TAMPA, Fla. -- Putting Antonio Brown’s chaotic exit and its aftermath this week behind them, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Carolina Panthers 41-17 on Sunday, closing the chapter on a regular season marred by injuries but still filled with some hope of a possible repeat Super Bowl appearance if they can get healthy.
They finish the regular season with a 13-4 record -- the first time in franchise history the Bucs have reached 13 wins and the seventh time in quarterback Tom Brady’s career, but this time it came in the NFL’s first 17-game regular season. Brady also reached 5,000 passing yards for the second time in his career, cementing his argument for MVP consideration at age 44.
With the NFC’s No. 2 seed, which they clinched with an Los Angeles Rams’ overtime loss to the San Francisco 49ers, the Bucs will face the Philadelphia Eagles -- in a rematch of Week 6 matchup that the Bucs won 28-22 -- in the first round of the playoffs next weekend at Raymond James Stadium. The Week 18 win secures Tampa two home games for the postseason if they win next Sunday (1 p.m. ET, FOX).
“Thirteen wins and it hasn’t been easy” said coach Bruce Arians. "We’ve had a lot of guys down all season.
Arians kept his quarterback abreast of what was happening out west, and then turned on the TVs in the locker room so the team could learn its fate.
“In the end, it’s a great achievement to get the two seed,” said Brady, who finished with a career-high 5,316 passing yards as he enters his 19th postseason.
“It just felt good to win today. Whatever happened with other teams, you can’t ever really control those things. Even for the next game – I don’t know, what, you’re worried about two games from now? I’m not worried about two games from now. I’m worried about one game from now, which is the Eagles. I don’t care if the Rams would have won. That’s alright. We still got the Eagles, and that’s gonna be the biggest game of our season, and if we win – whoever we play, wherever we play, we’re still going and that’s what we wanna do.”
Against the Panthers, Brady became even more short-handed, when wide receiver Cyril Grayson, who took Brown’s spot on offense and had the game-winning touchdown catch last week against the New York Jets, pulled up in the first quarter with a hamstring injury and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.
The Buccaneers were also without their top two running backs in Leonard Fournette (hamstring, injured reserve) and Ronald Jones (ankle) and three of their top defensive starters in Shaq Barrett (knee), Jason Pierre-Paul (shoulder) and Lavonte David (foot, IR). They were left to count on running backs Ke’Shawn Vaughn and Le’Veon Bell, who just signed with the club two weeks ago, rookie Joe Tryon-Shoyinka, Anthony Nelson and veteran Kevin Minter.
As a result, they came out looking flat on defense -- a concerning trend as they’ve fallen behind the past three weeks -- and struggled to get any momentum on offense before going no-huddle with 1:48 remaining in the first half, then scoring touchdowns on four of their next five possessions led by Brady. Blaine Gabbert then took over and led them to a field goal and another touchdown.
“We needed that surge of momentum,” said tight end Rob Gronkowski, who had seven catches for 137 receiving yards.
“The first couple drives were pretty crappy. No doubt about that. We can’t have that going forward. Every game from here on out is ‘do or die.’ It’s gonna be the playoffs. That’s gonna hurt us big time if we go out there and we have three drives for 20 yards in the playoffs. So we’ve gotta clean that up big-time. And we just woke up, I would say, we just woke up as an offense and just started firing.”
While Grayson’s status is unknown at this point, Arians delivered some promising news this week.
“Hopefully we’ll have almost everybody back defensively next week,” Arians said, adding of Fournette, who was placed on IR after suffering a hamstring strain in Week 15. “I’m pretty sure Lenny will be able to go.”
Getting Fournette back will be huge, considering he had the most scrimmage yards (448) of anyone in the playoffs last season.
Jones shed his walking boot this week after suffering an ankle injury against the Jets, but he remains a question mark because he still cannot cut, Arians said.
“The guys’ mentality has been great,” said wide receiver Mike Evans, who had six catches for 89 receiving yards and two touchdowns. “It’s been ‘next man up’ mentality all year really. We haven’t had our full team the whole season, and that’s how it’s had to be. We’ve had to adjust. It helps that we have a surplus of talent on this team for guys to step up.”
This isn’t the first time Brady or Arians has entered the postseason short-handed. Brady was with the New England Patriots when they lost standouts Gronkowski, Jerod Mayo, Brandon Spikes and Vince Wilfork in 2013 and still reached the AFC Championship Game before they fell to the Denver Broncos 26-16.
In 2015, the Patriots were hobbled by injuries to Sebastian Vollmer, Dont’a Hightower, Nate Solder, Julian Edelman and the loss of Dion Lewis. They lost to the Broncos in the AFC Championship Game, 20-18.
Brady was also without Gronkowski in Super Bowl LI following the 2016 season, when the Patriots erased a 25-point deficit to defeat the Atlanta Falcons 34-28. Brady entered the 2017 playoffs with an injured thumb to his throwing hand before falling to the Eagles in the Super Bowl. Brady also went a stretch of 31 games -- regular and postseason games combined -- without Gronkowski and Edelman together on the field from 2016 to 2018.
In 2014, Arians’ Arizona Cardinals lost their top two quarterbacks -- Carson Palmer and Drew Stanton -- to season-ending injuries. They still managed to finish 11-5 after Palmer went down in Week 10 and Stanton in Week 15, starting third-stringer Ryan Lindley in the final two games of the regular season and in a 27-16 wild-card loss to the Panthers.
“It’s hard. We aren’t going to act like it isn’t,” Minter said of the team’s injury situation. “But at the same time, we’ve been there before now. They counted us out last year. It’s almost like that is what they are supposed to do -- count us out.”