STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• None of the 41 head-to-head series in the NFL that are currently tied have been contested as often as Bucs-Falcons
• After a loss in Atlanta in Week Three, the Bucs are seeking a fourth-straight season split with their division foes
• The Bucs and Falcons have combined to average 58 points per game over the last six meetings
  
  It is not unusual for two NFL teams to be deadlocked in their all-time head-to-head series. Almost every franchise has at least one foe against whom the series is dead even and waiting for a tiebreaker; the New Orleans Saints, weirdly, have six such ties at the moment. Earlier this year, the Carolina Panthers and Cincinnati Bengals defied long odds to go into an afternoon tied up in their all-time series…and come out of it still tied. Those two teams are 2-2-1 against each other after their Week Six game ended in a 37-37 stalemate.

In fact, there are 528 different series matchups between the current 32 teams, and 41 of them are tied up, at least through Week Nine of the 2014 season. That includes three of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' head-to-head series, against Miami, Washington and Atlanta. But it is that last series, which is about to become untied that is most interesting. At 21-21, the Bucs and Falcons currently own the most-often-contested tied series in the entire NFL.

That is, Tampa Bay and Atlanta have played 42 games to get to this current draw, more than any of the other head-to-head matchups around the league that are tied at the moment. The all-time Chicago Bears-Washington Redskins series is very close, but the Bucs and Falcons will hold on to the top spot for at least another four days. Here are the top 10 (well, 11 due to a tie) in that category.

Opponents	Games	Record
ATL-TB	42	21-21-0
CHI-WAS	41	20-20-1
KC-NYJ	35	17-17-1
MIA-OAK	33	16-16-1
5t. CHI-NO	26	13-13-0
5t. KC-MIA	25	13-13-0
CLE-KC	24	11-11-2
8t. ATL-NYG	22	11-11-0
8t. CHI-DAL	22	11-11-0
8t. DAL-MIN	22	11-11-0
8t. JAX-PIT	22	11-11-0

So, barring the unlikely event that the Buccaneers emulate Carolina and end up with just the second tie in franchise history, that list is about to lose its current leader. The Bucs and Falcons go at it again this Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, and the home team is looking for both revenge for its Week Three thrashing in the Georgia Dome and the fourth straight season split in the series.

The Buccaneers went into that Week Three game in Atlanta with some expectations of scoring big, given that it had averaged almost five more points per game against the Falcons since 2010 than against all its other opponents. Instead, it was Atlanta that lit up the scoreboard in a 56-14 decision, but that did manage to continue the overall high-scoring nature of the series in recent years. The two teams have combined to score an average of 58 points per game over their last six meetings.

The Buccaneers obviously don't want a repeat of their September game in Atlanta, in which WR Julio Jones caught two TD passes and WR Devin Hester scored on both a 20-yard end-around and a 62-yard punt return. Atlanta led 35-0 at halftime and 56-0 after three quarters in what would prove to be its highest-scoring game in the entire series, which dates back to 1977.

The Bucs might want to channel any lingering emotions from that game on Sunday, however, because this series has grown heated on occasion through the years, even before the two teams became division mates in 2002.  The Falcons had tied the series at 20-20 with a 31-23 victory in Week Seven last season in the Georgia Dome.  In the early years, the two teams went back and forth, each winning six times from 1977-93.  Then the streaks began, a trio of two-game runs for Atlanta (1994-95, 2003-04, 2006), interrupted by Buccaneer runs of six, three and three games.  That gave Tampa Bay a comfortable six-game cushion until the Falcons promptly ripped off five in a row from 2008-11.  Lately, it's gone back to a back-and-forth affair, with three consecutive season splits.

Tampa Bay's Week 17 win in Atlanta in 2012 – against a 13-2 Falcons team that did not rest its starters despite having the NFC's first-overall playoff seed locked down – was viewed as a boost for the Buccaneers heading into 2013.  However, the Bucs lost their first eight en route to a 4-12 finish that prompted the hiring of a new coaching staff and a new general manager.  The Falcons also struggled to a 4-12 finish in 2013, thanks in large part to a rash of injuries.

