A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday on PewterReport.com. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough Bucs question. This week’s prompt: How many games will the Bucs win over the final four-game stretch?

Scott Reynolds: Bucs Might Win One Or Two More Games

This is kind of sad, but I can see the Bucs losing out the rest of the way following Tampa Bay’s debacle of a loss to New Orleans on Sunday. Todd Bowles’ team had no business losing to a previously two-win Saints team. That was ridiculous, and with the Bucs going 1-4 after the bye week, my confidence in this year’s squad is at an all-time low right now.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles and Panthers HC Dave Canales – Photo by: USA Today

And did you hear Bowles’ press conference on Monday? Didn’t exactly inspire much confidence, did it? Bowles looked like Dirk Koetter looked with a blank, expressionless face in the last few weeks of his reign back in 2018. Koetter didn’t know how to stop the losing back then and I’m not sure Bowles knows how to now.

I can make a case for the Bucs losing more games than I think they are going to win, and I can see them winning one or two games down the stretch. I’d love to be wrong by the way. I’d love to suggest that the team will sweep the Panthers, but I don’t think the Bucs will. So Tampa Bay gets one win against Carolina. I think the Falcons beat the Bucs with Kirk Cousins again. On a Thursday night game again. While the Bucs are wearing creamsicle uniforms again.

So it comes down to Miami in Week 17. The Dolphins are suddenly 6-7 and have won four in a row and five of their last six. Miami is hot right now and Tampa Bay is not. I can see Tua Tagovailoa carving up the Bucs secondary and De’Von Achane running roughshod through the defensive front. So I don’t know, Bucs fans. Maybe Tampa Bay finishes 9-8. I’m just not sure if that’s good enough to win the division this year – or if Carolina captures the NFC South crown.

Matt Matera: Given Their History, Bucs Win 3 Of 4

Understanding how bad it’s been for the Bucs losing five of their last seven games, we also have to remember that this is the exact blueprint that Todd Bowles and the Bucs run into every single season. 

Start out hot? Check. Fall into a midseason slump losing several games in a row? Check. Stub your toe in a game against a worse opponent? Check. All that’s left for the Bucs is to get out of the mud and rally together a winning streak, culminating in an all or nothing game that they’ll win. 

Bucs WRs Sterling Shepard and Jalen McMillan – Photo by: Cliff Welch P/R

We also have to remember the importance of the Bucs getting wide receiver Mike Evans back on offense along with Jalen McMillan, too. Better production by the offense will trickle over to production by the defense. Tampa Bay is going to win their next two games over the Falcons and Panthers before falling to the Dolphins and making it a fireworks showdown in a rematch against Carolina. It’s the Bucs exact playbook.

Adam Slivon: Despite Recent Shortcomings, Bucs Win Three Of Final Four Games

There is no question that the Bucs have had a disappointing stretch of football following the bye week, winning just one of five games. Tampa Bay has not played inspired football in a long time, being a far cry from the resilient group that started the year 5-1 and has had wins over the Seahawks and 49ers. At 7-6, calls for wholesale changes have grown louder, but as has been the case in recent years, the end-of-the-year schedule lines up too favorably to completely stumble. Right?

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Starting with the Falcons game on Thursday night, the Bucs will rightfully so be a team on a vengeance, in more than one way. Outside of just wanting to get right and put this past Sunday behind them, it is another divisional rival they are playing at home. Facing Kirk Cousins presents a unique challenge, one that Tampa Bay has hopefully learned from last season. Outside of facing Todd Bowles’ defense, Cousins struggled enough that he was benched at the end of last season. Given Atlanta’s own defensive shortcomings, it should be enough to win. 

Realistically, the Bucs and Panthers have played similar football this year. They each have lost games they should have won, while beating other above-average teams. There is also enough familiarity between them to make it a give-and-take where they split the two games they play one another. That leaves just the Dolphins left in this picture.

Winners of four straight games after calls for his job, Mike McDaniel’s squad looks more like the one that has had success in recent years. Still, I predict Tampa Bay does enough to come away with a victory as it stands right now. None of the remaining games are as “easy” as once thought, but for a team that plays its best with its back against the wall, they have a chance to stand tall and remain a 10-win football team.

Bailey Adams: The Bucs Feel Bound To Split Their Last Four Games

I’m not even 100% sure I know which two of the remaining four games I think the Bucs will win and which two I think they’ll lose. It’s just that, at this point in the season and with the way things have gone over the last seven games, a 2-2 split to finish 9-8 just feels on par for this team. Before Sunday’s loss to the Saints, I would’ve pretty easily thought 3-1 was the likeliest finish for Tampa Bay, but if this team can lose to New Orleans, which was previously a two-win team, it can lose to anybody.

Falcons QB Kirk Cousins – Photo by: USA Today

Up next is the 4-9 Falcons, and as dead in the water as they seem to be right now, there’s something about the combination of Kirk Cousins, a primetime game and the Bucco Bruce creamsicle uniforms that feels like the perfect storm to make things difficult. From there, two of the final three games come against the 7-6 Panthers, who are tied with the Bucs atop the NFC South. That feels like a split waiting to happen. Carolina is inconsistent in its own right, but Dave Canales has his team playing better football than what Tampa Bay is putting out there right now.

Mixed in between those two crucial Panthers games is a trip down south to face the 6-7 Dolphins, who suddenly have a little more life to them after four straight wins. That’s still a game the Bucs should win, but it’s hard to have much of any confidence in this group right now after what we’ve seen in the last two months. Give me a split of the Carolina games and a split of the other two to leave Todd Bowles and Co. at 9-8 and hoping/praying they won the right two games and/or got some help elsewhere to win the division again.

Josh Queipo: Bucs Win The Rest Of Their Games

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

How about the 2023 season? The Bucs lost a Week 17 matchup with the Saints that would have secured the division, only to beat the Panthers in Week 18 to finish 9-8 and secure their fourth straight playoff appearance. And even last year they lost to a Dak Prescott-less Cowboys team in Week 16 on Sunday Night Football before rattling off two must wins to once again with the NFC South – this time at 10-6.

While the Bucs have been bad and just lost to an even worse Saints team, they have done this before. I have no reason not to expect them to once again take advantage of a softer back-half schedule as they did last year … and the year before … and the year before that, to once again win the division and finish one game better with their final record. Tampa Bay wins all four remaining games to finish 11-6.