The Tampa Bay Buccaneers head into the final weekend of the 2106 regular season with their playoff hopes still alive, if only marginally so. The necessary combination of results is complicated enough – and in the case of a Washington-New York tie, unlikely enough – to make scoreboard watching on Sunday mostly unnecessary.
There is one part of the equation the Buccaneers still care deeply about, however, and that's their own game against the Carolina Panthers. Even if a win on Sunday does not extend the season, as it likely will not, the game remains very important to Tampa Bay players and coaches.