The Tampa Bay Buccaneers could have beaten the Carolina Panthers handily, had their offense shown up. Instead, the Bucs lost a close game in ugly fashion, 17 to 3.
The Bucs were coming off a stellar offensive and horrible defensive performance against the Buffalo Bills, and we were expecting them to continue that trend. Instead, we found the exact opposite: the Bucs defense was absolutely dominant against Cam Newton, even though they were missing their top two cornerbacks.
Vernon Hargreaves had what may have been the best game of his career, while Ryan Smith was impressive on the other side.