The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ bye week has come and gone and now there is nothing but a nine-week battle ahead as the team seeks to win its fifth straight NFC South title and remain in contention for the top seed in the conference playoff field. The Buccaneers are definitely in that mix at the moment with a 6-2 record that is tied for the best in the NFC after nine weeks, but the top of the conference chart is crowded and there are no easy outings ahead.

For the Buccaneers, the beginning of the second half of the season means a rededication to the work ethic and attention to detail that got them to the break in a good position.

“Just starting over, doing the little things right,” said Head Coach Todd Bowles. “At this point, everybody has seen what you’re going to do, you’ve seen what they’re going to do. It’s a matter of executing and who executes more.”

The Buccaneers will need to be locked in in Week 10 if they want to execute to a higher degree than their incoming opponent, the 7-2 Patriots who are thriving under first-year Head Coach Mike Vrabel, a true culture-setter who has his team on a six-game winning streak. The Patriots are undefeated in four road trips so far this season and are ranked seventh in points scored (26.3 per game) and fifth in points allowed (18.8).

“[They’re a] tough football team,” said Bowles. “I think Vrabel does a very good job getting those guys ready – crossing the T’s and dotting their I’s. They’re very tough defensively up front. Offensively, they’re huge. The quarterback’s playing out of the world right now – he’s playing great ball with his legs and his arm. [He] has a great touch and great feel for everything they’re doing, and they’re really on a roll.”

That quarterback is second-year man Drake Maye, the third-overall pick in the 2024 draft who currently leads the NFL in passer rating (116.9) and completion percentage (74.1%) while also running for 270 yards, fifth-most among all QBs. Maye has spread the ball around considerably, as eight different players have at least 13 receptions, including wide receivers Stefon Diggs (42-508-1) and Kayshon Boutte (29-368-5) and tight end Hunter Henry (29-368-4).

“[He has] great legs – he really has a knack for finding the hole to run in,” said Bowles. “At the same time, great touch on the ball, great arm strength, a great feel for the game – understanding where his guys are. I think Josh [McDaniels] has done a great job getting him ready to play and understanding how he has to play and executing for him.”

Meanwhile, the New England defense has been particularly stingy against the run, allowing a league-low 75.4 yards per game, as the free agency addition of Milton Williams to pair with Christian Barmore on the defensive front has paid huge dividends. The Patriots also brought in former Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane, who Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield described as a “tackling machine.”

“Starts up front,” said Mayfield. Between Barmore and Milton Williams, two really good interior defensive line players…from there, their defensive backs are making a lot of plays. They had some changes, a couple guys traded off, but defensive backs are playing aggressive because that front is getting some pass rush.

“[T]hose guys are playing really, really hard. They communicate well, they disguise well; On tape, it looks like it is a Vrabel-coached football team. They play hard and it is a good, sound defense.”

The Patriots visit to Raymond James Stadium on Sunday begins a challenging three-week run in which the Buccaneers will play some o the top contenders in the NFL, with the game against the 7-2 Patriots followed by road trips to Buffalo and Los Angeles to face a pair of teams currently with 6-2 records. The Bucs hit their bye in good shape in terms of the league’s standings, but there is no more time to rest now that the off week is over.

“The work is never done,” said outside linebacker Anthony Nelson. “We had a pretty good first eight games, but there is a lot of stuff to correct. If you are not on it, this league will eat you up fast. You see it every week, so just keep that mentality and understand that we are trying to take steps forward. Whatever we have to do, we have to scratch and claw and just have to have that mentality of keep moving forward.”

GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS

New England Patriots (7-2) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (6-2)

Sunday, November 9, 1:00 p.m. ET

Raymond James Stadium (capacity: 65,844)

TV Broadcast Team: Jim Nantz (play-by-play), Tony Romo (analyst), Tracy Wolfson (reporter)

Radio: 98Rock (WXTB, 97.9 FM), Flagship Station

Radio Broadcast Team: Gene Deckerhoff (play-by-play), Dave Moore (analyst), T.J. Rives (reporter)

Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente

Spanish Radio Broadcast Team: Carlos Bohorquez (play-by-play), Martin Gramática (analyst), Santiago Gramática (reporter)

GAMEDAY INFORMATION

Coming to the game or enjoying pregame festivities? Check out our Buccaneers Gameday Page for everything you need to know about getting ready for the game, Tailgate Packages, Bucs Beach and more!

TICKETING INFORMATION

The 2024 season is underway and there are a limited number of Single Game Tickets on sale now! Visit Buccaneers.com to purchase tickets.

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES

The Bucs and Patriots have only had 10 meetings in more than four decades, and when they have gotten together there’s usually been a clear victor from the start. However, the last game between the two teams bucked that trend, as the visiting Buccaneers just held on for a 19-17 win at Gillette Stadium in Week Four of the 2021 season. The game marked the return of Tom Brady to his NFL home of 20 years, after he had joined the Buccaneers in 2020 and won his record seventh Super Bowl ring. Brady threw for 269 yards but did not record a touchdown pass, and the Bucs held on when Nick Folk’s 56-yard field goal attempt with a minute left hit the left upright.

New England won the first three games in the head-to-head series, beginning in Tampa Bay’s inaugural 1976 season. Tampa Bay got its two first victories in 1997 and 2000, but the Patriots then recorded another four-game winning streak following the NFL’s realignment in 2002, which led to scheduling based on rotating divisional matchups. Every game in the series has been separated by a gap of at least three seasons.

Five of New England’s seven victories have been by at least 17 points; In the last Bucs-Patriots game in Tampa in 2017, Brady threw for 303 yards and a touchdown in that game but Jameis Winston countered with 334 yards and a touchdown. Kicker Stephen Gostkowski made up the difference with four field goals in the 19-14 decision, while Folk, during a brief stint with the Bucs, went 0-3 (in his defense, one was from 56 yards out). The Buccaneers lost that game despite winning the turnover margin, 2-0. The other close win for New England was in 1988, when the Bucs went to Foxboro in December and encountered a 30-mph wind blowing in one direction at Sullivan Stadium and a wind chill of negative-25. When the game went to overtime at 7-7, the Bucs won the toss and Head Coach Ray Perkins made one of the most memorable strategic decisions in franchise history, electing to kick in order to get the strong wind at his team’s back. The strategy backfired when Irving Fryar made an acrobatic 26-yard catch – New England’s longest play of the game – to set up Jason Staurovsky’s 27-yard game-winning field goal.

Tampa Bay’s two wins in the series were by 20 and five-point margins, the second one actually remaining in doubt until the final seconds. These lopsided results are partly the result of the two teams rarely meeting in seasons where both were contenders. The Buccaneers didn’t beat anybody in ’76, and only won two games when the Patriots visited in 1985. The two exceptions came in 1997 and 2005, and each team won one of those. The Bucs beat New England in the 2000 season opener in Foxborough, a 21-16 decision that included two touchdown runs by Mike Alstott.

The Buccaneers and Patriots have never played a postseason game against each other. Necessarily, that would have to be in the Super Bowl, and in that regard those two teams were like two ships passing in the night around the turn of the millennium. New England won Super Bowl XXXVI after the 2001 season, but missed the playoffs (barely) in 2002, keeping them out of the path of a Buccaneers team that rampaged to the title. New England then came back to win the next two Super Bowls while the Bucs had a post-championship slide for those two seasons before righting themselves in 2005.

NOTABLE CONNECTIONS

• Buccaneers General Manager Jason Licht had two formative stints in the Patriots’ personnel department while working his way up to his current position. In 1999, he joined New England as a scout and later worked as assistant director of player personnel, staying with the Patriots through four seasons and one Super Bowl victory. Licht returned to the Patriots in 2009 as the team’s director of player personnel, a position he held through 2011. New England won three division titles and one conference title in that span.

