Welcome in two books. Insider presented by Verizon Casey Phillips here a senior writer and editor Scott Smith. We had a big show for you today. We got a tough game to look back on. We got some interesting Pro Bowl news, we got a heck of a game to look forward to. Lots going on here. Let's start with the Pro Bowl news, which we had some great Pro Bowl news, and then we had some news that maybe made you a little upset, which is fair and made all of us a little upset.
Call me out there, you know. Let's start with the good Pro.
Bowl name, and very deservedly, Mike Evans was voted into the Pro Bowl. It's the fifth time he's made it, obviously deserving. He leads the league in touchdown catches, has over twelve hundred yards. You know, all season we've been doing notes about him passing the all time greats in terms of touchdown catches, and he's establishing himself well. He already has as one of the greatest players in team history, but in terms of a number of times in the
Pro Bowl, this is number five for him. That is second in team history among offensive players, only to the great Mike Alstadt. Those are probably the two most yeah, harolded, harolded, good word of uh you look at that Derek Brooks eleven but most crazy. Most of those are defensive players. But still Mike is tied for sixth most Pro Bowls and team history.
Probably not done.
And the way he played this year, you got to think there's a couple of more Pro Bowl.
Seasons in his take. So that's the good news.
Soap box time hit hit us.
Okay, I was a little emotional.
Last night, so we covered you up here with his alternate graphics.
We do have four alternates, and I'm happy these guys are alternates. I'm Twine Winfield and uh Tristan wars are both first alternates. They've been to the Pro Bowl before. Baker Mayfield is a third alternate, which is a great story, and Vidave is a fifth alternate.
So that's good.
But I cannot understand how Antoine Winfield Junior is not one considered one of the having one of the three best seasons by safety in the NFC not the NFL this year.
Can I just throw some numbers out you please? By all means?
Throw them?
Well here, first of all, here was your okay, Like I said, I.
Was in your fields last night.
Yeah, I was in my fields. As you said, it does not make any sense to me. The Levante David season I'm referring to was his second year, when he had something like seven sacks and five interceptions and was a first team Associated Press All Pro, which is a far more exclusive honor, only like one guy at every position, so two linebackers. The Pro Bowl lets in a lot more players. Levante was a first team All Pro but did not make the Pro Bowl, which made no sense.
Hopefully Antoine gets the same thing this year, because that's voted on by various members of the medium. I'm hoping he gets first team AP All Pro, and so that will take away from what I considered the biggest snub for the Bucks in a long time. And listen, Casey, we have counterparts that do the same jobs on other team and they're probably all standing at their little podiums right now saying this guy on our team got snubbed.
This guy, I understand. And if you put somebody in, I mean somebody else is out, I get it.
It's still not the same. I'm sorry.
We're right, right, We're more right than those other teams. Anton Winfield has one game to go, one hundred and seventeen tackles, five sacks as a safety, five forced fumbles, four funnel recoveries, three interceptions, a team leading twelve passes defensed, two turtle doves, and nobody, literally nobody in the league has.
That stat line.
He's not at any position, at any position.
It's I cannot explain how Anti Winfield was not voted in to the Pro Bowl and the initial vote. He'll probably make it in the long run as an alternate, but right now I'm not feeling very good about it.
That's fair. I think we would all agree with you, and unfortunately I would love to let you now have an emotional break after that. But now we have to talk about this. Last week's game, which I know was challenging, did not go how the team thought it would wanted it to tough one to recover from a little bit going into this very important game this next week. So what stands out to you now looking back about the Saints.
Game, Well, everybody in the locker room, coaches and players, they seemed very irritated and frustrated and not sure why. And this is their words. They came out so flat in such an important game and they felt like they had a good week of preparation.
They came out flat.
The Saints, who had so much to play for and have been this team's main rival for so many years now, they obviously came out strong if you think about the Buckaners were on that four game winning streak excuse me, that culminated in the Jaguars blowout of the Jaguars, they scored on six of their first seven possessions in that game and the only one they didn't score was a one play kneel down at the end of the first half.
Then the next week, after all this positive momentum, the Bucks didn't score until their tenth possession against the Saints. And obviously, turnovers were a big part of the story. The Bucks had never committed more than two in any game the season that they committed four the only two times they made it into Saints territory in the first
three quarters that drives ended in turnovers. And then in the fourth quarter against the defense that was playing the style of defense that's supposed to drain the clock and not give up big plays, Baker throws for two hundred and twenty yards, two long touchdown passes, that's not supposed to happen against that style defense they were playing, and it just gives you a little indication of what this offense is capable of and what it had been showing
in the previous week. So what we're hoping, of course, is that this is just one very bad day and the previous four games are more of an indication of where this team is for sure.
And of course we know this next upcoming game, the major thing everybody's watching for is just the outcome in terms of the implications for playoffs, but there are also some other major milestones and things to keep track of while you're watching the game as well, So tell people what those are.
