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Week after week, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are circling the middle of the NFL power rankings field. Win one: up a few spots. Lose one: down a few spots. This week: down a few spots. Seems about fair.
Adam Stites of SB Nation sets the tone: 18th, down from 14th last week. The rest isn’t much better. ESPN: 19th, and a note on a really tough upcoming schedule. Washington Post: 19th. Yahoo! Sports: 20th. NFL.com: 19th. CBS Sports: 19th.
Pretty mediocre, but not unearned. No one likes 2-2 teams that are coming off a fairly middling season, and haven’t shown much special play this season. The Bucs crushed the Chicago Bears, were crushed by the Minnesota Vikings, then played two very close games against two meh opponents. The Bucs aren’t giving those national power rankings writers a lot to work with, to be honest.
Next week, though. Next week....I don’t know. A win would give them a few more spots, a loss would start driving them down to the bottom. Either way, it won’t be too uplifting.