• Cornerback Carlton Davis is in his first season with the Patriots after spending six years in Tampa and one in Detroit. Davis played 76 games with 75 starts for the Buccaneers, recording 324 tackles, nine interceptions and 86 passes defensed and earning a Super Bowl championship ring as part of the 2020 squad. The Buccaneers traded Davis to Detroit during the 2024 offseason, and he subsequently moved on to New England after becoming an unrestricted free agent.

• Michael Jordan, who signed with the Buccaneers in late July and has logged starts this season at both left and right guard, was with the Patriots last year. In his one season in New England, Jordan started 11 of the 12 games in which he played at left guard.

SENIOR COACHING STAFFS

• Head Coach Todd Bowles

• Offensive Coordinator Josh Grizzard

• Run Game Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach

• Pass Game Coordinator George Edwards

• Run Game Coordinator/Outside Linebackers Coach Larry Foote

• Special Teams Coordinator Thomas McGaughey

• Head Coach Mike Vrabel

• Offensive Coordinator Josh McDaniels

• Defensive Coordinator Terrell Williams

• Special Teams Coordinator Jeremy Springer

KEY 2025 ROSTER ADDITIONS

• QB Teddy Bridgewater (FA)

• LB John Bullock (UDFA)

• T Benjamin Chukwuma (UDFA)

• WR Emeka Egbuka (1st-round draft pick)

• WR Tez Johnson (7th-round draft pick)

• G Michael Jordan (FA)

• CB Kindle Vildor (UFA)

• CB Benjamin Morrison (2nd-round draft pick)

• CB Jacob Parrish (3rd-round draft pick)

• DL Elijah Roberts (5th-round draft pick)

• DL Elijah Simmons (FA)

• OLB David Walker (4th-round draft pick…on injured reserve)

• RB Josh Williams (UDFA)

• K Andy Borregales (6th-round draft pick)

• C Garrett Bradbury (FA)

• T Marcus Bryant (7th-round draft pick)

• T Will Campbell (1st-round draft pick)

• LB K’Lavon Chaisson (UFA)

• WR Efton Chism (UDFA)

• CB Carlton Davis (UFA)

• WR Stefon Diggs (UFA)

• DT Joshua Farmer (4th-round draft pick)

• DT Eric Gregory (W-CIN)

• RB TreVeyon Henderson (2nd-round draft pick)

• WR Mack Hollins (UFA)

• LB Harold Landry (FA)

• LB Elijah Ponder (UDFA)

• LB Robert Spillane (UFA)

• DL Khyiris Tonga (UFA)

• WR Kyle Williams (3rd-round draft pick)

• DL Milton Williams (UFA)

• G Jared Wilson (3rd-round draft pick)

• S Craig Woodson (4th-round draft pick)

ADDITIONAL 2025 CHANGES/DEVELOPMENTS OF NOTE

• The Buccaneers rolled into 2025 with their fourth offensive coordinator in the last four years. This year’s transition, however, is a bit different than the last two. In 2023 and 2024, Dave Canales and Liam Coen, respectively, came to town with entirely new offensive systems that the players had to absorb. In 2025, the Buccaneers followed the departure of Coen to be the Jacksonville Jaguars’ head coach by promoting former Pass Game Coordinator Josh Grizzard from within. Grizzard is certainly evolving the Bucs’ offense in new ways and have his own spin on play-calling, but the basic system remains the same, offering a very helpful continuity for a team that is also returning all of its offensive regulars from a unit that finished in the top five in 2024 in net yards, points scored, rushing yards and passing yards. After Grizzard’s promotion, the Buccaneers also hired one of his former colleagues, Kefense Hynson, to be the team’s new pass game coordinator.

