Arizona Cardinals @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Final Score: Bucs 20, Cardinals 17
Writer: Matthew Bevin (MattBQBList on Reddit)
The Cardinals and Buccaneers faced off in Tampa, Fla., one squad looking for its opportunity to continue on its razor-thin margin of being playoff-bound (Bucs), while the other team just wants to know if it needs to draft a quarterback in the first round next year (Cardinals). While the game was close, it felt like the Bucs never fully had this one out of control, despite letting the Cardinals put up 14 of their 17 in the second half.
Three Up
- Bucky Irving — Who else was it going to be? Since Week 4, we’ve seen ups and downs from this running game, but after coach Todd Bowles and the Bucs’ coaching staff threw out the snap count murmurs, it was rejuvenating to see that the team not only had a game plan for the whiz kid but also was willing to immediately put him back in the driver’s seat.
- Chris Godwin — Another player shaking off the injury woes, but may finally be closer to the light at the end of the tunnel than the dark part behind him. Godwin was not the dynamic playmaker he’s been for the majority of his career, but it’s small strides off a brutal injury that usually takes away upwards of two years to finally feel healed. It seems as if Mike Evans may likely face retirement decisions in the offseason over a playoff return, with how little he’s been discussed, and it seems the team may want to invest more targets in Godwin as the season winds down.
- Jacoby Brissett — Brissett knows about the most improved player award, and he’s doing his best to put himself in the conversation for it, as he continues to go out and throw the ball at a record-setting clip. While the team didn’t look fully gelled this week, he has taken over the QB role from Kyler Murray and has shown that he may not be a flash in the pan despite what his game tape and age have shown before. He was also able to get Marvin Harrison Jr. back for portions of this game, and may soon have more weapons than he’s had since he started.
Three Down
- Emeka Egbuka — It really hurts to put one of the most exciting players in this category. Still, the signs point to a downturn in production for this man, who was a potential rookie of the year candidate and might not even be in the top-three conversation now. Between the weapons that have shown themselves in Tez Johnson, the resurgence of Godwin, or the return of Irving, he’s at best a WR3 with some possible upside.
- Marvin Harrison Jr. — It feels hard to kick someone while he’s down, but it seems more often than not this year, Harrison has been down before you even started kicking. The WR1 from his draft has had a rough start to his NFL career, and there was finally some hope earlier in the season that things were figuring themselves out, but now Harrison is slowly returning from appendicitis, followed by an ankle injury after halftime in this game is giving pause to the fact this team has nowhere to go anymore this season, and may decide to rest or restrict what his ceiling may be this year, and slow roll his return.
- Baker Mayfield — We all love Mayfield. The quarterback has faced some high highs and some low lows, but always comes back ready to sling the ball and make some amazing commentary to go along with it. The numbers don’t lie, however, and at this point in the season, he may be less of a top-five QB that you set and forget, and more so someone who you are looking to your backups to check matchups before dialing it up. Mayfield is just weeks removed from an injury many thought would keep him out potentially weeks, and now he’s looking at his third straight game with under 200 passing yards. Tough times are ahead, and while we won’t doubt Baker will get by them, I’m still looking at potential fallback options (in some spots, where the quarterback across the way in this game may be).
Arizona Cardinals
Quarterback
Jacoby Brissett: 29/40, 301 Yards, 2 TDs, 1 INT | 3 Carries, 16 Yards
Jacoby Brissett is having a renaissance, and it’s almost amazing how watchable he’s made a team that hasn’t had a lot to cheer about this season. Brissett started the game out slow and was unable to find his options early, leading us to believe that the sheer look of the offense and his upside were starting to fade, but he came out of the half adjusted and started to find his weapons again. He was able to find Zonovan “Please call me Bam” Knight on a slick touchdown pass where he tumbled out for a 20-yard touchdown pass. Late in the game, when they were looking to be within firing distance of the lead, Brissett attempted to find Michael Wilson in the end zone, and when it was close but failed, fell back and hit Trey McBride with a touchdown pass right in stride. The Cardinals aren’t winning out any games, but with Brissett behind center, it’s entirely possible they could play spoiler and continue to play games that are gripping to watch out of a sub-.500 team.
Running Back
Bam Knight: 11 Carries, 62 Yards | 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 36 Yards, 1 TD
Michael Carter: 5 Carries, 17 Yards | 6 Targets, 5 Receptions, 47 Yards
The Cardinals’ backfield has been an absolute minefield where it doesn’t seem as if we know which back is going to take the snaps on any given day. Sunday, the backfield only had two healthy rushers, and therefore, they were the ones who got the split. Bam Knight was the more productive of the two in the backfield, but Michael Carter outsnapped him 32-29, and also ran more routes, finishing with two more receptions than Knight. While Carter was the one who saw the field more, that didn’t show up nearly as much in the final numbers, as Knight was able to top off a solid yards per carry total of 5.63 with a receiving touchdown as well, the perfect cherry on top. Carter has been on and off the Cards’ practice squad, and while he was also a productive player given his expectations Sunday, he may likely be at best a practice squad player next week if we end up seeing the much-anticipated return of Trey Benson, who was about to take this backfield over from James Conner postinjury, before he himself got injured.
