Another season, another trip to the Motor City for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Buccaneers will face the Detroit Lions in a battle of top NFC contenders in front of a national audience on Monday Night Football on October 20, with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. ET as part of a Monday night double-header. It will be the third time in the last 22 months that Tampa Bay takes its talents to Ford Field, playoffs included, and the fifth time in the last seven seasons. The results have been generally entertaining, with the Lions knocking the Bucs out of the 2023 playoffs with a 31-23 win that came down to the wire, and the Bucs responding last September with a 20-16 win that represented one of just two regular-season losses for the 2024 Lions.

This time around, the 5-1 Buccaneers are bringing the NFC’s top record to Detroit and the Lions are right behind at 4-2. Both teams rank among the top six in the league in scoring and both have continued to find ways to win despite a concerning rash of injuries. Tampa Bay Head Coach Todd Bowles expects yet another very tough test from a Detroit team that had won four in a row before losing in Kansas City last Sunday night.

“No different than last year – tons of talent, very well-coached, a very tough team,” said Bowles. “They’ve got talent at every position. [It is] always a tough place to go play up there. They’re going to be battle-tested. They’re tough on both fronts, offensively and defensively. They make plays on the back end in the secondary. They’ve got big-play receivers. They’ve got a two-headed monster at running back. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

Indeed, the Lions are loaded on offense, beginning with one of the NFL’s most prolific passers. Jared Goff has thrived in Detroit since his 2021 trade from the Los Angeles Rams, but this could be his best season yet, as he leads the NFL in touchdown passes (14), completion percentage (75.9%) and passer rating (120.6) and has thrown only two interceptions. His favorite target remains wideout Amon-Ra St. Brown, who has 44 catches for 452 yards and six touchdowns, and he’s supported by the backfield duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, who have split a combined 724 rushing yards and eight touchdown runs almost down the middle. And even after the departure of creative play-caller Ben Johnson to the Chicago Bears, the Lions are still giving opposing defenses a lot to think about.

“They are dialing it up pretty [well] on the offensive side of the ball,” said cornerback Jamel Dean, the NFC’s reigning Defensive Player of the Week. “I know we have to be really disciplined when we go against them because they have a lot of eye candy. They also have weapons all across the board.”

While the Buccaneers have seen their biggest injury concerns concentrated on their receiving corps – Chris Godwin, Emeka Egbuka and Jalen McMillan all will likely miss the game and Mike Evans remains a question mark – the Lions can counter directly with a growing list of issues in their secondary. Starting cornerbacks D.J. Reed and Terrion Arnold are on injured reserve, as is Ennis Rakestraw, and Avonte Maddox is dealing with a hamstring issue. On top of that, versatile safety Brian Branch may miss Monday’s game due to a one-game suspension handed down by the NFL.

However, the Lions successfully battled their way through an even worse run of injuries to their defense in 2024 and Buccaneers Wide Receivers Coach Bryan McClendon doesn’t expect his guys to have an easy go of it on Monday night.

“If you want to look at a team that has been hit by injuries — a position being hit by injuries — I tell our guys look in the mirror,” said McClendon. “If they feel like they are somebody that is going to go in there and their standard is going to change, ours did not. Same thing with their level of production and what they want to do and everything else. You look at those guys schematically, you know they [have] good players from top to bottom. It is hard to be good in this league and not have full rosters from top to bottom and you know whoever they put out there is going to uphold the standard that they have to play.”

The Buccaneers will playing a noted NFC contender for the fourth week in a row, after losing to Philadelphia in Week Four and beating the Seahawks in Seattle in Week Five and the San Francisco 49ers in Tampa in Week Six. Detroit represents as stiff of a challenge as any of those previous opponents, but the Buccaneers have reason to be confident in their own chances.

“At the end of the day, we just have to do a really good job of focusing on us, do a really good job of knowing what they do, knowing how they do it, and understanding that this is going to take all we [have] over there on Monday,” said McClendon.

GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-1) at Detroit Lions (4-2)

Monday, October 20, 7:00 p.m. ET

Ford Field (capacity: 64,500)

TV Broadcast Team: Joe Buck (play-by-play), Troy Aikman (analyst), Laura Rutledge (reporter) 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)

ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES

The Buccaneers and Lions are former members of the NFC Central division who used to face each other twice a season, and lately that old rivalry has been rekindled by a run of multiple meetings in recent seasons. The game at Ford Field on Monday night will mark the sixth meeting between the clubs in the last seven years and fourth in the last 24 months. Weirdly, five of those six games were played or will be played in Detroit.

The last two of those games had a bit of a revenge-seeking feel for the Buccaneers. The team’s Week Two trip to Detroit last season was a rematch of the final contest of 2023 for the Buccaneers, as the Lions prevailed in a Divisional Round playoff contest last January at Ford Field by a 31-23 margin. Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield threw for 348 yards and three touchdowns but was picked off twice, including on his last pass of the season as the Buccaneers were attempting one final comeback. The game was tied at 17 apiece entering the fourth quarter but the Lions scored twice in the final period and a 16-yard touchdown catch by Mike Evans, who had eight catches for 147 yards on the day, wasn’t enough to stave off elimination.

