Saturday, 4 a.m.
The answer is somewhere between Bucky Irving’s knee and the bottom of his foot. It’s there you’ll find out just how much of a chance the Bucs have of upsetting the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.
Oh, the Bucs are underdogs. Even dinged, Justin Herbert seems bound for a good day against a soft-anyway Bucs secondary that is minus its best three safeties. At home, with a good defense, with a solid coach in Jim Harbaugh, the Chargers are favored (by three) for a reason.
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But the Bucs have played better teams than the Chargers. Kansas City, Detroit. Philadelphia.
Their best chance to win, then, is to maintain a pretty good offense. The keys to that are Baker Mayfield, who is healthy, and Irving, who is not.
If the Bucs can score, they have a chance to hang with Los Angeles.
A lot of that comes down to Irving, the biggest weapon the Bucs have this year they didn’t have last year. With Irving, the Bucs have a breakaway threat than can even the odds.
Still, it figures that the Bucs will have to win their last three to make the post-season.
Prediction: San Diego 24, Tampa Bay 17.
In other NFL games:
Carolina 20, Dallas 16.
Washington 27, New Orleans 21.
Green Bay 30, Seattle 27.
Atlanta 24, L.A. Raiders 13.