CHARLOTTE — The Panthers had to make it to the last quarter of the season before facing their final divisional opponent for the first time. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will visit Charlotte on Sunday, the first of two games against the Bucs in the month of December.

The Dave Canales bowl has been building to this matchup, an offense on the rise in the Panthers – who are coming off their best performance of the season, albeit in a 30-27 loss to the Chiefs – facing off against a Bucs offense that is currently in the top 7 of the league overall.

Due to being in the same division, Canales and crew have already watched a lot of the Bucs in crossover tape study. Now that it's time to finally lock in on that opponent this week, the head coach admits the weirdness of facing his old team has subsided.

"So just seeing what a good job Liam's (offensive coordinator Liam Coen) been doing with that group, Baker (Mayfield) and the guys, finding ways to have success.

"It was a little bit more strange earlier on the season, but, as the season goes along, we're so inundated in the things that we're doing and trying to grow here, it's kind of like, you got to snap into just like, what are our guys doing and how can we improve our processes?"

While the Panthers continue to focus on themselves, we'll take a quick peak at the Bucs to get to know your foe for this week.

Baker's cooking

The Bucs offense is currently seventh overall in the league, averaging 369.5 yards per game. This is thanks in large part to Mayfield, who is also seventh overall amongst league quarterbacks, averaging 254.5 yards per game through the air. He's thrown 24 touchdowns to nine interceptions and has the sixth best quarterback rating at 104.1.

Mayfield has six games so far this season of 250-plus passing yards. Even when the Bucs were on a four-game losing skid, he was able to post back-to-back games averaging 350 yards.

In Tampa Bay's bounce back win on Sunday against the Giants, Mayfield completed 8 of 10 downfield (10+ air yard) attempts for a season-high 172 passing yards on such throws, according to Next Gen Stats. He averaged 17.2 yards per attempt on the day.

The Bucky Show

The Bucs offense was built around a bevy of playmakers, but at the center were objectively Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. The latter is on injured reserve for the rest of the season now with an ankle injury, and the former just came back this past Sunday, after missing three games with a hamstring injury.

Evans had a solid showing in his return, pulling in five of six targets, for a game high 68 yards, averaging 13.6 yards per catch. And Evans—with his 10 straight seasons of 1,000-plus yards—demands attention from defenses. Towering over defenders at 6-5, 231 pounds doesn't make the job any easier for opposing teams either.

But despite Evans shortened absence and Godwin's prolonged one, the Bucs have another playmaker emerge in his rookie season, running back Bucky Irving.

The Oregon product is Tampa Bay's leading rusher, with 579 yards and five touchdowns on 108 carries. The past two weeks alone, Irving posted 160 yards on the ground on 25 carries (87 yards against the Giants). But it's what he's also offered through the air that's making a difference.

On Sunday, Irving caught all 6 of his targets for 64 yards, setting career highs in both receiving yards and yards after the catch (81) and finishing with 151 total yards. He averaged 3.8 yards per route across 17 routes, after averaging just 1.6 yards per route prior to Week 12. He also posted career highs in rushing yards (87), rushing yards over expected (+48), and yards after contact (98).

Vita Vea Vici

The Tampa Bay defense is currently fourth-worst in the league overall, having allowed an average of 376.2 yards per game. Parenthetically, the secondary is also 28^th overall allowing an average of 255.5 yards per game.

But the Buccaneers still have Vita Vea, and the defensive tackle dominates a game plan. He's on track to have the best sack production of his career, already with six sacks (his career high is 6.5 in 2022). Those six sacks lead the Bucs this season.

And if having to worry about Vea on defense wasn't enough, the Bucs rolled him on the field on offense against the Giants, letting him line up at fullback to clear the way for a Sean Tucker touchdown run. That's 6-4 and 347 pounds barreling down on defenders at the goal line.