The PewterReport.com Roundtable features the opinions of the PR staff as it tackles a topic each week that involves the Bucs.

This week’s topic: Who Ends Up In NFC South Cellar – Bucs Or Falcons?

Scott Reynolds: Sadly, The Bucs Finish Last In The Division Again

It’s all on the line on Sunday as Tampa Bay travels to Atlanta to face the Falcons. With both teams having a 3-7 record, the loser of this game becomes the favorite to finish at the bottom of the NFC South division. Because this game is in Atlanta, favor the Falcons. Because Atlanta has beaten both New Orleans and Carolina in back-to-back weeks – teams that the Bucs are 1-3 against this year – favor the Falcons.

Falcons QB Matt Ryan – Photo by: Getty Images

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan has nine interceptions this year and is on pace to throw more picks (14) than he has since 2015. But Bucs quarterback Jameis Winston has already lapped Ryan with a career-high – and a league-leading – 18 INTs this season, including four in last week’s loss to the Saints. Yet Ryan is completing 69.2 percent of his passes, and that’s not good news for Tampa Bay’s young secondary, especially when Ryan has Julio Jones (59-882-4) and Calvin Ridley (44-614-5) to throw to. Jones and Ridley should have their way against the Bucs’ young and inexperienced cornerbacks on Sunday – and again on December 29 in the 2019 season finale.

Because Atlanta’s strength is throwing the ball and Tampa Bay’s weakness is defending the pass, it doesn’t bode well for the Bucs in either game. It’s just not a good match-up, especially because Atlanta’s defensive line is starting to really come on and pressure opposing quarterbacks. Three weeks ago, Drew Brees was sacked six times and didn’t throw a touchdown in a 26-9 upset over the NFC South-leading Saints. In last week’s 29-3 win at Carolina, Panthers QB Kyle Allen was sacked five times, threw four interceptions and no touchdowns. So how do you think Tampa Bay’s porous offensive line and Winston will fare on Sunday in Atlanta? Exactly.

It’s sad to say, but I think the Bucs are destined to finish in the NFC South this season. The match-ups favor the Falcons over the Bucs. This Tampa Bay team hasn’t even shown it can win back-to-back games this year, while Atlanta has, and I think the Falcons make it three in a row on Sunday when Tampa Bay comes to town. At best, the Bucs split with the Falcons this year, but if they win it will come at home in the season finale – not this Sunday. Yet that potential victory on December 29 may not even be enough for Tampa Bay to supplant Atlanta for third place in the NFC South.

Mark Cook: Hard To Believe The Bucs Don’t Finish Last

Like an album that keeps skipping on the turntable and playing the same part of the song over and over, this is unfortunately what we’ve come to expect from this Tampa Bay franchise. New needle, new album – doesn’t matter it is the same song, same dance and here we ago again with another 5-11 season.

I didn’t expect the Buccaneers to make any type of Super Bowl run this year, but I also believed this coaching staff would make a difference. And it still may, but it doesn’t appear it will be this season.

Bucs head coach Bruce Arians – Photo by: Getty Images

Looking ahead at the schedule, Bruce Arians was correct a couple weeks ago when he said there isn’t a team that the Bucs couldn’t beat, but also no team they couldn’t lose to as well. If the Bucs have any hope in not finishing last in the NFC South it has to start with a win this Sunday against the Falcons. While the Falcons are also 3-7, don’t look now but they are on a two-game win streak including a drubbing of Drew Brees and the Saints two weeks ago. Yes, the same Saints team that beat Tampa Bay handily twice this season.

I see Tampa Bay losing on Sunday to Atlanta on the road but coming back later in this season to take a win at home from the Falcons for at least one more victory. But where are the other ones coming from? Jacksonville on the road? Maybe. Detroit on the road? Could happen. The Colts and Texans at home? Are you betting the mortgage on the Bucs winning either of those games? I’m not.

The Falcons don’t have an easy road themselves with one more round against the Saints and Panthers, plus a game against one of the leagues’ best in the 49ers. But I just trust the Falcons to play tougher than the Bucs against the their remaining opponents. Somehow the Bucs squeak out two more wins, but the Falcons win at least three more to finish one or two games ahead of Tampa Bay.

Trevor Sikkema: The Bucs Will Finish Third

I can’t believe we’re asking this.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect a winning season out of this team in their first year with Arians. At the start of the season I predicted a 7-9 record thanks to a tough schedule and the Bucs being, well, the Bucs. But to have to ask this question with six games remaining, especially after how bad Atlanta looked to start the year? Sheesh. It really is a Bucs life, huh?

Ultimately, I say Tampa Bay won’t finish last. Right now the Bucs and Falcons are tied at 3-7 with two to play against Atlanta. There’s no way they get swept by the Falcons. There’s just no way. If they do, man, that might be the worst part of this entire season.

