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Buccaneers vs Panthers: 5 Bucs to watch in Week 8 of 2017

By David Harrison

ORCHARD PARK, NY - OCTOBER 22: Kwon Alexander #58 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with Kendell Beckwith #51 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the third quarter of an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills on October 22, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY - OCTOBER 22: Kwon Alexander #58 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with Kendell Beckwith #51 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the third quarter of an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills on October 22, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
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ORCHARD PARK, NY – OCTOBER 22: Kwon Alexander #58 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with Kendell Beckwith #51 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the third quarter of an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills on October 22, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
ORCHARD PARK, NY – OCTOBER 22: Kwon Alexander #58 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers celebrates with Kendell Beckwith #51 of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the third quarter of an NFL game against the Buffalo Bills on October 22, 2017 at New Era Field in Orchard Park, New York. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /

The Buccaneers have their first divisional contest coming up this weekend, and it’s against another NFC South team looking to get things rolling.

When the Panthers travel to the Buccaneers’ home, they’ll be doing so coming off of a loss to the Chicago Bears. Not exactly a world beater, Carolina fans surely expected a win against Mitch Trubisky’s squad if they’re going to return to the playoffs this season.

Of course, expectations not panning out is nothing new for either side in this one, but one team has a chance to break this unfortunate spell of losing.

For the Bucs, it’s going to be another chance to get a full game out of their roster. Not since Week 2 in the team’s first contest have both sides looked like they were a squad with playoff aspirations.

Even in the team’s second win against a one win Giants team, it wasn’t what anyone would call smooth sailing.

A divisional win right now would put the Bucs at 3-4, but it’d be a big win number three. A loss drops the Buccaneers to 2-5, and oh boy, if we think things are bad now.

The 2017 free-agent class was not expecting this when they signed on, and the divide beginning to peek through may become a full-blown elephant in the room if this goes south on Dirk Koetter’s crew.

There are some key guys who Tampa needs to step up if this win is going to happen.

Let’s look at five of them.

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