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: How Will The Bucs Fare Down The Stretch?

Scott Reynolds: Bucs Will Finish 5-5

Tampa Bay is 2-4 coming off its bye week and I don’t think the Bucs have really beaten by their opponents. Instead, I think the Bucs have been their own worst enemy and have beaten themselves. Look no further than Tampa Bay’s last game – an 11-point loss to Carolina in London where the Bucs were a stunning minus-6 in the turnover ratio. Had the Bucs even been minus-2 or minus-3 there is a decent chance they could have prevailed. It wasn’t like the Panthers beat the Bucs by 20 or 30 points.

Bucs K Matt Gay – Photo by: Getty Images

But that brings up an important question. Can the Bucs stop beating the Bucs? If they can, they have a chance at actually finishing 6-4 or even 7-3 down the stretch. There are three or four winnable games against lesser foes when you factor in playing Atlanta twice, Jacksonville and Arizona. Although the Kyler Murray-led Cardinals have won three straight games, it has come at the expense of Cincinnati (0-7), the New York Giants (2-5) and Atlanta (1-6). That’s four potential wins right there for the Bucs if they can stop making the mistakes that cost them a winnable game against the Giants in Week 3.

The toss-up games will come this Sunday at Tennessee and in December at Detroit. If Tampa Bay can split these games and win all four of the winnable games listed above, the Bucs will win five games and go .500 down the stretch. That would mean a 7-9 finish for Tampa Bay in Bruce Arians’ first season as head coach, and a two-win improvement over the last two years when the Bucs were 5-11.

The challenging games will be at Seattle in two weeks, home dates against New Orleans in November, which will see Drew Brees return at quarterback, Indianapolis and Houston. If the Bucs can manage to steal one of these victories a chance at a 6-4 finish and an 8-8 record is possible. But given the fact that this team hasn’t learned to stop beating itself yet gives me pause for making such a prediction. As great as the win against the Rams was in Week 4, showing the Bucs’ true potential, there were clunkers against the Giants and Panthers that show me that this team still has some growing up to do. I’m sticking with a 7-9 record for the Bucs this year until they can prove me wrong.

Mark Cook: Bucs Will Finish 6-4

Bruce Arians’ football teams tend to get better, particularly down the stretch. At the very least Tampa Bay should be 3-3, if not for a missed gimme field goal against the Giants. So if if they should be .500 at this point, and history suggests Arians’ teams play better as the season goes on, then the Bucs will close out the last 10 games by winning five of them, and will finish 2019 at 8-8.

But in order to do that they must beat the Titans on the road this Sunday. Get that win and some confidence and who knows what happens the following week in Seattle, although I think the Seahawks will prove to be too much and after that game the Bucs will be 3-5.

Bucs OLB Carl Nassib – Photo by: Mary Holts/PR

The Cardinals come to town for a home game for the Bucs and while rookie quarterback Kyler Murray is playing well, the Bucs are the more talented team and prevail to up their record to 4-5. A healthy Drew Brees should be back under center when the Saints come to Ray Jay on Nov. 17 and the Bucs will play them well and have a chance at the end to stun the Saints, but New Orleans’ train is just rolling too fast and the Bucs lose a close one and will be 4-6 and desperate to hold on to any playoff hopes.

The close loss to New Orleans is a turning point for a team after it blew a game it should have won, and they realize by playing the Saints hard and close for 60 minutes, that the Bucs can win. Tampa Bay will go on a roll starting with the Falcons and win their next three over Atlanta, the Jaguars and and upset the Colts to go to 7-6. The tough Lions bring the Bucs back down to earth a little, and likely end their playoff chances, but the Bucs finish up strong beating a very good Houston team, then closing the season beating the really bad Falcons to finish 8-8.

Trevor Sikkema: Bucs Will Finish 5-5

Ugh, 5-5. So lame.

Here’s how I see this playing out. I do think the Bucs will bounce back this weekend in Tennessee. That Titans offensive line is not good and the Bucs defensive line should be able to best them enough to come away victorious. I have them dropping their next two; Russell Wilson in Seattle is likely too much, and I actually think Kliff Kingsbury is coming into his own as a play caller with Kyler Murray and I think they steal one from Tampa Bay. I’ll say the Bucs beat the Saints at home the next week since they always seem to play New Orleans tight in Raymond James Stadium.

Bucs QB Jameis Winston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Falcons game at home better be a win. Jaguars versus Bucs is a battle of which team’s fan base is more sad, so I’ll go with the Jaguars winning there – that Jags’ D-Line versus the Bucs’ O-Line, yikes. I don’t see the Bucs beating the Colts, but I do see the Lions going full Lions and dropping their home game to the Bucs. Houston will be a loss, and then, once again, the Falcons game better be a win for Tampa Bay.

