It’s a race to the top of the trash heap in the NFC South

Credit: Buccaneers Don’t look now, but the Bucs are only two games out of first place in the NFC South. One of the teams tied for first place is the Carolina Panthers. This is the same team the Bucs just gave an absolute shellacking to on Sunday afternoon during a 43-13 victory. Frankly, the game was over by the half, so we’ll focus mostly on that period of play. In his first game back from a thumb injury, Baker Mayfield took a back seat to the Bucs’ running game. The team ran for close to 150 yards over 30 (yes, 30) carries in the first half. Bucky Irving accounted for most of those yards, with 84 yardsticks on 18 carries. He darted into the end zone a couple of times, as well.  By the end of the game the Buccaneers had 258 total yards of rushing, and Mayfield threw the ball 11 times—a show of force on the ground that hasn’t been seen from the Bucs in a few years.  Defensively, the Bucs still managed to give up their government-mandated touchdown to a tight end (