With the way Sunday’s NFC playoff matchups unfolded, the Bucs and Eagles knew going into Monday night’s Super Wild Card Weekend finale who they’d be playing if they managed to win the game.
It was the Bucs who came away victorious, dominating on defense and making some huge plays on offense on their way to a resounding 32-9 result. With the win, the Bucs will head up to Detroit to face the No. 3 seed Lions in the NFC Divisional Round. That game is set for Sunday at 3:00 p.m. and will televised by NBC.
The first NFC Wild Card game on Sunday saw the No. 7 seed Packers dominate the No. 2 seed Cowboys, winning 48-32 in Dallas. That alone set one of the matchups next weekend, as the No. 1 seed 49ers were always going to host the lowest remaining seed. That, of course, was Green Bay at No. 7. Bucs and Eagles fans then had to be hoping for a Rams victory over the Lions on Sunday night, as that would’ve had Los Angeles visiting the winner of Monday night’s game, whether it was Tampa Bay or Philadelphia.
But that wasn’t to be, as the Lions held off the Rams, winning 24-23 for their first playoff win since 1991. Now, after waiting so long to host a postseason game again, Detroit will get a second in two weeks as Tampa Bay comes to town.
After avenging their Week 3 loss to the Eagles by beating them in the NFC Wild Card Round, the Bucs will now get a chance to avenge their Week 6 loss to the Eagles in the NFC Divisional Round.
The winner of Sunday’s Bucs-Lions game will face the winner of Saturday’s 49ers-Packers game (8:00 p.m.) the following Sunday, Jan. 28, in the NFC Championship Game. Kickoff for that game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
Familiar Matchup, Different Venue (And Uniforms) For Bucs And Lions
The Bucs and Lions met in Week 6 of the regular season, with Detroit visiting Tampa Bay for the first Creamsicle Game in more than a decade. The Bucs offense couldn’t get anything going and sputtered repeatedly, punting six times and turning the ball over once in a frustrating 20-6 loss.
“When I just immediately think back about the Lions game, a lot of missed throws by me,” quarterback Baker Mayfield said Monday night. “I think we had a lot of stuff there, just didn’t play our best game offensively.
“We’ll look back at the tape once we get into the game plan stuff, but we’re very different than we were early on in the year. And that’s something to be proud of, that we’ve continued to improve. We haven’t reinvented the wheel. We’ve just stuck with it and just gotten better at the little things.”
The six points in that meeting at Ray Jay was a season low for Dave Canales’ offense. Baker Mayfield finished just 19-of-37 for 206 yards, no touchdowns and an interception while the run game managed only 46 yards on 16 carries (2.9 avg.)
Mike Evans was held to four catches for 49 yards on 10 targets in the game, while Chris Godwin led the way with six catches for 77 yards on seven targets.
Tampa Bay’s defense doesn’t get off without any of the blame for that Week 6 loss, though, as it allowed Detroit to go 9-of-16 on third downs. Both Lions touchdowns came on third down, with the first being a 27-yard touchdown pass from Jared Goff to Amon-Ra St. Brown on 3rd & 13 and the second being a 45-yard touchdown pass from Goff to Jameson Williams on 3rd & 10.
Detroit held the ball for 36:30 to Tampa Bay’s 23:30 during that Week 6 meeting. It proved to be the first of six losses within the next seven weeks for the Bucs, who dropped from 3-1 to 4-7 before storming back to finish 9-8 and crash the playoffs as NFC South champions.
The win over the Eagles got the Bucs into the NFC Divisional Round for the third time in four years, and now a win over the Lions next Sunday would get them to the NFC Championship Game for the first time since the 2020 playoffs.
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