Carolina Panthers vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers – NFL Week 18 Preview & Prediction

Baker Mayfield, Emeka Egbuka, Mike Evans, Todd Bowles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers face Bryce Young, Tetairoa McMillan, Dave Canales and the Carolina Panthers in a huge NFC matchup with Playoff implications and the NFC South division will be decided in this week 18 NFL game.

The Panthers will have home field advantage which hasn’t existed that often for their franchise in recent years since Cam Newton suffered his shoulder injury, Carolina has a good chance if they can run the ball well with their very good duo in Rico Dowdle and Chuba Hubbard, they will go against Lavonte David and Vita Vea once again.

The Mike Evans injury took away one of the best third down and red zone threats in the NFL, the Bucky Irving injury also removed the explosive capabilities of their offense but even with them both back healthy they have struggled offensively. Tez Johnson stepped up to carry their receiving core but is not longer important in this offense with Chris Godwin back from injury.

Jaycee Horn and Mike Jackson will be key players in the secondary Both the Bucs and the Panthers lost huge games last week and have been inconsistent over the last couple of months of the season but Tampa has played some of the worst football in the league with Baker Mayfield turning the ball over and their offense sputtering.

The Tristan Wirfs injury continue to look large as the offense cant get much traction in the trenches protecting Mayfield or getting the run game going. The Panthers offense was awful against the top 5 Seahawks defense as Bryce Young threw for only 50 yards and had one of the worst games of his career in a game that could have clinched them the division with a win.

Enjoy this Blitz With Blinder video hosted by Josh Blinder breaking down what could be a winner take all game.