The next stop in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' 2023 postseason journey is Motown.
After defeating the Philadelphia Eagles, 32-9, at Raymond James Stadium in the Wild Card round on Monday night, the Buccaneers will now head to Detroit to take on the Lions in the Divisional Round. It will be Tampa Bay's first road playoff game since a victory in Green Bay in the 2020 NFC Championship Game.
The game is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, January 21 at Ford Field. It will be broadcast by NBC.
While the Buccaneers took care of their own business in the opening round, the Lions did the same with a thrilling 24-23 home win over the Los Angeles Rams. With the Packers upsetting the Cowboys in Dallas, they became the lowest remaining seed in the conference and thus earned a trip to San Francisco to take on the top-seeded 49ers. That left the third and fourth seeds to do battle in Detroit.
This marks the second postseason meeting between the Buccaneers and Lions. Tampa Bay broke a 14-year playoff drought with a 20-10 victory over Detroit in the Wild Card round of the 1997 playoffs. In the last game ever played at Tampa Stadium, the Buccaneers built a 20-0 lead by the third quarter, punctuated by a 31-yard Mike Alstott touchdown run, and the Tampa Bay defense stunningly held Barry Sanders to 65 rushing yards.
The upcoming game will be a rematch of a Week Six meeting between the two teams at Raymond James Stadium. The Lions won that one, 20-6, behind a 353-yard passing game from Jared Goff and 12 catches for 124 yards and a touchdown by All-Pro wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown. The Buccaneers were held to 251 total yards and two Chase McLaughlin field goals, and cornerback Will Harris had the game's only takeaway with an interception, marking the only time all season that Baker Mayfield threw more interceptions than touchdowns.
Since the Divisional Round of the 2020 playoffs, this is the eighth straight postseason game for the Buccaneers that is a rematch of a contest played earlier during the regular season.
Goff had another strong outing in the win over the Rams on Sunday, as he completed 22 of 27 passes for 277 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. He once again looked to St. Brown frequently, hitting him seven times for 110 yards. Goff finished the regular season with 4,575 yards, a 30-12 TD-INT ratio and a 97.9 passer rating. St. Brown caught 119 passes for 1,515 yards and 10 touchdowns and was named a first-team Associated Press All-Pro. Rookie tight end Sam LaPorta followed up a fantastic debut season (86-889-10) with a touchdown against the Rams. The Lions' offense produced four players with double digit touchdowns in St. Brown and LaPorta plus the prolific running back duo of David Montgomery and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs.
Aidan Hutchinson, the second-overall pick in the 2022 draft, followed up a strong debut season with a team-leading 11.5 sacks in 2023, earning his first Pro Bowl invitation. In addition to the contributions from LaPorta and Gibbs, the Lions also got a boost from rookie Brian Branch, a second-round pick who excelled as a slot corner and finished with three interceptions and 13 passes defensed. The Lions' defense as a whole finished 19th in yards allowed, 27th in passing yards allowed and 23rd in points allowed.
