“They Are Going To Be A Problem Come Playoff Time”
November 6th, 2026
“Pete, ssshhh. We’re trying to fly under the radar.”
Start saving up for tickets. Book your hotel rooms. It’s coming.
The NFL playoffs are coming. To Tampa. To the Bucs. That seems to be the song prickly Pete Prisco of CBS Sports is singing.
Prisco has been high on the Bucs for a couple of years. And unlike many national talking heads, Prisco does his homework. Based in Fort Lauderdale, Joe sees Prisco at Bucs underwear football practices and training camp at least twice a year.
And Prisco isn’t a stranger to Bucs games, either. So of all the national talking heads, Prisco likely logs the most Bucs homework.
In the wake of the Bucs’ bludgeoning of the Dixie Chicks last week, Prisco took the NFL on CBS studio and proclaimed that the Bucs are not just the best in the NFC South landfill, but they just might ruin teams’ Super Bowl dreams in January.
“Earlier in the season, I was critical of the Bucs’ offensive line, rightfully so,” Prisco began. “Graham Barton was not playing well at center. [Cody] Mauch, who was coming off an injury — and they loved Mauch before his injury — missed all last year, was not playing well.
“All of a sudden, you look at that offensive line, and they’re pushing people around. I mean, across the board. [Luke] Goedeke’s back playing at right tackle. He’s a good physical guy there, and you know the left tackle. They run behind him all the time, and when you run behind him, you have great success behind [Tristan] Wirfs.
“They’re real. They went into the season projected as a really good offensive line. It took them a little while to get going, but right now they’re one of the better offensive lines in the National Football League, and it makes it easier on those guys to run the football.”
There is very little there for Joe to quibble with. If you have an offensive line mauling people like the Bucs have been the past month, wide receivers that block their arses off and who aren’t one bit afraid to stick their nose into a defender, and quality, shifty running backs, you can hang with just about anyone.
Sunday night in Chicago will be a different breed of cat than Dallas, Carolina or Atlanta. If the Bucs go toe-to-toe with the mighty Bears, anything is possible.
November 6th, 2026 at 5:02 am
Come ON.
November 6th, 2026 at 6:14 am
I expect another close loss against the Bears.
Baker will be forced to throw downfield and that will ultimately determine the outcome.
Come on Baker – it’s time for you to rise up and earn that ridiculous contract.
Go Bucs!
November 6th, 2026 at 6:37 am
i see it either one of 2 ways…
very tight game, where we are up like 23-17…or 20-14, with caleb and the bears having that final drive chance to win the game…but our D makes a stand, or a huge play on the ball to win it…
or we blow them out of their own building somehow someway…like 27-17…but they get that late td to make it seem closer…as it’s 27-10 with like 3 minutes left in the game…
i don’t see us getting blown out the building…
#SoldierInForTheWin
#AndSoldierTheFahkOuttaThere
November 6th, 2026 at 6:37 am
Funny thing to realize is this game on Sunday can be just the first time we play the Bears this year:
Bucs win NFC South
Bears end up as a Wild Card
Bucs host Bears
November 6th, 2026 at 6:39 am
playoffs they can lose anybody and can’t be the top tier team
November 6th, 2026 at 6:44 am
Good thing the OL is even better at pass blocking than it is at run blocking.
November 6th, 2026 at 6:50 am
A big game and Vegas has the Bucs as huge underdogs. Disrespect.
It’s time for Bowles to set up Winfield for some big plays. C’mon Antoine!
November 6th, 2026 at 6:57 am
the bears at 7-2 doesn’t sound right…
that’s like playing 14-3 ball or 13-4 ball on the year…
swift, oh-doo-doo and burden…i dunno…
they’re a very good team…
elite…?……..i dunno
November 6th, 2026 at 7:10 am
Ok. So nobody can be positive that we’ll be a playoff team. Not even me. If we suffer a spate of injuries, or Mayfield goes down, it’d be a tougher road. But so far, so good.
What we can be positive about is that we’ve been practicing all week for the Bears. We can be positive that our leadership is not happy with our record.
I’m positive that we’ll get off the plane in Chicago with an extremely focused purpose. Won’t be much horsing around, or trivial chit chat.
The Bears are that same kind of bunch. They are gonna take it real personal like early in the game when they discover our intentions.
GAME ON!! And we’ll take the next 9 games the same way and see where the chips fall. Let the chips fall where they may. Man, I love football.
November 6th, 2026 at 7:11 am
I can’t wait until toe meets leather!!!!!
Super Bowl baby!!!!!!
November 6th, 2026 at 7:21 am
kenton:
…………….soldier in………..thet gotta soldier in…
you gotta soldier in, if ya wanna soldier out 🙂
November 6th, 2026 at 7:35 am
Bears
November 6th, 2026 at 7:58 am
Yeah, I don’t know. Sometimes I wonder what game Prisco was watching. Not this time though. The OL deserved criticism for its early play, no doubt about it but it has been great since October.
I am still worried about Mayfield though. He has never been a consistently great passer and has always struggled with downfield accuracy (but not downfield blocking!). Boy, were we spoiled with Brady or what? I hope he can get back to the good Mayfield and we will need it Sunday night. Go Bucs!
November 6th, 2026 at 8:00 am
lol.
Which ever way the wind blows. No credibility.
After Chicago and Detroit he’ll be again signing a different tune.
