THIS GIVEN SUNDAY The Bucs this Sunday in Carolina face what can only be described as a tipping point game. A win and the franchise goes in one direction. A loss and it heads the opposite way. And in looking back over the history of the franchise, I can only really see two others which came close to fitting this criteria. There have been games where a final week result has affected a draft position such in 1988 where beating the Lions meant the Bucs took Broderick Thomas with the fifth selection in 1989 and Detroit drafted a guy named Barry Sanders. Or the unforgettable 2014 season finale when the Bucs and Titans were doing everything they could to lose their final game in order to secure the number one overall pick. That ultimately did not matter as the two choices were Jameis Winston and Marcus Mariota. The first of the real tipping point games was the 2001 Wild Card game in Philadelphia. The Bucs had struggled to a 9-7 mark and a playoff berth but once against had to go to Veterans Stadium and face the Eagles. Tony Dungy was under serious pressure to go further than the previous year’s exit at the same stage. If the Bucs had won that game, then a trip to a very beatable Chicago team was next in line and it is unlikely Dungy gets fired. So no Jon Gruden and perhaps no Super Bowl the following year. As it was, the Bucs lost 31-9 and looked terrible offensively in the process and I spent the night commentating on that game for British TV speculating as to who would be the next coach. For the record I said no to Bill Parcells and predicted the Glazers would go for a different big name. The other tipping point game was the 2008 season finale against the then-Oakland Raiders. The Bucs had been 9-3 before the Monday night defensive disaster in Carolina, lost an overtime game in Atlanta and then given up 41 at home to the Chargers. But they still only needed to beat the JaMarcus Russell-led Raiders to win the division and make the playoffs again. If the Bucs had won that game, Gruden does not get fired and the necessary rebuild gets delayed at least another year with his penchance for veteran players. The future of the next few years of Buc football is more murky in that scenario but there would not have been a coaching change with Tampa Bay in the post-season in 2008. As it was, the Bucs lost 31-24 giving up 177 yards to Oakland’s third-string RB Michael Bush and Gruden was out of One Buc Place the following week to allow the next young hotshot coach, Raheem Morris, to take over. History tells us what happened there but the crux of the Week 16 result in 2008 was the key point. And now we come to the final game of the 2023 season. The Bucs needing a win to clinch the NFC South against the lowly (ie crap) 2-14 Carolina Panthers whose best throw last week came from the owner. A Bucs’ win means a playoff berth and lots of money for the owners from a home Wild Card game and do not under-estimate the importance of that. Todd Bowles keeps his job, Baker Mayfield gets offered a contract and the types of social media fans who think it is clever to call him Bowels (no it is not) continue to lose their minds over a coach who does not scream and shout all the time. A Bucs’ loss and the proverbial sky falls in. Bowles gets canned within hours, Jason Licht remains to select a new head coach who then makes his own decisions on assistant coaches, offensive game schemes and who the quarterback should be. All on one game this Sunday. Any Given Sunday is the NFL’s favourite mantra. For the 2023 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it is This Given Sunday.