Atlanta controlled the last meeting between the two NFC South foes but the Bucs will be seeking a fourth straight season split on Sunday

The two teams first met late in 1977, when the Buccaneers were still in the midst of the franchise-opening 26-game losing streak that spanned most of their first two seasons.  Atlanta won, 17-0, but the Buccaneers would get their first victory in New Orleans in two weeks later and close out with two in a row.  Early in 1978, Tampa Bay was clearly turning a corner, and a Week Four meeting at Tampa Stadium produced a 14-9 Bucs victory, just the team's second ever win at home.

The Bucs were 7-2 and on their way to their first playoff berth a year later when the Falcons, who would finish just 6-10, pulled of a 17-14 upset.  Contrastingly, in 1981, the Bucs made the playoffs for a second time by winning four of their last five to finish 9-76, and the closest decision in that string was a 24-23 home win over Atlanta.  The Falcons led by six in the fourth quarter before Doug Williams hit Kevin House for a 71-yard go-ahead touchdown, and the win was sealed when Atlanta kicker Mick Luckhurst missed a 45-yard field goal with four seconds to play.  "We just got beat today by a football team that out-executed us," said Atlanta Head Coach Leeman Bennett after the game.  "I can't say anything but good things about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  They are a fine football team.  They executed when they had to and scored when they had to.  I can't do anything but heap praise on them and their staff."

Five years later, Bennett would be head coach of the Buccaneers, as he replaced the retired John McKay in 1985.  The Bucs won just four of 32 games during Bennett's tenure, and a 23-20 loss to the Falcons in September of 1986 was the first of two straight defeats in overtime, the only time that has happened in franchise history.  Not surprisingly, the Bucs had a new coach, Ray Perkins, in place to start the 1987 season and the very first thing his team did was demolish the Falcons on opening day, 48-10.  QB Steve DeBerg, in his first of two stints with Tampa Bay (he would also later suit up briefly for the Falcons), threw five touchdown passes in that contest, a Buc record that would later be tied (by Brad Johnson and Josh Freeman) but never surpassed.  Coincidentally, Atlanta was also the victim in the Buccaneers' last win under Perkins, late in the 1990 season.  The Bucs won that game, 23-17, on a 35-yard touchdown pass from Vinny Testaverde to Mark Carrier with 39 seconds left, but it wasn't enough to save Perkins' job as the team used a late bye week to replace him with Richard Williamson.

If there were hurt feelings by those two Buccaneer wins under Perkins, they escalated in the early '90s when both teams brought in colorful head coaches, Jerry Glanville in Atlanta and Sam Wyche in Tampa Bay.  Glanville and Wyche had already crossed paths for years in the old AFC Central, with Glanville piloting the Houston Oilers and Wyche at the helm of the Cincinnati Bengals, and there was apparently no love lost between the two.  Wyche's Bengals running up the score in a 61-7 win over Glanville's Oilers in 1989 may have had something to do with that.  Glanville's Falcons drubbed Williamson's Buccaneers, 43-7, in 1991, and then poured it on again the next year in a 35-7 victory in Tampa.  That was Wyche's first year as head coach in Tampa, and during the offseason he had cut linebacker Jesse Solomon, who took the move personally.  Solomon ended up with the Falcons and Glanville fanned the flames of the rivalry by letting Solomon play on offense late in the blowout, even giving him two handoffs that he turned into 12 yards.

Deion Sanders also played on offense late in that game as another dig at Wyche by Glanville, but when the teams met again the next year, Sanders was prominently featured for a different reason.  The Hall of Fame-bound cornerback was surprisingly beaten for two long touchdowns by Bucs WR Horace Copeland, keying a 31-24 Tampa Bay win.  The Buccaneers' rise in the second half of the 1990s was not matched by a renaissance in Atlanta, which led to Tampa Bay handily winning the last three matchups before the two teams became fellow NFC South denizens in 2002.

