The Panthers and Buccaneers enter Week 15 with identical 6-7 records and they’ll close the season with two games against each other in the final three weeks.
That kind of scheduling would make it easy to get caught looking past this week’s game, especially for a Panthers team that has not been to the postseason since the 2017 season. On Wednesday, head coach Dave Canales said that he wants to stress to his players that they can’t afford to do that with the Saints this week because losses in games that don’t feel as weighty as the ones against Tampa can still come back to haunt them.
“All of them, every single one from the beginning of the season,” Canales said, via the team’s website. “I understand how important every single game is as you get to this point in the season, and so you really can’t look past any game. Every game is a championship opportunity, just like the one we have in front of us. And we have to maintain that heightened focus and awareness of how important they are. There’s nothing worse than over the years you get through a season, and you look back, maybe you squeak in a wild card berth, or maybe you win the division, but you didn’t get the seeding that you could have because of a game that got away from you earlier in the season. It’s why it’s easy for me to sell that to the group to say, hey, every game is a championship opportunity, and we have one right in front of us on the road against a familiar opponent.”
The Saints’ 3-10 record might make it likelier for the Panthers to ease up, but recent history should help guard against that. They lost 17-7 to the Saints in Week 10 and the Saints beat the Bucs last week, which should provide ample reason for Carolina to take things seriously this week.
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 NFL has announced eight finalists for this season’s Art Rooney Sportsmanship Award.
A panel made up of former NFL players Warrick Dunn, Larry Fitzgerald, Curtis Martin, and Leonard Wheeler chose the finalists after each team nominated one player for consideration. The award goes to the player that “best demonstrates the qualities of on-field sportsmanship, including fair play, respect for the game and opponents, an integrity in competition.”
Cardinals safety Budda Baker has been selected as a finalist for the third straight season. Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David, Saints linebacker Demario Davis, and Vikings right tackle Brian O’Neill are the other finalists from the NFC.
The AFC finalists are Colts defensive tackle DeForest Buckner, Jets defensive tackle Harrison Phillips, Dolphins defensive tackle Zach Sieler, and Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy.
Current NFL players will cast their votes for one of the finalists and the winner will be announced at the NFL Honors event during Super Bowl week.
Saints quarterback Tyler Shough is trying to show that he can be the team’s long-term answer at the position and Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers was a good showing on that front.
Shough was 13-of-20 for 144 yards and an interception on a rainy afternoon in Tampa, but he ran seven times for 55 yards and two touchdowns in a 24-20 upset win. Shough had a 34-yard touchdown run in the third quarter to give the Saints a lead and his 13-yard scramble in the fourth quarter put the Saints ahead for good.
The win was the second in Shough’s five starts and he said after the game that those touchdown runs were a sign of his growing confidence in what he can do on the field.
“One hundred percent,” Shough said, via a transcript from the team. “Every single practice, every single week, I feel my confidence growing more and more – just the ability to go out there [and] put points on the board in any way we can, so there’s a lot of plays that we can look at, and I can look at, and continue to continue to grow with, but we’re just really proud of everybody, especially against a defense like that in those conditions to kind of turn out a win.”
The Saints have a home date with the Panthers — who they beat 17-7 on the road in Shough’s second start —next Sunday and playing spoiler to their NFC South rivals would be another entry in the plus column for Shough’s bid for a long run in the starting lineup.
The Buccaneers were heavy favorites heading into Sunday’s game against the Saints, but it didn’t take long to realize that the Saints weren’t going to roll over on a rainy day in Tampa.
Mason Tipton returned the opening kickoff 54 yards to set up six-play, 45-yard touchdown drive for the Saints and short fields would become a theme for New Orleans on their way to a 24-20 win. They never had to drive more than 53 yards for points on a day when the Bucs threw an interception and failed to convert 5-of-7 fourth down tries. Baker Mayfield went 5-of-5 for 60 yards on the Bucs’ first offensive possession, but was 9-of-22 for 62 yards the rest of the afternoon and they had to settle for a field goal in the fourth quarter when wide receiver Emeka Egbuka failed to hold onto a catchable ball in the end zone.
It wasn’t the result many people expected due to the Saints’ 2-10 record coming into Sunday, but it wasn’t one that shocked Bucs head coach Todd Bowles.
“It’s a division game; they always play us tough,” Bowles said, via the team’s website. “I said that all week. We don’t look at records. When we play division games they know us and we know them. We had plenty of chances to make plays, coaching-wise offensively, defensively and special teams, definitely player-wise offense, defense and special teams. We had situations come up where we didn’t make any plays. We could have made better calls. There’s a myriad of things that could have happened that we lost this ballgame. It doesn’t matter whether the team was 12-0 or 0-12. It’s the NFL; you’ve got to show up and play and make plays or the other team is going to beat you.”
The Bucs will need to learn the lessons of the loss quickly. They have a Thursday night game against a Falcons team that’s lost seven of their last eight games and Bowles said “we can’t let one loss turn into two” with the Panthers also at 7-6 heading into the final four weeks of the season.
