Buccaneers Byron Leftwich Speaks Ahead of Carolina Panthers Matchup

Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans used to utter the words 'It's a Bucs Life' as a therapeutic way of sharing in shared pain.

Not in the uplifting kind of way the Bucs franchise intended when it revealed the motto many years ago.

Although, as long ago as it was, the current state of this Buccaneers squad has many reliving emotions from those days.

As the Bucs swept the New Orleans Saints in 2022, they also face the possibility of being swept by the Carolina Panthers this weekend.

So, as the saying goes, 'It's a Bucs Life.'

But the team has a say in whether or not that happens, and offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich Is trying to find lessons from past failures to spark new growth.

And an NFC South Division clinching win.

"You watch everything. You watch the last couple of times you played these guys. From a personnel standpoint, you go back a long time, really, from a preparation standpoint and what you're thinking, what you're seeing from their personnel, what they're doing scheme-wise," Leftwich said. "You watch it all...and try to learn as much as you can from it."

“Oh yeah, you watch everything. You watch the last couple of times you played these guys. From a personnel standpoint, you go back a long time, really, from a preparation standpoint and what you’re thinking, what you’re seeing from their personnel, what they’re doing scheme-wise. You watch it all, you watch it all and try to learn as much as you can from it – learn things not to do, learn things to do. That’s part of it, really. That’s part of getting ready to play – getting ready to play and understanding what happened to you. It’s a division opponent, so we know each other well and there won’t be [any] surprises.”

As much as Leftwich is watching the Panthers, there are some things that apply universally in football.

Things like the importance of establishing early leads.

"That's how I've viewed it all the time," Leftwich said when asked if his Bucs offense needs to get an early lead on the Panthers this weekend. "Try and score as much as you can and put the other team in a bad spot so they're chasing. That's every week."

Every week means this week.

And this week the Buccaneers can secure their third-straight trip to the playoffs.

If they can score early, and score often.

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