Buccaneers

Buccaneers QB Baker Mayfield couldn’t hide his excitement to get a win over the Jets after his past with former Panthers HC and current Jets DC Steve Wilks, along with DE Haason Reddick‘s history with the franchise. 

“I loved it,” Mayfield said, via ESPN’s Jenna Laine. “And also their D-coordinator was the one that cut me in Carolina. Lot of stuff was personal today. Haason Reddick, former Jet … lot of people.”

Falcons

Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. completed 18-of-36 passes for 172 yards and two interceptions in Week 3’s disastrous 30-0 loss to the Panthers. Atlanta HC Raheem Morris said Penix’s poor performance had a mental effect on the second-year quarterback. 

“He was off,” Morris said, via PFT. “I don’t want to take away the fact that he did not play well. But there are definitely ways to get him going. He heals himself, he has high standards for himself. So yesterday, he definitely got down on himself. Yesterday, he was definitely not his normal, happy, competitive self. Got a little down on himself, got a little upset. And there’s different ways that we can help him bring him back, and there’s other people on our team that can bring him back.”

Morris stood behind Penix as a team captain and thinks they could do things to lessen his load. 

“He has a ‘C’ on his chest for a reason, because he’s going to walk down the sideline and bring us back together for him. But that’s a lot of stress on a young quarterback, and we can help him do some of those things, and without a doubt we’ll do those things moving forward to get him ready to go.”

Morris is curious to see how Penix can bounce back from the disappointing game. 

“I mean, he’s a big-time competitor,” Morris said. “So, I’m actually looking forward to it. You never want to say you’re happy it happened, but I can’t wait to see the response. I’m actually more encouraged with Michael Penix’s behavior today and his movement today for this franchise and for our team than ever. I can’t wait until Wednesday.  Confidence is high. Confidence is very high with this man. He’s our guy, man, and you’re going to have these games. You don’t want to have them a lot, but you’re going to have them. … We’ve got a quarterback in the back that it’s happened to, and those things can happen. But, I’ve got a lot of confidence that he’s going to bounce back and be ready to deal. I’ve seen him have a bad practice. That’s the first time we’ve seen him have a bad game.”

Panthers

Panthers K Ryan Fitzgerald is building a reputation for kicking knuckleballs into the landing zone on kickoffs, making things unpredictable for the receiving team. Carolina HC Dave Canales said their special teams are putting them in great positions. 

“I truly believe that kickoff coverage kind of exemplifies who we wanna be. That’s why I love special teams, but especially on kickoff,” Canales said, via Joseph Person of The Athletic. “Especially when you can start the game with a kick, to be able to show the effort, the enthusiasm after great plays of them celebrating the toughness, playing smart off of each other and then finishing each play.”

Carolina is coming off a 30-0 shutout win over the Falcons. Atlanta HC Raheem Morris said they anticipated Fitzgerald’s knuckleball, but didn’t handle it well. 

“We talked about that knuckleball kick and trained for it, and we did not handle it well,” Morris said. “What a great job by their kicker. They took advantage of it all day. That was very disappointing.”

Fitzgerald said there is some inherent risk with the way he kicks the knuckleball, pointing out that it could come short of the landing zone. 

“I haven’t seen too many teams be overly aggressive with it, just because a ball will come up short eventually,” Fitzgerald said. “Trying to hit a squib kick like that, there’s some sort of luck involved with that. Some teams are more risk-averse, not wanting to give the other team the ball at the 40, (and) take that out of play.”

• Panthers TE Ja’Tavion Sanders has a high ankle sprain that an MRI exam revealed on Monday. (Joe Person)