Falcons DB Damontae Kazee – Photo by: Getty Images

The Falcons have the tougher schedule, though. They have to face Tampa Bay twice, the Jaguars, the Saints, the Panthers but also the 49ers. The Bucs have the Falcons twice, the Jags, the Texans, but then the Lions and Colts possibly without their starting quarterbacks. I see a potential for three wins in there for the Bucs where I can only see a maximum of two for the Falcons.

There is a chance they tie with the Falcons, and whatever happens on a tiebreaker that will be pretty embarrassing given how the season started for Atlanta. But in the end, we’re talking about two bad football teams, so anything can happen, I suppose.

Matt Matera: The Bucs Come In Last Based On A Tie-Breaker

The Bucs are all too familiar with being at the bottom of the barrel in the division, having come in last place in four out of the last five seasons. With six games left for the 3-7 Bucs and Falcons, I think both teams end up with identical 6-10 records, but it’s Atlanta who has the tie-breaker, and will get third place.

With both teams still set to face each other twice this season, I believe each team wins its home game. Atlanta has been on fire over the past two weeks, winning on the road twice against divisional opponents. That momentum will carry into Sunday’s game against the Bucs, but the Falcons will cool off by the time they come to Raymond James Stadium at the end of December, as Tampa Bay extracts some revenge.

The difference between these teams recently has been defense. The Bucs allow a league-worst 31.3 points per game, which makes it difficult for the offense, forcing them to press the issue knowing that points will be scored by their opponents nearly every time they have the ball. It’s been tumultuous for the Bucs’ defense as they go through growing pains with rookie defensive backs Sean Murphy-Bunting, Jamel Dean and Mike Edwards. Tampa Bay’s pass rush has slowed down as well – all leading to a last-place defense.

Falcons OC Dirk Koetter – Photo by: Getty Images

Meanwhile, the Falcons made some changes to the coaching staff, including switching former Bucs coach Raheem Morris from receivers coach to defensive backs coach, and the team has benefited from it. Atlanta has not allowed a touchdown over their last two games, which included an upset win at New Orleans and a blowout victory at Carolina. The Bucs and the Falcons are just two teams going in different directions on defense. Now they face a Bucs offense where Jameis Winston threw four interceptions in his last game. Even with two of them not being on Winston, the rest of the team has helped contribute to the turnovers.

Looking at their schedules over the final six games, each team has tough matchups. The Bucs have the Colts and Texans on the schedule with a winnable game against the Lions, while the Falcons have the Saints again and the 49ers, with another favorable matchup against the Panthers. Both teams also mutually face the Jaguars, and that is another chance at a win for both teams. Predicting that the Bucs win against Lions and Jaguars and the Falcons beat the Bucs, Panthers, and Jaguars, that leaves a 6-9 Falcons heading to a 5-10 Bucs for the last game of the season, with the Bucs pulling out a win. But the fact the Falcons would have four divisional wins to the Bucs’ two, it’s the Falcons who come in third place with the Bucs placing last

Taylor Jenkins: The Bucs Will Finish Last Per Usual

When Bruce Arians entered One Buc Place with Tampa Bay on the heels of the team having back-to-back 5-11 seasons, I was convinced that things would improve. I was convinced that – if nothing else – this large and supremely experienced coaching staff alone would add another win or two even if the Bucs weren’t ready to make a playoff run yet. I was convinced things would be better.

Now in mid-November, the Bucs are sitting at 3-7 and primed to find themselves right back in the comfortable depths of the NFC South standings, somewhere they’ve found themselves for eight of the last 10 years. The Bucs share their spot in the standings with the Falcons, however Atlanta holds the edge with two divisional wins to the Bucs’ lone victory over the Panthers in Week 2, and that’s how I see the year ending.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Getty Images

Over their final six games, the Bucs and Falcons play each other twice and I like them to split that match-up behind tough, divisional games, putting them both at four wins on the year, but I think each team has one more win coming from their remaining schedule.

Atlanta will play its other four games against the Saints, Panthers, 49ers and Jaguars. While the Panthers and Jaguars prove to be the most winnable games, I can’t see Carolina being swept by this Falcons squad. Jacksonville, on the other hand, I see as a winnable match-up for the Falcons, pushing them to 5-11.

For Tampa Bay, the Bucs have the Texans, Colts, Jaguars and Lions left. Much like the Falcons, the Bucs are looking at two winnable match-ups against the Jaguars and Lions, now taking the field without quarterback Matthew Stafford. But the Bucs have given me no reason to ever consider them a favorite. I have Tampa Bay dropping its game in Jacksonville but narrowly escaping Detroit with their final win of the season.

Both at 5-11, Atlanta will edge out Tampa Bay for third in the division via a tiebreaker, putting Tampa Bay back in the NFC South cellar for another year.