Bucs S Antoine Winfield Jr. and Panthers WR D.J. Chark Photo by: USA Today If not for Winfield, the Bucs would have entered halftime down 7-6. Winfield, for the second time this year, refused to quit on a play, chasing a would-be score down before the offensive player reached the end zone and forcing a fumble. This time, it was Panthers’ receiver D.J. Chark who was about to score on a broken play where Jamel Dean forgot to stay in coverage. Winfield was able to strike the ball out of Chark’s hands and Dean recovered the fumble to prevent the score and force the turnover. Winfield added a sack for a nine-yard loss just before the end of the third quarter. The sack forced Carolina’s newly signed replacement kicker Matthew Wright to have to attempt a field goal from 52 yards instead of 43. Wright missed the kick, keeping the score at 6-0 in favor of the Bucs. Winfield’s line of five tackles, one sack, and the forced fumble brought his season line to 122 tackles, six sacks, six forced fumbles, four fumble recoveries, three interceptions and 12 passes defensed. I would like to remind everyone he is not a Pro Bowler. OLB Yaya Diaby Diaby set the tone for the defense early with a third-down sack to kill the Panthers’ first drive. Later, he would sniff out a Carolina screen play, holding it to no gain. The young edge rusher brings a heightened demeanor rarely seen since the departure of Jason Pierre-Paul after the 2021 season. He finished the regular season with 7.5 sacks, tying Adrian Clayborn for the second-most by a rookie in team history. K Chase McLaughlin 
Bucs K Chase McLaughlin – Photo by: USA Today McLaughlin was a perfect 2-for-2 on field goal attempts in the first half, including a 57-yarder to take the Bucs into halftime with a 6-0 lead. McLaughlin would continue his clutch kicking in the fourth quarter with a hit from 39 yards out to give Tampa Bay a two-score lead. With those three field goals, McLaughlin moved to 29-of-31 on the year, with his only two misses coming from blocks. McLaughlin is also 7-of-8 from beyond 50 yards this season. DL Calijah Kancey Kancey kicked off the day for the defense with a tackle for no gain on Carolina’s first play of the game. He was also creating pressure from the opposite side on Diaby’s sack. Later in the first half, he would add another pressure, forcing Panthers quarterback Bryce Young to scramble out of the pocket and eventually throw the ball away. OLB Joe Tryon-Shoyinka With just over six minutes left in the game, the Panthers were driving to bring the contest back to within a single score. A Raheem Blackshear touchdown run for 28 yards had just been nullified by an illegal formation penalty on the Panthers, but they were still in field goal range. Enter Tryon-Shoyinka, who raced under Panthers’ LT Ickey Ekwonu with a sick dip to strip-sack Bryce Young. Greg Gaines would fall on the fumble to turn the ball over and give Tampa Bay’s offense possession near midfield while effectively icing the game. That sack came at a crucial leverage point in the game and gave Tryon-Shoyinka a career-high five sacks on the season. LB Lavonte David David was once again transcendent in his play, making key stops throughout the first half en route to four tackles. David continued that trend into the second half with another five tackles as he was integral to the Bucs defense limiting the Panthers’ inept offense. RB Rachaad White 
Bucs RB Rachaad White and RT Luke Goedeke – Photo by: USA Today The only offensive player to crack the Most Impressive list this week, White was actually pretty ineffective for most of the game outside of a couple chunk runs of 13 and nine yards on Tampa Bay’s first field goal drive. But where the second-year running back really earned his spot on this list was late in the game, as he and the Bucs run game managed to close things out by picking up first downs when they needed them. The rushing attack hasn’t always been very effective this year, but its ability to close out games resurfaced Sunday. White finished the day with 75 yards on 19 carries, a 3.9-yard average. Unfortunately for him, he ended the season 10 yards shy of the 1,000-yard mark. But he did have a key block on Jaycee Horn for Baker Mayfield on a third-down scramble that went for a first down, showcasing his willingness to stick his face in there and do the dirty work for his quarterback. Bucs Defensive Line Logan Hall, Greg Gaines and Vita Vea all took turns bottling up the Carolina run game. Panthers running back Chuba Hubbard began the game with three carries for 18 yards and added a big gain in the third quarter of 17 yards. But outside of that, the Tampa Bay interior largely shut down the Carolina running game. There were a few chunk plays for Carolina’s run game, but none of it proved sustainable against the Tampa Bay front. Hall was especially active, registering four tackles. Sporadically, the Panthers were able to pick up a first down here or there on a rare solid run. But the Bucs defensive front prevented them from stringing any drives together on the ground. Bucs Defensive Backfield Outside of the busted coverage by Dean that forced Winfield Jr. to become Superman, the Bucs’ back seven held the Panthers passing attack to 90 yards passing on 23 dropbacks while helping provide coverage for three sacks. Carlton Davis III shut down his side of the field, while nickelback Chris Izien and Jamel Dean were solid outside of the aforementioned coverage bust. The safety play by Winfield and Ryan Neal was more than enough to prevent any over-the-top plays from the Carolina passing game. And David and Devin White were solid underneath to limit the Panthers’ attempts to generate a short-passing game. The post Bucs at Panthers: Most Impressive In Week 18 appeared first on Pewter Report. Source: https://www.pewterreport.com/bucs-panth ... e-week-18/
