The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers face off in Week 16 with a lot on the line in the NFC South. Both teams sit at 7-7 with three games to go, includ

Bottling up Baker Mayfield on Sunday, limiting penalties and getting Tetairoa McMillan move involved also make the list.

Two issues for the Panthers moving forward are the schedule and overcoming inconsistency.

In criticizing Bryce Young's middling stats, one analyst said what we've been thinking about the whole organization.

I don’t want to get into the specifics of the breakdowns, of all that, but these are base calls that we have to be more connected on.”

But ultimately, the Panthers simply outplayed the Lightning. They converted on their chances and defended at a high level. Bobrovsky gave them timely saves, especially in the first period. Conversely, the Lightning made isolated defensive mistakes that proved to be extremely costly.

The Panthers have alternated wins and losses in their last eight games. Their head coach received some criticism for Sunday’s shaky performance vs. the Saints.

The Panthers have been pretty successful on fourth-down plays. But the loss to the Saints highlighted a weakness in short-yardage situations.