• To celebrate their landmark 50th season, the Buccaneers have unveiled a new sort of throwback uniform in 2025. In addition to the popular “Creamsicle” togs that they will don for the Thursday night game against Atlanta in Week 15, the Bucs have also worn, for this season only, a white version of their original uniforms worn during the 1976 season. Those uniforms made their debut in the home opener against the Jets in Week Three and were broken out again when the Bucs played at Seattle in Week Five, a game that was a battle of the NFL’s two expansion teams from 1976.

• While Todd Bowles remains the play-caller for Tampa Bay’s defense, he did make somechanges to his defensive coaching staff. Mike Caldwell, who was part of the Bucs’ staff from 2019-21 when Bowles was the defensive coordinator, returns to tutor the inside linebackers. Larry Foote has moved from inside linebackers to outside linebackers and is also the team’s run game coordinator. George Edwards, who previously coached the outside linebackers, is now the pass game coordinator.

• The Buccaneers started the season without All-Pro left tackle Tristan Wirfs and wide receiver Chris Godwin, but both returned to the lineup in Week Four. However, the Buccaneers’ injured reserve list has grown considerably as the season has progressed. Wide receiver Jalen McMillan sustained a severe neck strain in Week Two of the preseason against Pittsburgh and is expected to be sidelined for at least half of the regular season. He is currently on injured reserve but can be designated for return. Since the start of the season, the Buccaneers have also lost defensive linemen Calijah Kancey, tackle Luke Goedeke, guard Cody Mauch, tight end Ko Kieft and safety Rashad Wisdom to injured reserve. Goedeke is expected to return from IR at some point but Kancey, Mauch and Kieft are likely to miss the rest of the season.

• The changes made to the kickoff process by the NFL during the offseason appear to have impacted the Buccaneers’ strategy for that play in a significant manner. Now that a touchback on a ball caught or landing in the end zone puts the ball at the receiving team’s 35, the Buccaneers have relied a lot less on touchbacks, which they produced on more than 75% of their kickoffs last year. With that in mind, the team took kick coverage units into serious consideration when shaping the 53-man roster and multiple players – including linebacker John Bullock, cornerback Josh Hayes, outside linebacker Markees Watts and wide receivers Ryan Miller and Kameron Johnson – made the team in large part due to their special teams contributions.

• The Patriots were in the market for a new head coach for the second year in a row when the offseason began, as the experiment with hand-picked Bill Belichick successor Jerod Mayo lasted just one season. It didn’t take long for the team to land on former Tennessee Titans Head Coach Mike Vrabel, who was also a storied member of the first decade of the Patriots’ dynasty era. Vrabel’s dismissal by the Titans after the 2023 season was a bit of a surprise, given that he had compiled a 54-45 record over six seasons at the helm and had produced three playoff seasons, but he was seen as the perfect choice to establish a new culture in Foxborough.

• The Patriots also brought back Josh McDaniels for a third stint as their offensive coordinator, a post he had filled from 2006-08 and from 2012-21. For their new defensive coordinator, the Patriots raided the highly-regarded Detroit Lions staff for Terrell Williams, who had previously coached under Vrabel in Tennessee.

• Long-time stalwart center David Andrews retired in the offseason after being released by the team, stating that he didn’t want to play for any other team to extend his career. In addition, the Patriots released linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley who had started 62 games from 2020-23 but only two last year before suffering a torn pectoral muscle. The team’s release of long-snapper Joe Cardona after the draft severed ties with the last player on the roster who had won a Super Bowl ring with the Patriots. Cardona promptly signed with the Dolphins.

• The Patriots also used the trade market in the offseason to pick up some extra late-round draft capital. Defensive tackle Davon Godchaux, who had started all but one game for New England over the previous four seasons, was shipped to New Orleans for a 2026 seventh-round pick. The Patriots quarterback Joe Milton in the sixth round in 2024 and the former Tennessee Volunteer looked good in his one late-season audition, completing 22 of 29 passes for 241 yards and a touchdown in a win over New England. The Patriots were able to parlay that into a deal with the Cowboys for a fifth-round pick in exchange for Milton and a seventh-rounder.