Carter is likely someone who can be monitored, depending on whether he’s going to be playing, but the right names to watch here are Benson and Knight, and Knight may be slowly becoming one of the sneaky flex-type backs that you can rely on in a season where rushers continue to falter or get injured.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Trey McBride: 9 Targets, 8 Receptions, 82 Yards, 1 TD
Marvin Harrison Jr.: 7 Targets, 6 Receptions, 69 Yards
Michael Wilson: 7 Targets, 3 Receptions, 36 Yards
Greg Dortch: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 14 Yards
Elijah Higgins: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 17 Yards
The Cardinals have become a very top-heavy receiving crew, and unfortunately, even while he’s throwing for over 300 yards on any given Sunday now, Brissett is very much locked into his specific targets on a week-to-week basis. The past two weeks have been very, very good to Michael Wilson, but he landed firmly back on earth this week, only able to wrangle in three of his seven targets, mostly given some inaccuracies and overthrows made by Brissett. It should be noted that he was one of the beneficiaries of Harrison missing time, and when Harrison tweaked his ankle later in this game, Wilson was notably the one who ended up with more targets from the event.
Trey McBride led the receiving crew with nine targets and continues to be the whole Thanksgiving dinner for fantasy managers, as he’s one of the most reliable tight ends we’ve seen in quite some time, and was able to pull in a late-game touchdown to bolster his fantasy stock some more, as he was found on a route where he was moving to the center of the end zone, grabbing the ball ahead of a defender behind him, directly in front of an approaching defender from the other side.
As mentioned, Harrison was a midgame injury, after missing the last two weeks with his appendectomy. Now, he is in danger of potentially missing more time.
Jacoby Brissett squeezed that throw in there to Trey McBride for a Touchdown
— PlayerProfiler (@playerprofiler.bsky.social) 2025-12-01T00:49:14.185Z
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Quarterback
Baker Mayfield: 18/28, 194 Yards, 1 TD | 6 Carries, 27 Yards
Baker Mayfield continues his month of inconsistency, as we now see his third week of under 200 yards passing. Mayfield focused firmly on Emeka Egbuka, Chris Godwin, and Bucky Irving, and there weren’t many more completed targets to go around. Mayfield looks hampered, and out of the 194 passing yards that he had, 151 of those were after the catch, showcasing not only his inability to push the ball downfield, but also how quickly he was unloading the ball to have his receivers make plays.
If Mayfield is indeed this hampered, expect that he is going to continue his quick route push, and this greatly benefits Godwin and Irving more so than anyone else.
Running Back
Bucky Irving: 17 Carries, 61 Yards, 1 TD | 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 20 Yards
Rachaad White: 2 Carries, 7 Yards | 3 Targets, 3 Receptions, 22 Yards
Sean Tucker: 2 Carries, 0 Yards
Stud running back, thy name is Bucky Irving. The weekly question of “When will Bucky Irving return?” has been answered, and, boy, did we all miss that sort of output from him. Irving dominated the snap count, but wasn’t on the field frivolously, as he had 32 of the team’s 61 snaps. He was able to rush on over half of those, and hit paydirt on one of them. Irving looked spry in his return, and while some plays missed, some added burst, it goes to show from the nine snaps that Sean Tucker had (for zero yards), and the 23 snaps that Rachaad White had that only turned in to 7 yards, that this team knows who their No. 1 back is when he’s healthy, and with Mayfield ailing, they may start to rely on him more as the injury heals week to week.
Irving took a run to the house on a 15-yard plus scamper where he cut back, found a route due to quick vision, and didn’t get touched on his rush through the hole into the end zone. Irving continues to shine and showcase that he’s an elite talent and one that fantasy owners will love having back for the playoff push.
Wide Receiver/Tight End
Emeka Egbuka: 8 Targets, 4 Receptions, 42 Yards
Chris Godwin: 5 Targets, 3 Receptions, 78 Yards
Sterling Shepard: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 5 Yards
Tez Johnson: 2 Targets, 1 Reception, 5 Yards
Cade Otton: 2 Targets, 2 Receptions, 9 Yards
Payne Durham: 1 Target, 1 Reception, 11 Yards
While eight players saw a target in this game, the clear winner of this receiving crew was Chris Godwin on this day, as his three receptions for 78 yards are a showcase that the team may be beginning to show trust in him again, as well as his health beginning to recover in a time where they desperately need him to have it. Emeka Egbuka was the target leader on the day, one ahead of Godwin, but he was unable to break off anything of value and ended his game averaging just over 10 yards per reception. Godwin has seen his role slowly increase, and while he was only targeted five times, he was able to break off a large reception and looked a lot better than he has. When all was said and done, this team has their Nos. 1 and 2 threats in the receiving room, and it looks like Irving will now be their 1A option in the rushing world be a threat receiving in any given week, depending on quarterback pressure on Baker.
Tez Johnson, Sterling Shepard, and Cade Otton have all been relegated to the fantasy bench with the resurgent play of Godwin and the return of Irving, and all now remain bye-week or injury fillers, and nothing else.