Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20 Carolina Panthers 23 Sunday 21 December 2025 at Bank of America Stadium
NFC SOUTH STANDINGS Carolina Panthers 8-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 7-8 Atlanta Falcons 6-9 New Orleans Saints 5-10
FOX COMMENTARY CREW Chris Myers and Mark Schlereth
And the wheels continued to fall off. A third straight loss to a division opponent, now 1-6 in their last seven games and all the same issues, terrible guard play, no defensive line pressure and overall defensive meltdowns at the worst time. Baker had all his weapons for the first time and it still made no difference. Even a final game-tying drive ended with an interception when he and Mike Evans were on different pages.
STARTERS OFFENSE DEFENSE LT 78 Wirfs DL 50 Vea LG 60 Jordan DL 97 Gotsis C 62 Barton DL 90 Hall RG 65 Feeney OLB 5 Reddick RT 67 Goedecke ILB 54 David TE 88 Otton ILB 8 Dennis WR 13 Evans OLB 0 Diaby WR 2 Egbuka CB 21 Morrison WR 11 McMillan CB 35 Dean QB 6 Mayfield S 23 Smith RB 7 Irving S 31 Winfield PLAYED 1 White, 4 McLaughlin, 9 Dixon, 14 Godwin, 15 T Johnson, 19 K Johnson, 22 Vildor, 25 Parrish, 29 Izien, 32 Hayes, 43 Braswell, 44 Tucker, 45 Jones, 48 Gray, 57 Bullock, 58 Watts, 70 Chukwuma, 72 Haggard, 77 Heck, 86 Deckers, 87 Durham, 91 Pierre-Paul, 96 Gaines, 98 Nelson DID NOT PLAY 10 Bridgewater INACTIVES 3 Walker, 16 Bazelak, 17 Shepard, 38 Wisdom, 79 Klein, 82 Culp, 92 Simmons
GAME HIGHLIGHTS Click on the boxes below to view the big plays Sirvoccea Dennis had a sack in the first quarter Mike Evans scored on his usual one-yard fade route to the right corner Sean Tucker capped a scoring drive with a one-yard run round the left side
GAME SCORING CAR 10:30-1Q Fitzgerald FG27 TB 4:01-1Q Evans 1 pass from Mayfield (McLaughlin) TB 8:09-2Q McLaughlin FG23 CAR 2:06-2Q Fitzgerald FG41 CAR 0:07-2Q McMillan 22 pass from Young (Fitzgerald) TB 6:41-3Q Tucker 1 run (McLaughlin) CAR 0:08-3Q Sanders 6 pass from Young (Fitzgerald) TB 11:24-4Q McLaughlin FG50 CAR 2:20-4Q Fitzgerald FG48
GAME REPORTS Bucs fall out of 1st as miscommunication leads to loss to Panthers Another Bucs game, another Bucs collapse. Where's the killer instinct? Bucs blow another 2nd-half lead as division race comes to the wire How The Athletic saw things unfold Scott Smith’s official game report Click here for the play-by-play and the NFL gamebook
NFL RESULTS - WEEK 16 Tampa Bay 20 Carolina 23 Seattle 38 LA Rams 37 Philadelphia 29 Washington 18 Chicago 22 Green Bay 16 LA Chargers 34 Dallas 17 Tennessee 26 Kansas City 9 Cincinnati 45 Miami 21 New Orleans 29 NY Jets 6 Minnesota 16 NY Giants 13 Jacksonville 34 Denver 20 Atlanta 26 Arizona 19 Pittsburgh 29 Detroit 24 Houston 23 Las Vegas 21 New England 28 Baltimore 24 Buffalo 23 Cleveland 20 San Francisco v Indianapolis
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS RUSHING BUCS: Irving 19-71, Mayfield 4-49, White 5-45, Tucker 4-3, McMillan 1-1. PANTHERS: Dowdle 9-29, Hubbard 6-27, Horn 1-25, Young 4-20. PASSING BUCS: Mayfield 26-18-145-1-1. PANTHERS: Young 32-21-191-0-2. RECEIVING BUCS: Evans 5-31, Godwin 5-30, McMillan 2-15, Otton 2-15, White 2- 15, Egbuka 1-40, T.Johnson 1-(-1). PANTHERS: McMillan 6-73, Dowdle 4-14, Coker 3-47, Evans 3-23, Sanders 2-9, Legette 1-12, Hubbard 1-7, Tremble 1-6. INTERCEPTIONS BUCS: none. PANTHERS: Ransom 1-5. KICK RETURNS BUCS: K.Johnson 3-101, Tucker 2-36. PANTHERS: none. PUNT RETURNS BUCS: K.Johnson 1-7. PANTHERS: Etienne 3-33. SACKS BUCS: David 1-9, Dennis 1-8. PANTHERS: Rozeboom 1-9, Brown 1-9.