A 5-5 finish would put Tampa Bay at 7-9 to end the year, and you know what? That isn’t bad for a new head coach that was brought in to change the culture of losing. I understand that it’s not the playoffs, but the Bucs setting the world on fire in 2019 was always more of best case scenario than it was an expectation. They could still go on a run here to end the season and maybe even make things interesting, but even if the Bucs finish a game below .500, how they look in November and December is going to be what is important. Give yourself the right building blocks going into the offseason and this year can be considered a success to really attack the postseason next season.

Taylor Jenkins: Bucs Will Finish 4-6

Looking at Tampa Bay’s schedule over the next 10 games it’s clear to see that it does get marginally easier for the second half of the season – if the Bucs can win at home. Right off the bat, there are three games that I think the Bucs should win without question – both games against Atlanta and their road match-up against the Titans coming off of a long rest. With that said, I also thought that Tampa Bay should have won both of their games against the 49ers and Giants in Daniel Jones’ first start. Granted, San Francisco has proven to be much tougher than anticipated, and it’s abundantly clear that there are no easy, clear-cut victories in the NFL, especially for the Bucs.

Bucs WR Chris Godwin – Photo by: Getty Images

Moving on to games I see Tampa Bay at a clear disadvantage in, I have trouble seeing the Bucs beating New Orleans, Indianapolis, Seattle or Detroit. I think Houston will be a problem as well, especially if Will Fuller, Kenny Stills and Deshaun Watson all enter the game with a clean bill of health.

With three predicted wins and five predicted losses notched, it leaves just Arizona and Jacksonville as toss-ups. Jacksonville has one of the more formidable defenses on the Bucs’ remaining schedule. As far as Arizona, it feels like a game that they should win so I’ll pick it as a game that Tampa Bay takes, but it’s a trap game that I could easily see the old Bucs dropping. It’ll be a game where Tampa Bay can really prove what kind of team it is.

Overall, I see the Bucs finishing 4-6 over their last 10 and ending Bruce Arians’ first season as head coach with an underwhelming 6-10 record, just narrowly improving on their previous two campaigns.

Matt Matera: Bucs Will Finish 5-5

When I look at the remaining 10 games on the Bucs’ schedule I see three games that they have a very low chance of winning, two games that they have a very high chance of winning, and the rest are a 50-50 shot. With that, I have Tampa Bay finishing up 5-5 for a 7-9 record on the year.

The three that they are more than likely to lose are games at Seattle and at home against the Saints and Texans. The winnable games are both against Atlanta with the toss-ups coming against the Titans, Cardinals, Jaguars, Colts and Lions. All of these teams with the exception of the Falcons have a better record than the Bucs as it stands, and while half of their games left are at home, Tampa Bay’s 0-2 record at Raymond James Stadium shows that playing at home doesn’t give an advantage to the team.

What makes the Bucs so frustrating is that they have the talent and proper coaching to go 7-3 down the stretch, but they also continuously commit self inflicted mistakes that could easily give them a record of 4-6 as well. Bruce Arians likes to say that the Bucs can’t beat the Bucs, but they haven’t proven that they’re capable of doing that for a long period of time. It’s always been one step forward and two steps back, and I see the same happening for the remainder of the season although in a one step forward, one step back capacity.

I’m actually less concerned about Jameis Winston’s ability to play better and learn from his mistakes than I am about the defense getting its act together. Winston has shown the ability to shake off a bad start and he has to know that this is his final straw to regroup if he wants to stay in Tampa Bay.

Bucs DE Jason Pierre-Paul – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The defense on the other hand has looked worse week by week, with the only saving grace being that Jason Pierre-Paul is returning to help a pass rush that is basically absent outside of Shaq Barrett. Should a better pass rush help out a secondary that is dead last in yards per game? On paper, yes. How much of an impact will Pierre-Paul’s presence be? Only time will tell, but I think he helps the Bucs take at least one game of their 50-50 matchups.

The Bucs can defeat a Ryan Tannehill-led Titans this week, and I think they will, but the rest of their opponents that they “can” beat aren’t as easy. The Cardinals are on a three-game winning streak and seem to only get better with each week that rookie Kyler Murray gets an NFL start. The Lions are a pass-happy team, which does not bode well for all the issues that the pass defense has had. The Colts have been one of the league’s biggest surprises and are contending for the division, while the Jaguars could be a totally different team by the time the Bucs play them if Nick Foles returns. If I had to put money on it, I’d say the Bucs beat the Titans, Cardinals, and Jaguars, going 3-2 in their 50-50 games. Add in the 2-3 record from the aforementioned foregone conclusions and that puts the Bucs at 5-5 for 7-9 record to end the season.