With the NFL schedule getting released this week, we now know what the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' potential path to the playoffs looks like. Winning a fifth straight NFC South title won't be easy, something the schedule reinforced, and the division isn't getting any easier to conquer.
Tampa Bay is king until proven otherwise, but that's going to be put to the test in a big way at a few different points this season.
We're going to cheat a little here and pick more than one game as the "most important". Every game is important, but there are two that stand out immediately as ones the Buccaneers should circle above all others.
Week 7 - Buccaneers at Lions (Monday Night Football)
This will be the fourth meeting in three years between the Bucs and Lions, and so far things haven't really gone Tampa Bay's way.
Outside of a revenge win last year, the Bucs are 1-2 against Detroit since the two teams met back in 2023. Detroit bested Tampa Bay then and again in the NFC Divisional Round a few months later, with both of those losses happening in front of a national audience.
The Lions beat Tampa Bay in FOX's America's Game of the Week and again on NBC's broadcast of a playoff game. This is an excellent opportunity for the Bucs to prove they belong with the big boys byt going toe-to-toe with a team everyone seems to adore while everyone is watching.
The problem is we've seen the Bucs burp up all over themselves like like a newborn baby in most primetime games. Tampa Bay is 0-5 in regular season primetime games during the Baker Mayfield era, with the lone win coming in the Wild Card game back in 2023 against the Eagles.
It's high time that changes, and getting a win at this point in the season could get the team some credit while also preventing the Bucs another annual slide down the wrong side of a slump.
Week 12 - Buccaneers at Rams (Sunday Night Football)
There are two elements at play here that make this such a big game, one of which is more obvious than the other. Tampa Bay stinks in primetime, and getting a road win on Sunday Night Football against a Super Bowl contending team is a huge feather in everyone's cap.
It's also a game that comes during perhaps the toughest stretch of the schedule.
Tampa Bay faces a total nightmare gauntlet in November, with this game against the Rams in Los Angeles coming after the Bucs are in Buffalo to playing the Bills in Week 11. That means Tampa Bay will have to fly coast-to-coast to play in a primetime game against a really good team.
Not only that, but this late in the season a game against the Rams will almost certainly have serious playoff implications. Last year things came down to the wire in terms of the Bucs and Rams fighting for the same playoff seed, but getting win over Los Angeles would go a long way in helping Tampa Bay get proper footing in the playoffs.
It's a huge game on a number of levels, but one that would be at its core a confidence booster at a time when we traditionally see the Bucs struggle to stay out of their own way.
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