Yeah.
So obviously it's not as individual milestones aren't nearly as important as getting the win. But when you think about it, you're talking some of your team's best players. They have good games, you're more likely to win. Yeah, so we
can still roof for these things. Now, you see, guys here, Chris Godwin needs twenty seven yards to get his fourth thousand yard receiving seasons, which would be second most in team history to Mike of course, Rashad White needs eighty five yards for his first thousand yard rushing season and the first five Bucks and Doug martin twenty fifteen, and Baker Mayfield is really close to a couple of nice round numbers four thousand passing yards and thirty touchdown passes.
He's already got a career high in both of those categories. And then Mike, who scored a million touchdowns this year, one more would tie his own record for both touchdown catches and overall touchdowns in a season for the Buccaneers. But if you put this stuff together, one really interesting note is that if Chris and Rashad both hit those milestones, it'll mark the first time in Buccaneers history that the team has had two thousand yard receivers and a thousand
yard rusher in the same season. Wow, which would say a lot about this offense, which I'm not sure people expected a lot out of it.
Yeah, I think that's a really great point. And then I know we showed some of those numbers that Baker Mayfield put together a really great season statistically in a lot of ways, and we've seen him gut out plays. There's been a lot of leadership emotion, There's been a lot of things to showcase Baker is having a really great season. But of course this last game, unfortunately, it was a bit of a turnover situation for the offense as a whole. Baker through a couple interceptions, and that
had not been the case. He had really been protecting the ball for quite a while. So what have you noticed about some of the statistics when it comes to the ratio that came in with the plus ten differential, best in the league. So what kind of happened this last week and just overall, how has this team been protected?
Well, it was the first time that the Bucks had committed more than two turnovers in any game this year, which is a great note by the way, that it hadn't happened before that. First time Baker threw two interceptions in one game. One of them was on a tip ball, but I guess that's still on him. First time the Bucks lost two fumbles in a game and they were zer over four? Are they excuse me? They were negative
four in turnover ratio worst of the year. Obviously, didn't get any takeaways, and especially against the Saints, it seems like in recent years that's the story, and so that's going to be a big part of the story in Week eighteen in a do or die game, can the Buccaneers win the turnover battle? Because when they do, as you see here, they usually win, and when they don't, it doesn't go well.
Yep, yeah, that's really interesting. So now let's look ahead to this Panthers matchup. Tell me what you think are some of the keys to this game? Knowing that we may not have gotten as good of an indicator in what the matchup could look like with the first one being just a torrential downpour that greatly affected both offenses and a lot about the game. So what do you feel like in a little bit more normal weather conditions this matchup could look like?
Well, I mean, I think that game is informing the Buccaneers this week as they're considering the Panthers because they only won by three. And I know you're right it was a torential reign and that affected things, but it was the same for both teams, and it was a close game right to the end until non pro bowler into one winfielder intercepted a pass right at the end.
Is that how you're going to refer to him the rest of the season? No, just right now, just right now, while you're still angry.
Okay, So the Panthers obviously they made the big move at quarterback this year and they train it up and to the first pick and took Bryce Young, the Alabama star, and he's had the sort of ups and downs you'd expect from a rookie quarterback.
They don't all just drop in and be awesome, like CJ. Stroud.
He had a really good game two weeks ago and they almost beat the Packers back and forth through for like three hundred yards and a couple of touchdowns.
No picks.
But overall he's had some struggles. He's been sacked fifty nine times, which is a lot, and he's actually ranked last. Yeah, he's actually ranked last amongst a qualified passers and passer rating, And like you said, poor guy. He's not a big guy, so taking a lot of hits, you worry, right, But he's gutted it through. I think he's a very very talented player. The Buccaneers are hoping they can contain him in the pocket. They in the last game he got
out a little bit and made some plays. So that's a big deal, you know, Yeah, I think that's what that means.
Yes, a pressuring him is going to be the big part. What about their defense and what stands out to you.
They've kind of had a quietly good season on defense. They ranked third in yards allowed, third and passing yards allowed. Derek Brown is a really big force in the middle. Frankie Luvu's a nice linebacker, makes a ton of plays.
It's curious if j. C Orno will play.
He was active but did not play last week with a toe injury, but he's a really good corner when he does play. The weird thing about their defense though, is, like I said, they're third in yards allowed, third fewest, but they're thirtieth in points allowed, which is kind of weird combination. I'm not sure exactly sure how that happened, maybe red zone issues or turnovers, but obviously the Bucks
care more about points than the yards. So if they can keep you know, they can continue that trend for the Panthers, that'll be a good thing.
All right, Well, that's gonna do it for us on this edition of Buccaneers Insider Against Day. Tuned to the Buccaneers website and social media all week for the preview of this matchup against the Panthers, and we'll see you next time.