Photo credit: @NBCS49ers

By: Jeremy Harness

After suffering a tough loss a week and a half ago against the lowly New York Giants, the 49ers will get back on the field Sunday afternoon and hope to get things back on track.

This time, they will travel across the country as they will face the 3-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team that has had more than its fair share of issues after a promising start, such is the case with the 49ers.

The Buccaneers and the 49ers have one thing in common that they both have lost to the Giants, as Tampa Bay fell to them last Sunday. The big difference is that while the 49ers have been wrecked by injuries at key positions, the Bucs have been derailed by underperformance across the board.

For example, The Bucs have a mess on their hands at quarterback. The team’s regular starter for the past few years has been Jameis Winston, but he has been plagued by off-the-field issues, which caused his two-game suspension to start the season, as well as overall bad play this season. On the other hand, they have Ryan Fitzpatrick, who started in Winston’s place to begin the year and performed remarkably well but has been wildly inconsistent since then, forcing the team to go back to Winston to regain the spark that they had many games ago, only to watch the former No. 1 overall pick fizzle out.

But there’s more. Winston has a fifth-year team option worth $20.9 million that would be guaranteed if he is not considerably healthy by this March. However, if he is still healthy by that point, the team can let him walk via free agency.

Meanwhile, the 49ers were without guard Joshua Garnett, who had surgery on his broken thumb last Tuesday and did not practice Wednesday. Also missing practice was receiver Pierre Garcon (knee) and tackle Joe Staley (rest). The good news is that receiver Marquise Goodwin returned to practice after missing Monday’s practice, and he has been plagues with assorted injuries throughout the season.

Among the significant injuries for the Buccaneers have been linebacker Lavonte David and defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul, and both missed Wednesday’s practice with knee injuries.