that?
Sooner or later, the Bucs will have to win using a forward pass, not a bunch of glorified pitches that this squad calls a passing game.
Dixie Chicks beat guy Daniel Flick of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution points out you don’t see many 2-5 teams do what the Bucs are doing in 2026. They have yet to lose to a team with a losing record, and those five losses came to teams with a combined record of 24-9, per Flick.
Lastly, all of the Bucs’ losses were one-score games (one of the Joes will slam his head through a wall reading this, adamant that losing one-score games simply is a sign of mental weakness and/or that your team is not good enough, as most NFL games are one-score games).
“Not your typical 2-5 team,” Flick typed.
They’re not, but are the Bucs a good enough team to win the division? A win Sunday and the Bucs will be a half-game out of first place in the NFC South landfill with nine games to go and multiple tiebreakers on their side.
Quick notes on the Buccaneers:
– All of their losses are to teams above .500, and all are by one possession.
– The teams who've beaten them have a record of 24-9.
– Their average margin of defeat is 5.4 points.Not your typical 2-5 team.
— Daniel Flick (@ByDanielFlick) October 27, 2026
October 30th, 2026 at 4:57 am
Yes they are. 2-5 team until they can prove differently. Atlanta is their big chance to finally get a win at home. I too would like to see a vertical passing game. Can the O line pass block, can the WRs get open and actually hold on to the ball, and can the defense step up like last week?
October 30th, 2026 at 5:08 am
All the rest of the stats are nice, but only 2 stats really count in the NFL: Wins & Losses. It’s interesting however, that w’ve been 2 teams with losing records and lost to 5 teams with winning records.
Project that ‘beat the losers but lose to the winners’ out for the rest of the season using remaining opponents current records, and we’d end up 9-8 on the season (7 of our remaining 10 teams now have losing records). We’d also end up with a 4-game win streak going into the playoffs.
Hey, the sky’s the limit. Of course, in the playoffs we’d be playing teams with winning records and that MIGHT be our undoing. But going into the playoffs HOT is always better than going in ICE COLD.
October 30th, 2026 at 5:45 am
Maybe not your typical 2-5 team, but this is definitely typical Bucs fashion. Win get everyone’s hopes up then go on a losing streak. Lose start winning go on a streak come up short. Look good go up 16-3 lose game in 4th quarter. This is actually a perfect way to describe life as a Bucs fan. Goes back to the Rams playoff loss. If they follow this pattern the Bucs will get back in the NFC South playoff race, then lose whatever game at the end of the season that would put us in the actual playoffs.
October 30th, 2026 at 5:47 am
They have played good teams. And they will continue to: Chi, Det, Bal, Rams will all be tough. To have a realistic shot, they will have to nearly sweep the South.
October 30th, 2026 at 6:09 am
We saw last night Carolina actually sucks bad. Dallas? Beat Atlanta, go on the road and beat a good Bears team than we can talk. If they don’t win the next two, they’ll be your typical 2-7 team.