It was a hard fought win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday, as the team managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Charlotte. A huge turnover in overtime led to the Buccaneers second win in as many weeks and helped propel them back into the thick of the NFL Playoff picture.
The Bucs are now just a game behind the Atlanta Falcons for first place in the NFC South, and are just a game behind the Washington Commanders for the final Wild Card spot. That means depending on how things go in Week 14, Tampa Bay could either have the No. 4 seed or the No. 7 seed by this time next week.
None of that is possible without the Bucs winning on Sunday, which was Tampa Bay’s eighth victory over the Carolina Panthers in its last nine games against them. That’s something that didn’t sit well with at least one player, especially given how close the Panthers were to finally breaking that streak.
Footage shows Buccaneers and Panthers players nearly getting into a confrontation after Week 13’s game
The final few minutes of Sunday’s game was truly a roller coaster ride, one that shifted back in Tampa Bay’s direction after Chuba Hubbard’s fumble in overtime. At that point it appeared the Panthers had the Bucs beat, but the turnover allowed Tampa Bay to march down to the field and kick a game-winning field goal.
Needless to say, emotions ran high and ended up boiling over.
After the game, Panthers safety Sam Franklin needed to be restrained as he appeared to be trying to confront Buccaneers players in the tunnel leading to each locker room. It’s unclear what sparked the incident but Franklin doesn’t seem very happy and he was apparently calling out linebacker Jose Ramirez.
This prompted wide receiver Sterling Shepard to getting involved, as he was seen looking for Franklin while also needing to be restrained by Buccaneers coaches. Panthers beat reporter Sheena Quick captured footage of the near-confrontation and posted it to social media.
Ultimately, nothing happened, but it made for some extra fireworks after a surprisingly tense game that went down to the wire.
It was was weekend filled with bizarre postgame confrontations, with numerous college football rivalry games ending in brawls over how things went. While the Bucs weren’t trying to plant any flags in the Panthers’ midfield logo, being bullied for an eighth time probably feels even worse and how close Carolina came to winning only twisted the knife more.
This isn’t how anyone wants to see a game end, but thankfully it ended with hot air being blown around rather than fists being thrown. These two teams will see each other again in Week 17, and the Panthers will once again have a chance to knock the Bucs out of the playoff picture and play spoiler.
We’ll see if any of this ends up coming back up when that game rolls around.