Since the South was formed, the Falcons and Bucs have evenly split 24 meetings.  The Bucs swept in 2002, 2005 and 2007, each time helping propel Tampa Bay to division titles.  Atlanta swept in 2006, 2009 and 2010, though only that final year was followed by a Falcons division title.  The Falcons have won nine of the last 12 in the series.

Other than last year's win in Tampa, the best games in the series since the creation of the NFC South, at least from the Buccaneers' perspective, occurred in 2002, 2005 and 2012.  In '02, the Buccaneers were on their way to their first Super Bowl title, but they had a high-profile December matchup with the streaking Falcons and their new star quarterback, Michael Vick.  The Bucs' defense completely stifled Vick in that game, especially on the ground, and won 34-10 to essentially wrap up the division title.  In '05, the Bucs were on the verge of following out of division title contention – and maybe the playoffs altogether – when they went to overtime against the Falcons at Raymond James Stadium in Week 16.  A fumble on the opening kickoff in the extra period set Atlanta up for a chip shot field goal to win it but DE Dewayne White blocked the kick and the Bucs eventually won with their own field goal, 27-24, at the very end of overtime.  In 2012, the Buccaneers stumbled into the Georgia Dome in Week 17, having lost five in a row after that 6-4 start, but finished strong with a 22-17 win over the division champs.

Bucs-Falcons Game-by-Game Record:

1977	L, 17-0	Tampa
1978	W, 14-9	Tampa
1979	L, 17-14	Atlanta
1981	W, 24-23	Tampa
1984	W, 23-6	Tampa
1986	L, 23-20 (OT)	Tampa
1987	W, 48-10	Tampa
1988	L, 17-10	Atlanta
1990	W, 23-17	Tampa
1991	L, 43-7	Atlanta
1992	L, 35-7	Tampa
1993	W, 31-24	Atlanta
1994	L, 34-13	Atlanta
1995	L, 24-21	Tampa
1997	W, 31-10	Atlanta
1999	W, 19-10	Tampa
2000	W, 27-14	Atlanta
2002	W, 20-6	Atlanta
2002	W, 34-10	Tampa
2003	W, 31-10	Atlanta
2003	L, 30-28	Tampa
2004	L, 24-14	Atlanta
2004	W, 27-0	Tampa
2005	W, 30-27	Atlanta
2005	W, 27-24 (OT)	Tampa
2006	L, 14-3	Atlanta
2006	L, 17-6	Tampa
2007	W, 31-7	Atlanta
2007	W, 37-3	Tampa
2008	W, 24-9	Tampa
2008	L, 13-10 (OT)	Atlanta
2009	L, 20-17	Atlanta
2009	L, 20-10	Tampa
2010	L, 27-21	Atlanta
2010	L, 28-24	Tampa
2011	W, 16-13	Tampa
2011	L, 45-24	Atlanta
2012	L, 24-23	Tampa
2012	W, 22-17	Atlanta
2013	L, 31-23	Atlanta
2013	W, 41-28	Tampa
2014	L, 56-14	Atlanta

Series Notes:

• Overall Season Series: Tied, 21-21
• Bucs' Home Record: 13-9
• Bucs' Road Record: 8-12
• Current Streak: Lose 1 (2014)
• Buccaneers' Longest Winning Streak: 6 (1997-2003)
• Falcons' Longest Winning Streak: 5 (2008-10)
• Regular Season Point Total: Buccaneers 889, Falcons 836
• Most Points in a Game, Buccaneers: Buccaneers 48-10 (1987)
• Most Points in a Game, Falcons: Falcons 56-14 (2014)
• Most Points, both teams: Falcons 56-14 (2014)
• Fewest Points in a Game, Buccaneers: Falcons 17-0 (1977)
• Fewest Points in a Game, Falcons: Buccaneers 27-0 (2004)
• Fewest Points in a Game, both teams: Falcons 14-3 (2006)