Buccaneers win a fourth straight NFC South title and made some history in the process

Let's not stand on ceremony: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are NFC South champions for a fourth straight season. It wasn't pretty by any stretch -- from the season's uneven nature to how Sunday went down -- but all that matters is the division still runs through Tampa and the Bucs remain kings of the South.

The mission was simple, as all the Bucs needed to do on Sunday was win and they were in. A loss would have complicated things far more than they needed to be, but that would have been on-brand for a team that hasn't made anything easy this season.

Tampa Bay got off to a rough start, as the first half couldn't have gone worse than it did. The Saints jumped out to a 13-3 lead, and almost everything looked stale for the Bucs on both sides of the ball. Meanwhile, the Falcons hung close by the Panthers and took a halftime lead to add some extra stress to the situation, as if there wasn't enough of it already.

It was almost poetic that the Bucs limped through the first half of the game they way they did, as it served as a coda for a season the team has made harder on itself than it should have been. After trailing 16-6 at halftime, though, Tampa Bay finally turned back into the team we know they're capable of being.

Baker Mayfield went off almost right out of the gate, ripping off an angry run that doubled as a dose of energy the team desperately needed. From there everything started clicking into place as the defense locked down and the offense started firing.

Perhaps the highlight of the second half was Jalen McMillan making an incredible touchdown pass that shifted momentum back to Tampa Bay's side once and for all.

It should have never been as difficult as it was, but there probably wasn't another way for the Buccaneers to win the division. Somehow the stress felt fitting, as it's been so tightly stitched into the fabric of this season, but at the very least it proved the Bucs earned a fourth straight division title.

The team also happened to make a little history on its way to the playoffs as well.

Buccaneers make history by winning a fourth straight NFC South title

By winning the NFC South -- again! -- the Bucs have done something that no other NFC team has managed to do. Tampa Bay has punched a playoff ticket in five consecutive seasons, which is the longest active streak in the NFC and second only to the Chiefs.

More granularly, the Bucs made some franchise history on Sunday as well. The Bucs finished the season with 10-wins for just the 10th time ever, and it's the first time it's happened since 2021 when Tom Brady was having an MVP season.

For the record, Baker Mayfield finished the season with three fewer touchdowns than Brady had that year so there's a correlation there that isn't getting talked about enough. Despite the Pro Bowl disrespect that came Baker's way, he's finishing the best season of his career leading the Buccaneers to a win total that has only happened five times since the 2002 Super Bowl win -- and two of them were under Brady.

Tampa Bay is on an all-time run right now and it's impossible to overstate just how impossible this all felt just a handful of years ago. The 2010s were some of the darkest more hopeless years fans have been forced to endure, but they payoff has been incredible and there seems to be no end to the success in sight.

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