Pewter Power Rankings is a weekly feature compiled by PewterReport.com’s Fantasy Football Analyst Andrew Scavelli every Tuesday during the regular season. Each week Scavelli will rank the league’s teams from best to worst based on their performance and outlook going forward at that point of the season, with a focus on the Buccaneers.

CURRENT BUCCANEERS RANKING: 20 (+1)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers
After so many ups and downs in Sunday’s game against the Cleveland Browns the Buccaneers finally stabilized themselves a bit in this week’s Pewter Power Rankings, moving up just a notch for their winning effort in an overtime game that saw the good, bad and ugly parts of this team come to the surface. While the defense turned in an inspired performance after simplifying their scheme under new coordinator Mark Duffner, Tampa Bay’s offense continued to struggle moving the ball on the ground and turned the ball over at an alarming rate. The silver lining is that despite having a -3 turnover margin, the defense played well enough to give the Bucs a chance to win at the end of the game.

For the first time this season Tampa Bay’s defense contributed more to a winning effort than the team’s offense but that also came at a price as they lost the heart and soul of their unit, team captain Kwon Alexander, for the rest of the season with a torn ACL. Despite injuries piling up on that side of the ball now, the defense still appears to be trending upward under Duffner’s direction. If they continue to do so and get some more help on offense and in the kicking game, this team will have an opportunity to get their second-straight win against an AFC North opponent this week when they travel to Cincinnati to face a Bengals team that was just embarrassed by the Chiefs in primetime.