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Weekend NFL Kickoff: Making sense of Week 17’s playoff scenarios

The Buccaneers probably are feeling like Jim Carrey’s Lloyd Christmas in "Dumb and Dumber."

While the Bucs (8-7) aren't quite eliminated from playoff contention in the NFC, they need a lot of things to fall their way. It starts with Tampa Bay beating the visiting Panthers (6-9) on Sunday (1 p.m., Fox). Easy enough, right?

This is where it gets tricky.

The Bucs, who'll be without injured tight end Cameron Brate, also need the Lions (9-6) to beat the Packers (9-6) in Sunday night’s NFC North championship game. Tampa holds a strength-of-schedule tiebreaker over the Packers, but only if the Titans (8-7) beat the Texans (9-6), the Colts (7-8) beat the Jaguars (3-12), the Cowboys (13-2) beat the Eagles (6-9) and the 49ers (2-13) beat the NFC West champion Seahawks (9-5-1).