Buccaneers lead NFC South after one week

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 31-24. That was good enough to at least give them a share of the NFC South lead, but because the New Orleans Saints suck and the Carolina Panthers lost on Thursday, the Bucs now have the sole lead in the NFC South.

The Panthers, of course, couldn’t beat the Denver Broncos, missing a last-second, would-be game-winning field goal. Thanks, Broncos!

The New Orleans Saints were all set to win at home against the Oakland Raiders, but Jack Del Rio suddenly found a way to be aggressive and went for two after getting to a 33-34 score. Result: a 35-34 win, with the Saints missing a last-second, 61-yard field goal. Not that that was particularly likely to go through. Thanks, Raiders!

Incidentally, the Bucs are also sharing the NFC lead. Because it’s been just one week.

This is basically an ideal start to the 2016 NFL season for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Now they need to keep it up, and that won’t be easy. They face the Arizona Cardinals next week, the Denver Broncos in week four and the Carolina Panthers in week five. That’s three teams who made it to conference championship games last year, in just four weeks. Tough sledding.

For now, though, they’re number one. So let’s just stick with that now.