Carolina Panthers at Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Not long ago, people chuckled at the idea of the Panthers (6-9) controlling their destiny in the NFC South. But no one is laughing now as they’re within a game of the Buccaneers (7-8) and will go for the season sweep on Sunday.
The Panthers dominated the Lions on both sides of the ball Saturday as they rushed for a team-record 320 yards and Sam Darnold added 250 passing yards and a TD in the 37-23 win. Carolina is 4-2 in its last six games and 5-1 against the spread.
Tom Brady pulled another Houdini act in rallying the Buccaneers to a 19-16 OT victory against the Cardinals on Christmas night to stay atop the division. The Bucs’ No. 6-ranked defense continues to keep them in games long enough for Brady to work his late-game magic. That didn’t work in the first meeting in Week 7 as the Panthers shut down the Bucs until allowing a field goal with 9:33 left on the way to a 21-3 victory.
The advance line for this game over the summer was Buccaneers -10.5. It reopened at Buccaneers -6.5 on Christmas afternoon but then was adjusted to Bucs -3 after they struggled again at Arizona. Similar to the first meeting (and both teams’ recent form), this isn’t expected to be a shootout as the total has been set low at 39 points.