By pretty much any measure – except the coaches' idiom that only one team is happy at the end of the season – the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2023 season was a success, and the same was true for their new quarterback Baker Mayfield. Tampa Bay won its third consecutive NFC South title and advanced to the Divisional Round of the playoffs and Mayfield went to the Pro Bowl after setting career highs with 4,044 passing yards and 28 touchdown passes.
One thing those 2023 Buccaneers did not accomplish was beating the Detroit Lions, even though they had two cracks at it. The Lions were (and still are) the NFL's feel-good story as they won a postseason game for the first time since 1991 and at one point had a healthy lead on San Francisco in the NFC Championship Game. Defeating Detroit in Week Six of the regular season potentially would have bolstered the Bucs' street cred, and defeating them in the playoffs would have sent the Bucs to the conference championship game.
The first game was a 20-6 grind in Tampa that was the only game, including playoffs, in which Mayfield threw an interception and had no touchdowns. He was much more productive in the playoffs despite the raucous crowd at Ford Field, throwing for 349 yards and three scores, but his final pass was picked off as the Bucs were trying to mount a late comeback, down 31-23.
So one could call this Sunday's rematch in Detroit a "revenge game," but more to the point it's an opportunity for the Buccaneers to prove themselves against a highly-regarded NFC opponent.
"Yeah, this is definitely one of those," said Mayfield. "I mean, every week you have to bring your best stuff. At this level, if you don't show up you can get beat any given week. This is one of those – on the road with a team who was in the NFC Championship, where we aspire to be, so it's one of those – you said it, measuring sticks to great competition [and] see how our guys handle it early on. You know, it's a long season but we can learn a lot from this one."
Obviously, the Bucs haven't forgotten the events of last January 21, when they took a 17-17 tie with the Lions into the fourth quarter. The visitors fought to the end and did a lot of things well in that difficult environment, but the Lions pulled away at the end and that was a disappointing way to end an otherwise satisfying season.
"You can definitely sense it already, within our building, when you put up the personnel, the game records, the scouting report, all that and you talk about the atmosphere, the memories instantly pop up and our guys are ready," said Mayfield. "You know, it's obviously a topic of conversation of they ended our year and so [it's] one that we've been looking forward to and it just so happens to be the one this week."
After letting a 24-7 lead slip away in the NFC Championship Game in San Francisco, the Lions used the offseason to seek upgrades at certain positions, most notably in the secondary. They also added Marcus Davenport and D.J. Reader up front and may have an emerging offensive weapon in third-year receiver Jameson Williams. The Lions clearly have a talented roster, but Mayfield says the key to getting a good outcome on that measuring stick is to match the physical style of play that Head Coach Dan Campbell engenders.
"For us, we're excited about the matchups, but it comes down to us handling it," said Mayfield. "Their mentality is always to be the most physical, so we have to be ready for that – be the more physical team [and] bring that early and often."