November 6th, 2026 at 8:15 am
Todd bowls stinks
November 6th, 2026 at 8:28 am
The NFL is a match up league and the Bucs match up pretty well against Chicago… not saying they’re going to win, but it could get interesting.
November 6th, 2026 at 8:34 am
I don’t know if we win this game. I hope so.
But we won’t be able to run the ball as much unless it rains. Time to see if Baker is healed up.
We need the potential league mvp the show up again. No one expects it, but we’ll see.
After this week, if we win, the Bucs will start getting respect… especially if they do it with a more balanced attack.
November 6th, 2026 at 8:35 am
Match up well especially at center where Barton will dominate Simmons.
November 6th, 2026 at 8:36 am
Yeah, the team that went 0-3 through the air is going to be a problem in the playoffs. Beat the Bears. Not the overrated Cowboys, or the landfill Panthers, and Falcons. Stop Detroit the following week. At that point we’ll be at .500! If not we’re 3-7! Now that would be a problem.
November 6th, 2026 at 8:43 am
3-5 teams are typically the ones that make the playoffs and win the SB.
Especially if they are 1-4 at home. That just screams SB championship.
You better get your tickets and hotel room now before it’s sold out in a few weeks.
And I’m sure once we get to the playoffs we can just run the ball and no team will be able to match our ability to score. Todd Bowles is better than Andy Reid.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:05 am
Exactly! The offensive line needed some time to get reacquainted after the quasi lost season. Another thing also true is that the defense was essentially overhauled and they also needed some time to gel and they are getting better every week. Maybe the passing game will be next. Injuries continue to haunt that group and losing Evans was a calamity so the development of that group is the biggest challenge facing this team.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:16 am
the Bucs are healthy for the most part and have talent in all three phases of the game – but the Bucs don’t need to win at Chicago .. or at Detroit..or at home against the Panthers or Rams .. or maybe even at Atlanta .. the Bucs can lose four or five more games and still win the NFC South (Stagg Bowl) title … and on any given Sunday maybe the Bucs can win a playoff game … you never know .. but I wouldn’t bet on it
November 6th, 2026 at 9:17 am
The Bears are going to game plan the Bucs’ running game similar to how they game planned vs Seahawks, who couldn’t run the ball against them, and how Seahawks and Broncos game planned Kenneth Walker of Chiefs.
This is a big test for Z Robinson to scheme up a successful run game for the Bucs because it is highly doubtful the Bucs will be successful throwing the ball 30 plus times.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:19 am
could the Bucs be the second team to start 0-4 and the first team with 10 losses to make the playoffs ? YES !! SUPERBOWL BABY !!!!
November 6th, 2026 at 9:26 am
This is especially true if the O-line keeps playing like it has lately and Emeka Egbuka finally gets his turf toe to heal back to 100% so he can get open like he did vs. Seattle early last year.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:27 am
The 1 TD the Bucs’ offense scored in the Atlanta game was a 6-play, 90-yard drive in the 3rd qtr. The first 5 of those runs were ALL around LEFT END for a total of 86 yds … 3 runs by Bucky for 57 yds and 2 runs by Kenny G for 29 yds. The last run in that drive was over RIGHT GUARD for 4 yds by Bucky for the TD.
FIVE consecutive runs around LEFT END, and 2 of those were explosive runs (46 yds & 28 yds). Not only that, but there were NO 3rd Downs on that drive. I’ve never seen that before (the explosive runs AND the TD run all occurred on the 2nd down). Tells me though that Wirfs & Bredeson must’ve been plowing some people under on that left side.
Still, it’s significant IMO that there was only ONE TD scored in that entire game. Our defense took care of the Falcons (shut ’em out), but in our case, I can imagine that it’s very difficult in NFL games to sustain long drives with JUST the run. We did it ONCE Sunday, but that was an exception (2 explosive runs for 74 yds total on 1 drive doesn’t occur very often). Plus 1 TD … 7 pts … won’t win many games. We’ve got to get our passing game back on track. Doesn’t have to be 50-50, but it does have to be a bonafide threat.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:29 am
We really should have scored 30 in that game, DR.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:31 am
And what’s happening on those explosive runs is our two best run blockers Mauch (pulling left) and Wirfs are right next to each other blocking on counter plays. That’s a deadly combination.
November 6th, 2026 at 9:50 am
Hey look, the professor made another sarcasm! This seems like a trend. Another e for effort.
November 6th, 2026 at 10:28 am
The bucs aren’t going to the playoffs in 2 weeks this team will be 3 and 7 #!!
November 6th, 2026 at 10:37 am
To me this is fools gold they still have not shone they have passing game to speak of and the bears are going to expose that when they shut down our run game and the reason why is because are receivers are just average and we dont have a #1 anymore unfortunately…
November 6th, 2026 at 10:46 am
If they somehow manage to beat the Bears, I’ll take the talk seriously. Until they prove they can throw the ball, or that they can beat a good team going run-heavy, I view their ceiling as limited.
November 6th, 2026 at 10:55 am
Baker is payed to win. If that means all runs he will do it. Meanwhile Action Jackson sits on ths Bench for every little,but ache.
November 6th, 2026 at 10:59 am
What is,all this talk about prove to Throw the,ball? Baker threw it all over the field in his first 3 games. It was, fumbles, punt return TDs and dropped passes that did them in. He will be ready when someone figures out how to stop the run.