Cornerback Jaycee Horn took a step back toward the Panthers lineup at practice on Wednesday.
Horn was a limited participant in practice for the first time since suffering a concussion in Week 12. Horn missed the Week 13 win over the Rams and continued to recover over the team’s bye week.
Horn remains in the concussion protocol, but continued practice participation over the next two days will be a good sign for his chances of being cleared to play in New Orleans this weekend.
Linebacker Claudin Cherelus (concussion) was also a limited participant. Center Cade Mays (ankle), safety Lathan Ransom (thumb), and linebacker Christian Rozeboom (hip, hamstring) were all full participants.
The Buccaneers have lost four of their last five games and enter Week 15 in a tie with the Panthers at the top of the NFC South, but quarterback Baker Mayfield said on Tuesday that the team’s focus isn’t on what’s slipped away from them the last few weeks.
Mayfield said that the team’s eyes are on what remains in their control. They play the Panthers twice in the final four weeks of the season, which leaves them able to win the division for the fifth straight season.
“We’re still in control of our own destiny — that’s just a fact,” Mayfield said, via a transcript from the team. “We’re tied for the division, we would love to be ahead and in a different spot, but we are where we are and we control our own destiny, win one game at a time and see what happens.”
Mayfield said that a “playoff mentality” has to be part of the equation for the Bucs in those games as well as this Sunday’s matchup with a Falcons team that “would love nothing more than to beat us and screw up our chances.” That was the same place the Saints were in last Sunday and the Bucs will have to be much sharper to avoid another disappointing outcome.
Panthers cornerback Jaycee Horn was diagnosed with a concussion in the Nov. 24 game against the 49ers.
He remains in concussion protocol as of Monday, coach Dave Canales said, but Horn is “trending in the right direction” to return this week.
In 12 games this season, Horn has 25 tackles, five interceptions and six pass breakups. He had two interceptions in the first half against the 49ers the night he was diagnosed with a concussion.
Linebacker Claudin Cherelus also remains in concussion protocol after leaving on the same game Horn did. He, too, has a chance to come back this week, Canales said.
The Saints haven’t had much to celebrate this season, but Sunday was a good day for them.
On a rainy day, in a mud bath, the Saints rained on the Buccaneers’ NFC South parade. New Orleans’ 24-20 upset of Tampa Bay leaves the Bucs tied with the Panthers atop the division at 7-6. Carolina is on its off week.
The Bucs repeatedly shot themselves in the foot. They had seven penalties, dropped a walk-in touchdown pass, had a turnover, and five times, the Bucs turned it over on downs. Their last play came with 1:27 left as Cade Otton caught a pass for 3 yards on fourth-and-4 from the Tampa Bay 26.
Baker Mayfield was only 14-of-30 for 122 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
The Bucs had 301 yards, with Bucky Irving rushing for 55 yards on 15 carries and catching a 24-yard touchdown pass.
Saints rookie Tyler Shough was 13-of-20 for 144 yards and a touchdown. He ran for 55 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. It was the first and second rushing touchdowns of his career.
Devin Neal had 19 carries for 70 yards and a touchdown.
Most Wednesdays, ESPN P.R. posts a tweet boasting about the audience generated by the NFL game televised two nights earlier. This year, the habit sparked pushback during the YouTube TV outage that knocked a pair of Monday night games off of the platform.
For the first game after the Disney-owned networks returned to YouTube TV (Cowboys at Raiders), there it was: 17.9 million.
For the next game, the Week 12 contest between the Panthers and 49ers, there was nothing on the ESPN P.R. Twitter page.
On Friday morning, Nielsen distributed the official numbers for the week of November 24 through November 30. The Panthers-49ers game televised by ESPN, ESPN, and ESPN Deportes, attracted an audience of only 12.368 million.
It speaks, frankly, to the general ambivalence regarding the upstart Panthers. After multiple years of irrelevance, no amount of hype (including a 30-second commercial during the Cowboys-Raiders game set to Bohemian Rhapsody) could truly move the needle for what should have been, on paper, a compelling game.
Throw in the fact that the game itself wasn’t particularly exciting, and the numbers speak for themselves.
In the interests of full disclosure, the Sunday night game on NBC and Peacock included in the latest Nielsen report (Broncos-Commanders) did 17.479 million, behind Saturday’s Ohio State-Michigan game (18.424 million).
Since we’re in the NBC ballpark, we’ll also mention this: The National Dog Show on Thanksgiving Day outperformed Panthers-49ers, averaging 12.798 million viewers.
Which proves yet again that, yes, dogs are better than cats.
