Falcons-Buccaneers Preview

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) The Atlanta Falcons were supposed to be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ top competitor for the NFC South title.

Instead, they’re reduced to playing a spoiler role.

Kirk Cousins and the Falcons (4-9) visit Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers (7-6) on Thursday night in Tampa with a lot at stake for the home team.

The Bucs were cruising along to a fifth straight division championship before running into a difficult stretch. They returned from a bye with a 6-2 record and were aiming to earn a top seed in the second half.

But they’ve hardly played like a team that even belongs in the playoffs. The Bucs lost three straight games to winning teams, barely held on to beat the lowly Cardinals and then lost at home to the dismal Saints.

They’re tied with Carolina for first place and will play the Panthers twice in the next three weeks. First, they have to take care of business against a team looking to ruin their season.

“You never want to be in this spot,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said about being eliminated from playoff contention. “But really, the job is to go out and play spoiler right now. You’ve got a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team on Thursday that we’ve got a lot of respect for, that we love to play. That’s always a highly competitive football game, and I expect no different.”

The Buccaneers control their playoff hopes. If they win their next three games, they’ll secure the division crown before a Week 18 matchup against the Panthers.

They'll have extra help against the Falcons. Six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans is returning along with wideout Jalen McMillan. Evans hasn't played since he broke his clavicle on Oct. 20. McMillan will make his season debut after injuring his neck in the preseason.

“It’s that playoff mentality,” Mayfield said. ”(When you’re) looking at it, we’re playing a divisional opponent, they would love nothing more than to beat us and screw up our chances. So, you go into it expecting: ‘Okay, do they really have a lot on the line? Yeah, because they’re trying to knock us out of the playoffs.’ So that’s the mindset. It’s playoff mentality for us, and we have to expect to get their best.”

Cousins beat the Buccaneers twice last season in his first year with Atlanta. He threw for 785 yards, eight touchdowns and only one interception. He had 509 yards passing against them in one of the wins. Michael Penix Jr. started in Week 1 when the Bucs beat Atlanta 23-20.

Cousins returned to the lineup after Penix sustained a season-ending knee injury. The four-time Pro Bowl QB is 1-3 in four starts with three TDs, three picks and a 76.5 passer rating.

“I don’t consider him a backup quarterback, I consider him a starter, and he has (been) for a long time,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. ”(He) knows where to go with the football, (is) very accurate, knows the offense inside and out, so it’s going to be a challenge for us, especially everyone needing to be where they need to be. The challenge is just facing the entire team. The entire team, we’ve got to learn from what happened last year.”

Mayfield has struggled the past four weeks while dealing with injuries, including a left shoulder sprain that forced him to miss the second half of a loss to the Rams last month. But Falcons defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich expects to see the guy who was an MVP candidate over the first half of the season.

“He’s Houdini, you know, you watch him against some of the best defensive lines in this league, and feel like he’s corralled down, sacked, and all of a sudden, not only does he get out of like the most impossible situations, then he makes a play,” Ulbrich said. “So it’s just, he’s as good as I’ve seen in a long, long time, as far as the competitor that he is, the toughness that he demonstrates.”

Dynamic Falcons running back Bijan Robinson leads the NFL with 1,683 scrimmage yards. He has 1,081 yards rushing. Led by run-stuffing nose tackle Vita Vea, the Bucs are ninth against the run. However, they allowed 136 yards to Jahmyr Gibbs in Week 7 and 147 to TreVeyon Henderson in Week 10.

Robinson’s high in five games against Tampa Bay is 63 yards. He’s averaging 3.9 yards per carry against them.

The Buccaneers were 2 for 7 on fourth downs last week, failing to convert fourth-and-1 twice and fourth-and-2 once.

The Falcons have the league’s second-worst third-down conversion rate at 31% - only better than the Titans - and were 1 for 13 on third downs last week against the Seahawks.

The Falcons allowed a 100-yard kickoff return TD and had a field goal blocked last week in a 37-9 loss to Seattle. They’re last in kickoff return coverage, allowing 31.2 per return. The Buccaneers are fifth-worst, giving up 27.9 yards per kickoff return. The Bucs nearly lost a game earlier this season to the Jets when a blocked field goal was returned for a score late in the game.

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AP Sports Writer Maura Carey contributed to this report.

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