TAMPA, Fla. — After demolishing the Philadelphia Eagles in one of the NFC Wild Card games, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now turn their attention to a very tough Detroit Lions team.
The Lions are coming off a last-second win over a tough Los Angeles Rams team in the other NFC Wild Card Game, 24-23. They finished the regular season tied for the best record in the NFC and have home-field advantage in the NFC Divisional Round.
While the Lions finished the regular season with a 12-5 record and own one victory over the Bucs this season, the Tampa Bay team that showed up against Philadelphia has a great shot at knocking off Detroit.
The Lions' offense is one of the best in the league and is powered by an offensive line that helped power the third-best running game in the NFL and a top-10-ranked passing offense.
Quarterback Jared Goff has had a renaissance after coming to the Lions. In 2023, Goff threw for more than 4,500 yards, 30 touchdowns and 12 interceptions.
But the strength of the Lions offense lies with their running game, which had two running backs go for 900 yards this season. David Montgomery eclipsed 1,000 rushing yards this season, and rookie Jahmyr Gibbs posted another 945 yards on the ground.
The Lions rushing attack will be running into one of the toughest run defenses in the NFL. The Bucs finished in the top 10 in rushing defense and allowed just 42 rushing yards to the Eagles in the Wild Card round victory.
That said, the Bucs' pass defense struggled at times during the regular season but did show up in a big way against the Eagles in the Wild Card game.
The main focus for Tampa's pass defense will be slowing down Amon-Ra St. Brown. He caught 119 passes for 1,515 yards and 10 touchdowns during the regular season and caught 7 passes for 110 yards against the Rams in the Wild Card game.
Detroit's offense poses a much bigger challenge than Philadelphia did in the first round. Detroit has won five of their last seven games, including the Wild Card victory.
But don't sell the Bucs short, as Tampa Bay has won six of their last seven, including the blowout of the Eagles on Monday night.
The Bucs will need to play even better than they did against Philadelphia if they want to advance to the NFC Championship Game. They face a tough Lions team and a raucous crowd of more than 65,000 fans desperate for another playoff victory.
Kickoff is scheduled for Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
