For the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the 2023 postseason is being defined by second chances.
The Buccaneers opened their postseason journey on Monday night with a dominant 32-9 win over the visiting Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium. That avenged a Week Three loss – also on a Monday in Tampa – that was equally lopsided, but in the other direction, as the Eagles thoroughly controlled a 25-11 decision.
By beating the Eagles and advancing to the Divisional Round, the Buccaneers earned another shot at redemption, as they head to Detroit to face a Lions squad that stifled them in Week Six by a 20-6 margin. If they can get past the Lions and into their second NFC Championship Game in four years, the Bucs will face yet another team, either the 49ers or Packers, that they played during the regular season. (They lost to San Francisco in Week 11 and won in Green Bay in Week 15).
“To me, it’s like we’re on a revenge tour at this point,” said cornerback Zyon McCollum. “Beating the Eagles and then facing the Lions, who we lost to earlier in the year, this is everything we would want.”
The Lions are coming off their first playoff victory in 30 years, a 24-23 nipping of the Los Angeles Rams that set free a lot of pent-up emotions from Detroit fans, who made Ford Field an extremely raucous environment. Jared Goff and Matthew Stafford, who were traded for each other in 2021, engaged in a magnificent duel, with Goff completing 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions and a 121.8 passer rating. Incredibly, the Lions had four players score 10 or more touchdowns during the regular season and three of them found the end zone against the Rams – tight end Sam LaPorta and running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.
“Jared Goff is a really good quarterback,” said Bucs linebacker K.J. Britt. “We’ve just got to make sure we get in our throwing windows, make sure we’re taking away what he’s really good at. He knows what he’s good at. We’re trying to make sure that we’ve got to limit him, because he’s a really good quarterback – one of the best I’ve seen on film.”
The one player among the aforementioned quartet that didn’t score against the Rams was first-team All-Pro wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown. All he did was catch seven passes for 110 yards after a regular season that saw him haul in 119 passes for 1,515 yards.
“We definitely have to respect everybody that they have, but St. Brown has been…
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