The latest NFL Power Rankings have the Buccaneers climbing back

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 2-1 and riding high on a close win over the 0-4 New York Giants. Eh...yeah, that doesn’t sound as good as I thought it would. The Giants are obviously a bad team who still gave the Bucs a fight. Still, things look a lot brighter than they did last week, when they got completely destroyed by the Minnesota Vikings.

The NFL doesn’t think the Bucs are that much better than they were last week, though. Understandable given the fact that that game was far too close for comfort—unnecessarily so, given the amount of points left on the field with missed kicks and red zone issues.

Let’s start with SB Nation’s Adam Stites, who does give the Bucs a significant bump: from 21 to 14. Most others didn’t, though. The MMQB actually dropped them from 15 to 17 (???), ESPN lists them just 18th, as does Yahoo! Sports, while CBS Sports lists them 17th. Only the Washington Post joined Stites in bumping the Bucs up significantly, slotting them in at number 12.

That’s a better listing than last week, overall, but still fairly mediocre. On Thursday night, though, the Bucs face the New England Patriots and a significant chance for improvements: who can deny them their due if they come out of that game 3-1?