After ending a four game losing streak, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will look to continue getting the season back on track against one of the top teams in the NFC.
Both teams come into today's game reeling, though. Despite how dominant the San Francisco 49ers looked earlier in the season, the team is just 2-3 over its last five games with losses to Cleveland, Minnesota, and Cincinnati.
Much like the Bucs, San Francisco managed to get a rather convincing win last Sunday, beating the Jaguars 34-3, but the Niners have proven to be mortal more than a few times this season.
That's good news for Tampa Bay, as the deck was already stacked against the team when the schedule came out and the circumstances aren't much better now. It was looking like a tough matchup from the start, but the Niners being so hungry to get their season back on track makes the Bucs look even more like cannon fodder than they already did.
It has all the makings of a classic trap game.
San Francisco is heavily favored to win, and most folks are factoring in what happened last year when making that prediction. Tampa Bay is far from a perfect team, but logic that suggests the Niners are going to try and get right against the Bucs also exists the other way.
Tampa Bay was absolutely crushed by San Francisco last season, a loss that the team has mentioned a few times this week in preparation for Sunday. There would be no better way to wash the taste of the four game losing streak out of everyone's mouth than to make up for the embarrasing loss last season.
Two wins with one surpsising performance.
What time is the Bucs game today?
Pulling off the upset won't be easy, but it's not impossible. Christian McCaffrey will create a ton of problems for the Bucs defense, but the unit is coming off a week where Derrick Henry was held under 25 yards rushing. Tennssee's offense is hardly as explosive as San Francisco's, but the Bucs allowed just six points in Week 10 and that's the high the team is riding into Sunday.
That's not how the Bucs came into their matchup with San Francisco last year.
A one-point win over the Saints, in which a desperate fourth quarter comeback was needed, is how the Bucs came into their game last year against the 49ers. The result was a tired, slow team that lost 35-7 and never had a chance of getting into the game.
It doesn't feel like that's the energy the Bucs are bringing with them this year, and it could lead to very different results.
Here’s everything you need to know to catch today's game:
- Date: Sunday, November 19th
- Start Time: 4:05 pm ET
- Location: Levi's Stadium | Santa Clara, CA
- TV Channel: FOX
- Announcers: Joe Davis, Daryl Johnston
- Radio: WXTB 97.9 FM | More Affiliates
- Live Stream: NFL Sunday Ticket | Fubo (Local only)