The Carolina Panthers Week 17 matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is a 6-9 team vs. a 7-8 team. Yet somehow, it is a crucial NFC South matchup with major playoff ramifications. With that as the backdrop for Panthers-Buccaneers, let’s make some bold Week 17 Panthers predictions.
The Panthers' path to the 2022 NFL playoffs is relatively simple: Win their final two games, and they are in. They could also get in with a Panthers Week 17 win and some help after a loss on the final weekend, but winning out is the straightforward path. And it’s a minor miracle that Carolina has any path at all after starting the season 1-5 and firing head coach Matt Rhule. But that’s where were are in the 2022 NFC South.
Tom Brady and the Buccaneers needed to fourth-quarter comeback in Week 16 to beat the Trace McSorley-led Arizona Cardinals. What that (unimpressive) win did, though, is put the team one win from the postseason. If the Panthers-Buccaneers game goes the Bucs’ way this weekend, Brady’s squad is in. If not, they’re going to need some help in Week 18 before their season becomes an official disaster.
Throw out the records in this NFC South clash because playoffs are on the line in the Panthers' Week 17 tilt with the Buccaneers. While we get ready for this all-important clash, let’s move forward with some bold Week 17 Panthers predictions.
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3. The Panthers' power run game overwhelms the Buccaneers
Buccaneers star defensive tackle Vita Vea has missed the team’s last two games with a leg injury after going out four snaps into the Week 14 vs. the San Francisco 49ers. Without Vea stuffing the run up front, the Buccaneers have allowed 383 rushing yards in the last three games.
The injury and the poor rush defense of late have caused the Buccaneers defense to slip to 17th in the league against the run.
On the Panthers' side, the running game is coming on and propelling the team to a shocking possible playoff berth. In the last six games, Carolina has struggled running the ball against some of the top defenses in the league, like the Baltimore Ravens (No. 3 vs. the run) and Pittsburgh Steelers (No. 6).
However, against middling or worse run defenses, the Panthers have put up 232 yards (vs. Atlanta Falcons), 185 yards (Denver Broncos), 233 yards (Seattle Seahawks), and 320 yards (Detroit Lions).
Sam Darnold is no one’s idea of the next Tom Brady. But Steve Wilks and company have figured out that with a strong running game that pounds the ball with D'Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard, Darnold can make enough plays to win some games.
The bold Week 17 Panthers prediction for the Panthers-Buccaneers game is that Foreman and Hubbard continue to dominate a Vea-less Tampa Bay front, and both get over 100 yards on the day.
2. Steve Wilks makes his case to remove the ‘interim’ tag
When Panthers owner Dave Tepper fired Matt Rhule after Week 5, Carolina defensive pass game coordinator and secondary coach Steve Wilks took the thankless (and usually fruitless) job of interim head coach for the remaining 13 weeks of the 2022 season.
A funny thing happened on Wilks’ way to the unemployment office at the end of the season, though. The team responded and started winning games.
After posting a 3-13 record in his first stint as a head coach in Arizona, Wilks is now 5-5 as the man in charge of the Panthers and could coach his first playoff game if he can coax two more wins out of this rag-tag team that traded its best offensive player (Christian McCaffrey) at the trade deadline.
The track record of interim coaches keeping the job and having success the next season and beyond in the NFL isn’t good (with the Buffalo Bills Marv Levy in 1987 being the notable exception). Surely Tepper knows this and Wilks getting the job for 2023 probably isn’t great.
That said, it is hard to let a coach go who rallied a 1-5 team to the playoffs. Either way, Wilks should get another shot at a head NFL job soon, whether it is in Carolina or not.
1. Panthers 21, Buccaneers 20
The Week 17 Panthers-Buccaneers game comes down to how these teams are winning games in the second half of the season.
The Buccaneers are doing it the wrong way. They play like crap for 45 to 58 minutes and then hope that Tom Brady still has one more miraculous comeback left in his 45-year-old arm. The Panthers are doing it with running, defense, toughness, and timely quarterback play. That’s a much more sustainable formula.
It is hard to ever count Brady out, but the Panthers are simply the better all-around team right now, from the head coach on down. That’s why the final bold Week 17 Panthers prediction is that they get the close W here and keep the playoff dream alive heading into Week 18.
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