Tampa Bay Buccaneers Open as Significant Underdog to Detroit Lions
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The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are fresh off a big playoff win against the Philadelphia Eagles -- a team that made the Super Bowl a season ago -- and now look forward to a road matchup against the Detroit Lions.
The Buccaneers took on the Lions in their fifth game of the regular season, losing 20-6. In all fairness, they also took an early season loss to the Eagles, also by 14 points, as their offense was not nearly the same as it is performing now.
Still, after defeating the Eagles in the Wild Card round, the Buccaneers are underdogs as they face the Lions. The Lions open as 6-point favorites in this matchup, as they're coming off a close 24-23 over the Los Angeles Rams.
Again, this is not the same Buccaneers team that the Lions faced early in the regular season. The Buccaneers' loss to the Lions kicked off a four-game losing streak and seven-game stretch that saw them go 1-6. Outside of that mid-season stretch, the Buccaneers have been an entertaining and solid team.
With how the Buccaneers handled the Eagles on Monday night, one would assume the spread for the Divisional Round would be just a bit closer. The Buccaneers made some real noise in their playoff matchup in a season which felt like them competing in the postseason was incredibly unlikely.
Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles is not surprised that they're underdogs, though, as he expected it.
"We were underdogs, we're going to be underdogs next week, too," coach Todd Bowles added. "We understand that. We embrace it. We like it."
For a team, a head coach embracing being an underdog and having nothing to lose creates for games like Monday where the Buccaneers were the aggressors and went out and took a game.
Watching the Buccaneers roll through the playoffs will be interesting as they continue to see what their ceiling is as a team.
Stick with BucsGameday and the Locked On Bucs podcast for more coverage of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers throughout the 2023 season.
