Mayfield throws 5 TD passes and Bucs keep playoff, NFC South hopes alive with 48-14 rout of Panthers

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Tampa Bay Buccaneers played like a team determined to do whatever's necessary to make the playoffs.

Baker Mayfield and the offense purred, the defense tightened after yielding a touchdown just before halftime, and special teams stood out, too, in a 48-14 rout of the Carolina Panthers that kept the team's division and postseason hopes alive Sunday.

A little over seven hours later, the Bucs (9-7) got some outside assistance in their bid to make the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Tampa Bay’s fifth win in the past six weeks, combined with Atlanta’s overtime loss at Washington on Sunday night, gave the Bucs sole possession of first place in the NFC South.

The Buccaneers can clinch their fourth straight division title by beating New Orleans at home next Sunday.

“We're just trying to get to the playoffs,” coach Todd Bowles said, shrugging off a question about how Sunday's win ensured a winning record in the regular season.

“If we can win next week and get a little help,” Bowles added, “that will mean a lot to me.”

Mayfield threw for 359 yards and five touchdowns without an interception for the Bucs, the only team in the NFC that's made the playoffs each of the past four seasons.

“He really played a heck of a ball game intelligently,” Bowles said. “We didn't turn it over offensively. We were very good on third down. He controlled the ball, spread it around, got everybody touches.”

Mayfield threw TD passes of 2 and 1 yards to Mike Evans, and Tampa Bay produced points on five straight first-half possessions to build a 27-7 lead. Jalen McMillan scored on receptions of 10 and 16 yards, linebacker J.J. Russell returned a blocked punt for a third-quarter TD and rookie Bucky Irving had another big game against Carolina with 120 yards rushing on 20 carries and four receptions for 77 yards.

“Any time you give him that many opportunities, good things are going to happen,” Mayfield said of Irving.

Irving went over 1,000 yards for the season (1,033) despite primarily being used as a backup to Rachaad White. The fourth-round draft pick ran for 152 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries against the NFL's 32nd-ranked run defense in Tampa Bay's 26-23 overtime win at Carolina on Dec. 1.

Meanwhile, Mayfield improved to 4-0 against Carolina since his former team released him two years ago. He completed 27 of 32 passes without an interception.

The Panthers played without leading rusher Chuba Hubbard, who was placed on injured reserve Saturday. Without him, the offense was almost totally dependent on quarterback Bryce Young, who tossed a pair of TD passes to Adam Thielen but was only 15 of 28 passing for 203 yards.

The Bucs sacked Young five times and limited Carolina to 39 yards rushing. Thielen scored on receptions of 17 and 40 yards in the first half and finished with five catches for 110 yards.

“We got outplayed. ... They were on fire today. They made it hard for us,” Panthers coach Dave Canales said.

“We have one more opportunity to finish,” Canales added, “so we have to regroup and have the discipline to go right back to work and finish on our terms.”

Evans had eight catches for 97 yards. He needs at least 85 yards receiving in next weekend's regular-season finale to tie Hall of Famer Jerry Rice's NFL record of 11 consecutive seasons with 1,000-plus yards receiving.

The Buccaneers played without S Antoine Winfield Jr (knee), TE Cade Otton (knee) and WR Sterling Shepard (hamstring/foot), who were inactive. ... Buccaneers CB Jamel Dean left in the first half with a knee injury and did not return.

Panthers: Close the season at Atlanta next Sunday.

Buccaneers: Go for season series sweep of NFC South rival New Orleans at home next Sunday.

NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving plays against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker J.J. Russell celebrates after scoring on a blocked punt with wide receiver Trey Palmer during the second half of an NFL football game against the Carolina Panthers Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving runs against the Carolina Panthers during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young passes against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young passes under pressure from Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive end Logan Hall during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is sacked by Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Yaya Diaby during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Carolina Panthers quarterback Bryce Young is sacked by Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Yaya Diaby during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield passes for a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara)

Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans celebrates after scoring with quarterback Baker Mayfield against the Carolina Panthers during the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI says it recovered the black banner of the Islamic State group from the truck that an American man from Texas smashed into New Year's partygoers in New Orleans' French Quarter, killing 15 people.

The investigation is expected to look in part at any support or inspiration that driver Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have drawn from that violent Middle East-based group or from any of at least 19 affiliated groups around the world.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI had told him that “mere hours before the attack, (Jabbar) posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired” by IS.

Routed from its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq by a U.S. military-led coalition more than five years ago, IS has focused on seizing territory in the Middle East more than on staging massive al-Qaida-style attacks on the West.

But in its home territory, IS has welcomed any chance to behead Americans and other foreigners who come within its reach. The main group at peak strength claimed a handful of coordinated operations targeting the West, including a 2015 Paris plot that killed 130 people. It has had success, although abated in recent years, in inspiring people around the world who are drawn to its ideology to carry out ghastly attacks on innocent civilians.

Here's a look at IS, its current status, and some of the offshoot armed groups and so-called lone wolves that have killed under the group's flag.

The main group also goes by IS, ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

It began as a breakaway group from al-Qaida.

Under leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS had seized stunning amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria by 2014. Within territory under its control, it killed, raped and otherwise abused members of other faiths and targeted fellow Sunni Muslims who strayed from its harsh interpretation of Islam.

By 2019, a U.S.-led military intervention had driven IS from the cities and towns of its self-claimed state. Al-Baghdadi killed himself, and two children near him, that same year, detonating an explosive vest as U.S. forces closed in on him.

Currently, the main IS is a scattered and much weakened organization working to regain fighting strength and territory in Syria and Iraq. Experts warn that the group is reconstituting itself there.

And that flag? Typically, it's a black banner with white Arabic letters expressing a central tenet of the Islamic faith. Countless Muslims around the world see the coercive violence of the group as a perversion of their religion.

Some experts argue that IS is powerful today partly as a brand, inspiring both militant groups and individuals in attacks that the group itself may have no real role in.

The group's credo and military successes have led armed extremist organizations in Africa, Asia and Europe to swear allegiance to it. It's a greatly decentralized alliance.

Many of the offshoot groups have carried out lethal attacks. Islamic State-Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based group, is one of the most lethal currently. Attacks linked to that affiliate include the March 2024 killings of about 130 people at a Moscow theater, the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan, and killings in Pakistan and elsewhere.

The New Orleans rampage reflects the deadliest IS-inspired attack on U.S. soil in several years.

Other attacks over the past decade include a 2014 shooting rampage by a husband-and-wife team who killed 14 people in San Bernardino, California, and a 2016 massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, by a gunman who fatally shot 49 people, pledged his allegiance on a 911 call to al-Baghdadi and raged against the “filthy ways of the West.”

Those attacks coincided with an influx of thousands of Westerners — some of them Americans — who traveled to Syria in hopes of joining the so-called caliphate.

In the aftermath of those killings, the threat from radicalized followers of the group had appeared to wane in the Defense Department strikes have taken out other IS members and the FBI has had significant success in disrupting plots before they come to fruition.

But over the past year, FBI officials have warned about a significantly elevated threat of international terrorism following Hamas’ rampage in Israel in October 2023 and the resulting Israeli strikes in Gaza.

The SITE intelligence group reported IS supporters celebrating in online chat groups Wednesday.

“If it’s a brother, he’s a legend. Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” it quoted one as saying.

President Joe Biden makes a statement on the latest developments in New Orleans from Camp David, Md., Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Emergency services attend the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

This undated passport photo provided by the FBI on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025, shows Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar. (FBI via AP)

A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the vehicle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)