The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won Super Bowl LV at the end of the 2020 season, and the Los Angeles Rams prevailed in Super Bowl LVI to cap the 2021 campaign. Those two teams, which will meet on Sunday, November 6 at Raymond James Stadium in Week Nine of the 2022 NFL season, are the only ones ever to win a Super Bowl in their own home stadiums.
Those were the good times. Neither team's 2022 season has gone according to plan through the first eight weeks. The Buccaneers dropped a 27-22 decision to the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday night to fall to 3-5, having lost five of their last six. The 3-3 Rams are coming off a bye week and are set to play division-rival San Francisco on Sunday after losing two of their last three, including a 24-9 decision in San Fran three weeks ago. Both the Bucs and Rams, blessed with extremely prolific offenses in recent seasons, are struggling to put up the same amount of points in 2022, with both teams averaging fewer than 18 per game heading into Week Eight.
The Buccaneers will once again try to right their ship after losing three in a row for the first time since Tom Brady arrived in 2022, ushering in a thrilling era of franchise success. As dark as the times are for the Bucs, they remain well within reach of the NFC South title with more than half of the season remaining. The Rams, meanwhile, are in a similarly muddled mess in the NFC West, with every team in the division sporting at least three wins and at least three losses.
Sean McVay's Rams present an interesting challenge for the Buccaneers, as they defeated Tampa Bay in each of the last two regular seasons and also knocked the Bucs out of the playoffs last January in a down-to-the-wire 30-27 decision at Raymond James Stadium. With the calendar turning to November and the NFC playoff race looking particularly unpredictable, a matchup of the last two Super Bowl contenders could signal whether either one is going to be a factor down the stretch.
