Wins don't come easy for any team in the NFL and this season they've come exceptionally difficult to come by for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In fact, of the 14 teams that made it to the postseason this year the Buccaneers were tied with the Green Bay Packers for the fewest wins in the group.
Furthermore, Tampa Bay suffered regular season losses to more than a few of the teams in the playoffs, making them even bigger underdogs than usual despite hosting a home Wild Card game as the No. 4 seed in the NFC.
"They were ready to play," Bowles said of his team despite the underdog status they carried into the evening. "We're not going to go in here trying to play for a tie, we were going for the win. We know we're underdogs, we'll be underdogs next week too, we understand that, we embrace it, we like it. Them guys come up play after play, we'll enjoy tonight (and) we'll get going tomorrow on Detroit."
The Bucs were 2.5 point underdogs, to be exact, coming into Monday night against the Eagles, and as he predicted the Lions are favored to beat them next week by six points.
Part of that is because of how well Detroit has been playing this season compared to the up-and-down performances the Buccaneers have put on tape.
But there's also the impact of what happened last time these two teams met, and how far they've come since.
In Week 6 of the regular season Tampa Bay hosted, and fell to, the Lions 20-6 on an afternoon quarterback Jared Goff went off for 353 passing yards and two touchdowns.
Unlike Philadelphia who had run for more than 200 yards on the Bucs in their regular season clash, Detroit harrassed this team through the air with ease.
Receiver Amon-Ra St.Brown racked up 124 yards from Goff and a touchdown, and the Lions took home a 14-point lead to hand the Buccaneers their second-straight loss after starting the year 3-0.
Their first loss of the season? Well, that came against Philadelphia. The same team Tampa Bay just wiped off the playoff map.
That loss was a 14-point loss as well. Deja vu? Maybe.
And the Bucs are looking to make it happen again.
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