Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers held a 14-point lead over the defending AFC champion Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday earlier than fully collapsing within the second half. The Bengals scored 31 unanswered to win 34-23 with relative ease.
On the day, the Carolina Panthers misplaced, as did the Atlanta Falcons (to division rival New Orleans Saints), so it was a main alternative to place a little bit of house within the division race.
Sadly, the loss retains everybody alive. The Buccaneers maintain a slim one-game lead over all three different groups. The collapse hurts much more figuring out that, and Brady understands that higher than anybody.
Brady admitted his fault within the collapse on the Let’s Go! with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald and Jim Grey podcast:
“Tough day and, man, dropping sucks. It’s simply the fact. There’s not a variety of clarification. Sadly, I’ve needed to do an excessive amount of of that this yr. So simply studying from it and making an attempt to be higher.”
He continued:
“And clearly awakened at 3:00 a.m. (Monday) morning simply making an attempt to determine, you realize, I simply had some actual sh***y performs [Sunday] on the finish of the day. So you possibly can’t win when the quarterback turns it over 4 instances. And that’s on me. In order that’s how I really feel.”
The Buccaneers are nonetheless within the driver’s seat within the NFC South, however the others, particularly the Panthers who go to Tampa in Week 17, are respiration down their neck.
Will Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win the NFC South?
Proper now, regardless that everybody has an opportunity on the division title, the Buccaneers have the simplest street. They’d need to lose a recreation within the standings to the Panthers and two video games to everybody else.
They management their very own future, too. Win the remaining three video games they usually’d be in at 9-8. In the event that they lose some, it will get a bit extra precarious, however it’s nonetheless doable anyway.
The Buccaneers have a 73% likelihood of successful the division based mostly on FiveThirtyEight’s projections mannequin. The Panthers have a 22% likelihood and the opposite two groups have a 3% likelihood, so the percentages are nonetheless in Tom Brady and Tampa Bay’s favor.