Must Win

It's terrible to have to say that game three of a 16 game season is a must win, but for both playoff teams currently 0-2, one of them is staring at 0-3 . Rarely can a team overcome an 0-3 start, especially when either Atlanta or New Orleans, who play each other Monday night, will be 3-0. It's almost impossible to overcome a six-game deficit as that.

So, the Bucs play at home, which should be to their advantage, but they have played so badly I don't know if it will matter. The defense suddenly looks slow and old and the offense looks anemic.

The Bucs follow up this game with a bye week. If they enter the bye with a third straight loss, tensions will only fester and a quarterback change could be in the works, which means throwing this season away. If they enter the bye with a win, they can try to catapult that victory into saving the season.

For a long, three month season, the Bucs success this year may all come down to this third game in the first month of the season.