Monday Night Football is typically a night and a game that has rarely featured the Tampa Bay Buccaneers over the years for the obvious reason that they haven’t been historically good. That said, when a certain surefire Hall of Fame Quarterback joins your team, you become a lot more attractive to television executives looking for ratings. Hence, the Buccaneers showing up twice on Monday Night last season.
Now, when that same surefire Hall of Fame Quarterback in his first year with his new team also leads them to their 2nd (and his 7th) Super Bowl win, then your team becomes the apple of NFL Broadcasters’ eyes. So much so, that the networks airing games on Sunday and Thursday want as many bites of the World Champions as they can get. That’s why Monday Night’s game against the New York Giants will be the only appearance there for Tampa Bay in 2021.
This will be the 5th consecutive season that the Bucs have tangled with New Jersey’s NFC team. Brady and company held on for a 25-23 road win in Week 8 last year. The Bucs were down by 11 in the 2nd quarter before taking the lead for good on an 8 yard touchdown pass to Mike Evans. Todd Bowles’ defense stopped a 2 point conversion attempt by the Giants with under a minute remaining to seal the victory.
The gap in success between the two clubs recently shouldn’t cloud the fact that the contests between these teams seem to always be close. How close? So close that the last four games between the Buccaneers and Giants have been split at 2 wins apiece, and the average margin of victory in those games is 2 points.
The purpose of this particular Monday Night match up could just boil down to the simplicity that New York/New Jersey is a big market with a lot of eyeballs. It could also be shadowy Tom Brady haters putting him on for the world to see against the team that through complete luck both times took stole two Super Bowls from him. No coincidence that Eli Manning will be doing a ManningCast with the other Brady black hat wearing villain in the family, Peyton.
Most likely, it is a combination of all of those things plus the most important one of all. Regardless of their records, Tampa Bay and New York play games that come right down to the end which fans tend to enjoy. Just as long as the most important fans, those of the Buccaneers, get what they want and that is a victory, all will be right with the world come Tuesday morning.