Here are my three key matchups on defense.

Adrian Clayborn vs Will Svitek

To stop the Falcons, the Bucs must get to Matt Ryan. If they can disrupt the young quarterback's dropbacks and pass sets, they have a good chance of beating the Atlanta Falcons. Adrian Clayborn has been the Bucs' most consistent pass rusher, and is relatively healthy.

To make this matchup a little more beatable for the Bucs, Will Svitek is not a great left tackle. Clayborn had great success in week 3 against the Falcons, but he was facing now benched left tackle Sam Baker, though. Can Clayborn beat Svitek as easily as he beat Baker in the first game between these teams?

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Here are my three key matchups on offense.

Davin Joseph vs Jonathan Babineaux

Davin Joseph has just been named a Pro Bowler, and he'll get the chance to prove his status this Sunday when he goes up against Jonathan Babineaux. The big defensive tackle is one of the more underrated defensive linemen in the NFL, but he's both disruptive against the pass and stout against the run - hard to move, and a key part of Atlanta's strong run defense.

If the Bucs want to win, Davin Joseph needs to move Jonathan Babineaux in the run game and keep him from getting to Josh Freeman in pass protection. That won't be an easy assignment, but the second-time Pro Bowler has had a good season, and he should be up to the task.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will face the Atlanta Falcons in the final game of the 2012 season. The question on every Bucs fan's mind right now is not "will the Bucs beat the Falcons?" but "can they keep it close?" or "will they show some kind of effort?"

That's how miserable these final two months have been. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been blown out by nearly every team they've faced - from vastly superior teams (Dallas) to some of the worst teams in the league (Jacksonville). They've looked like they've stopped caring. They certainly don't play with discipline or within the structure of the defense or the offense.

So the question is: can the Bucs change that against the Atlanta Falcons, a team they managed to beat in a close game early in the season? Can the Bucs re-capture that quality of play against a division rival?

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Here are my three key matchups for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on defense.

Ronde Barber vs Steve Smith

Steve Smith has finally been united with a good quarterback again, and he's taken off. The veteran wideout is arguably having his best season as a pro and has once again turned into a terrific deep threat. Unfortunately the Bucs will have to match up Ronde Barber on Steve Smith, and Barber is likely to be beaten by Smith.

In the last game, Steve Smith was held in check despite Aqib Talib's absence for most of the game, but that was more about Cam Newton's accuracy than it was about Smith's skills. Smith beat Barber at least once for what would have been a long touchdown, but Newton overthrew the veteran - much to his discontent.

All that to say: Ronde Barber can't let Steve Smith get behind him again. More problematically, perhaps, with Ronde Barber likely playing on the outside on Steve Smith in nickel packages, Albert Mack will play the slot. And if that happens, the Panthers could really gash the Bucs in the run game. As much as Barber has been a liability in run defense because of gap integrity, he was at least strong and crafty enough to make an impact in the run game at times.

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Here are my three key matchups for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on defense against the Carolina Panthers.

Donald Penn vs Charles Johnson

Earlier in the season, this matchup would not have been too troublesome for the Bucs' left tackle. Penn was having a terrific season, only occasionally letting defensive ends get by him. But in the past two weeks his play has collapsed, as Jeremy Mincey and Demarcus Ware ate his lunch.

So on Saturday, Donald Penn will have to get his game together for the Bucs to succeed. Josh Freeman has been struggling all season long, and constant blind side pressure won't help things. Johnson has 9 sacks on the year, and was awarded with a very rich contract this offseason for a reason. Johnson has the ability to ruin Freeman's day, and Penn has to find a way to bounce back and stop that from happening.

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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will look to avenge themselves tomorrow against the Carolina Panthers. The players will be fighting for their coaches' jobs, their own jobs and pride.

If recent history can be trusted, none of that will matter. The Bucs have been playing for all of that for weeks, and they've come up short every single time. Instead, they seem to be playing for draft position, judging by the results. That may be good for the franchise in the longer term, but I'd sure like to cheer for some wins before the 2012 fall.

So, will I be able to do that tomorrow? I'm going to go ahead and say 'no'. We need only look back three weeks, when the Carolina Panthers stomped on the Bucs to the tune of a 38-19 final score that wasn't as close as that line would suggest. And that game came before the Bucs got blown out by the Jaguars and Cowboys.

The last time these two teams faced, Cam Newton threw for 204 yards on just 21 trows. Their running game put up 163 points and four touchdowns, three of them Cam Newton runs from one yard out. The only touchdown the Bucs scored was an irrelevant Josh Johnson to Dezmon Briscoe touchdown in garbage time. The Bucs scored five times in total, but four of those scores were field goals. I don't think the Bucs can reverse all of that tomorrow.

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