CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) The Tampa Bay Buccaneers wanted to make sure not to put too much on Baker Mayfield's plate with their quarterback still healing from a dislocated thumb and wearing a protective glove on his throwing hand.

The Bucs' offensive line and defense took care of that.

Bucky Irving ran for 106 yards and two touchdowns as the Bucs racked up 258 yards on the ground on 49 carries, and Tampa Bay's defense forced four turnovers in Sunday's 43-13 rout of the division rival Carolina Panthers.

“With all of these handoffs, I don't know, my thumb might be pretty sore,” Mayfield said.

Mayfield, who had missed the previous three games, finished with just 11 pass attempts in a game the Bucs led 33-6 at halftime following a series of Carolina blunders. He had seven completions for 64 yards and a touchdown, and that was plenty for him to improve to 7-1 against the Panthers, including 6-1 since joining the Bucs (2-5).

“He made the plays when we needed them,” Bucs coach Todd Bowles said. “He didn't need to make many. When you have 49 runs, for a quarterback coming off an injury, that made the day easy for him.”

There was nothing easy about the day for Carolina's Bryce Young.

Young was sacked five times and the NFL's leader in yards passing per game was limited to 163 yards on 14-of-27 passing. He had one touchdown pass but threw two interceptions and lost a fumble. Tampa Bay's Calijah Kancey turned Al-Quadin Muhammad's strip-sack of Young into a 32-yard touchdown return.

Tampa Bay's special teams chipped in, too.

The Bucs recovered a muffed punt by David Moore and blocked an extra point and returned it for 2 points.

“Just really disappointing,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said. “Turnovers really in every phase. A sack-fumble on a protection issue, a dropped punt led to points, the blocked kick. ... It really combined to put us in a really big hole.”

Young took blame for the three turnovers, saying, “I can’t turn the ball like that. It hurts the team and that’s on me.”

Tampa Bay won the coin toss and elected to receive. The Bucs proceeded to march 70 yards in 14 plays, with Irving scoring on a 4-yard touchdown run.

They didn't let up after that, scoring on five of their next seven possessions.

“We took the ball and just wanted to set the tone early,” Mayfield said. “It wouldn't have mattered though, as I think the defense would have set the tone regardless.”

Even when things appeared to be going right for the Panthers (3-3), something immediately went wrong.

After Young found a streaking Darren Waller down the middle of the field for a 50-yard touchdown to cut Tampa Bay's lead to 17-6, the Bucs blocked the ensuing extra point and Zyon McCollum returned it 70 yards to the end zone. As a result, the Panthers netted just four points on the TD.

YaYa Diaby had three of Tampa Bay's five sacks.

“It's just that we know this offense so well,” Diaby said. “They know us and we know them. So we just came with a game plan and attacked. ... We just got after Bryce and tried to take away his first read and just be aggressive.”

The Bucs had played 12 straight one-score games dating to last season before Sunday.

When asked where this type of game has been, Bowles replied, “I wish I had an answer for that, but it was very welcome.”

The Panthers honored Luke Kuechly at halftime as the former middle linebacker received his Hall of Fame ring as part of a busy afternoon. Kuechly also hit the “Keep Pounding” drum before the game and served as a broadcaster for the Panthers' radio network.

Tampa Bay: RB Kenny Gainwell briefly left with a hip injury in the second half but returned. He finished with 14 carries for 88 yards.

Carolina: RT Taylor Moton, who missed the first four games of the season with blood clots in his lung, was carted off the field in the third quarter with a left ankle/fibula injury and did not return.

Tampa Bay: Host Atlanta on Sunday.

Carolina: At Green Bay on Thursday night.

---

See AP’s full NFL coverage here

Copyright 2026 STATS LLC and Associated Press. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of STATS LLC and Associated Press is strictly prohibited.