The Thursday Night Football matchup is usually a division game and while that is not always the case, it sure is in Week 8, as the Carolina Panthers will travel to play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium in Florida for a game that will be on the NFL Network at 8:25 pm and the game will streaming live on NFL.com.
The game marks the next chance for the Buccaneers to get their first win of the season at 0-6 and the team is coming off of another tough defeat against the Atlanta Falcons and now things are appearing to come off at the seams. Everyone seems to hate Greg Schiano and now that Mike Glennon is in and Josh Freeman is out, the results have been mostly the same. The team lost Doug Martin to a shoulder injury on Sunday against the Falcons and now they have rookie Mike James starting and while he was solid in relief, he is a young player that is untested and the Panthers have an excellent defense this season.
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The Buccaneers have been terrible this season and the start fort the Panthers was just as bad, as they were 0-2 before defeating the Giants in dominating fashion and now the team has won three of their last four games and are at an even record for the first time under Ron Rivera at this time of the season and they feel they have to win this game against the Bucs, as the next stretch of things on the schedule has some very tough games, including later against the Saints twice in three weeks as well as two games against the Falcons.
The tough stretch starts after the Buccaneers, as the team hosts the Atlanta Falcons, a team that was in the NFC championship last season, and then they have a road game against the San Francisco 49ers that will be very tough and then the team makes its only appearance on Monday night football, as they will play the New England Patriots in a huge matchup. That will have Tom Brady and Cam Newton matching up against each other and then they play two games on the road in three weeks, playing the Dolphins and the Bucs before visiting the New Orleans Saints.
The team plays Drew Brees and the Saints twice in the final four weeks and they also have the Jets and the Falcons during that final stretch of games to end the season in Week 17 on the road. The team dominated the Rams last week and while the team did not have any leader in the game among both teams in rushing, receiving or passing yards, they were able to win and that likely was because Sam Bradford was injured. The team is ranked in the top 10 in both passing yards and rushing yards allowed per game and they are also ranked seventh in rushing yards per game and could continue that on Thursday.