The Bucs did get a measure of revenge last September, leaving Ford Field with a 20-16 victory after Mayfield scrambled for an 11-yard go-ahead touchdown near the end of the third quarter and Tampa Bay’s defense made that lead hold up for the entire fourth period. That defensive effort was sparked by interceptions from Zyon McCollum and Christian Izien, and Detroit’s final drive which reached the Buccaneers’ 26-yard line, ended in a turnover on downs thanks to key pressures by Yaya Diaby and Anthony Nelson on Jared Goff.

The Buccaneers-Lions series dates back to 1977 and is one of the more even ones on Tampa Bay’s list of won-loss records against various opponents. The Bucs pulled to within three on the all-time ledger with last year’s win plus lopsided victories in both 2019 and 2020, leaving Detroit ahead in the series, 32-28. The Bucs’ regular season record in Detroit is even better, at 16-16.

The Bucs and Lions are tied 1-1 in their postseason rivalry, as Tampa Bay won a Wild Card round contest at Tampa Stadium in 1997, 20-10. That was the Buccaneers’ first foray into the playoffs after a 14-season drought, and their first postseason victory since 1979. The Bucs and Lions, who were both in the NFC Central at the time, had split during the regular season but the playoff game in Tampa on December 28 was all Tampa Bay. RB Warrick Dunn and FB Mike Alstott combined for 140 rushing yards and Alstott’s 31-yard touchdown run in the third quarter gave the Bucs a 20-0 lead that was enough to send them to the next round of the playoffs at the home of yet another NFC Central team, the Green Bay Packers.

Detroit’s 20-6 win in Tampa in Week Six of 2023 season included a strong performance from Goff, who threw for 353 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, hitting All-Pro wide receive Amon-Ra St. Brown 12 times for 124 yards and a score. Detroit’s defense limited the Bucs to 251 yards of offense and Mayfield was intercepted once, marking the only game all season in which he threw an interception but no touchdowns.

In 2019, Tampa Bay left Detroit with a 38-17 win in Week 15, and almost exactly a year later went back to the Motor City for a dominant 47-7 rout. In the former game, the Bucs ran out to a quick 21-0 lead on three long touchdown passes by Jameis Winston, two to Breshad Perriman and one to Scotty Miller. Detroit rallied behind fill-in quarterback David Blough, eventually pulling to within seven points in the fourth quarter, but Detroit native Sean Murphy-Bunting ended any comeback thoughts with a 70-yard pick-six. In the latter game, Tom Brady had four touchdown passes by halftime so he ceded the second half to Blaine Gabbert, who threw two more. Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski were both on the receiving end of two of those scoring passes. The Lions avoided a shutout thanks to a 74-yard Jamal Agnew punt return touchdown, but the Bucs finished the game with a yardage advantage of more than 400 yards, 588-186.

The Bucs have a deep shared history with the Lions because of the quarter century they spent together in the same division. Then the NFL realigned in 2002 and the five-team NFC Central became the four-team NFC North, with only the Buccaneers departing to start over in the more geographically accurate NFC South. Despite that split, the Buccaneers and Lions still saw each other frequently in the years that followed. In fact, from 2005-17, the two teams met eight times, with the Lions holding a 5-3 edge in that span. That included the two most recent meetings before the 2019 rematch, a 24-21 Detroit win in Tampa in 2017 and a 34-17 Lions decision in Detroit in 2014. Tampa Bay’s best run in the series spanned that 2002 divisional divorce, with the Bucs winning six of the eight games played between 1999 and 2005.

The Buccaneers and Lions spent most of their shared quarter century in the NFC Central punting the series lead back and forth. The head-to-head record was tied at 5-5 after the first 10 games, 11-11 after the first 22, 15-15 after the first 30, and so on. Detroit did pull away a little bit in the first half of the 1990s by winning five straight, at a time when the great Barry Sanders was often tormenting the Buccaneers, but the aforementioned 1999-2005 run evened things back up a bit.

Even though last year’s Divisional Round game was just the second time Tampa Bay and Detroit met in the postseason, it wasn’t the first time they played what was essentially an elimination game. The Buccaneers visited Detroit in the final week of the 1981 regular season, with each team owning an 8-7 record. The winner would take the NFC Central crown and a playoff berth; the loser would be eliminated. The Buccaneers won, 20-17, keyed by an 84-yard Kevin House touchdown catch and a 21-yard fumble return by David Logan after a sack by Lee Roy Selmon.

The situation was very similar a year later when the Bucs and Lions matched up in Tampa in the penultimate week of the regular season. Due to a players’ strike that shaved seven games out of the middle of the season, the Bucs and Lions were each 3-4 with two games to go. Tampa Bay rallied from a 21-6 deficit to win 23-21, then won again the next weekend against Chicago to sneak into the playoffs. This time, however, the Lions also won their last game and made the playoffs, too, at 4-5.

NOTABLE CONNECTIONS

Cornerback Kindle Vildor, who signed with the Buccaneers this past offseason, played the previous two years in Detroit. Vildor appeared in 22 games for the Lions with four starts, registering 26 tackles and five passes defensed.
Linebacker Grant Stuard signed with the Lions this offseason after three seasons with the Indianapolis Colts. The Buccaneers drafted Stuard in the seventh round of the 2021 draft and he played one season in Tampa, accruing 15 special teams tackles. The Buccaneers traded him to Indianapolis along with a seventh-round draft pick shortly before the start of the following season in exchange for a sixth-round selection.
Defensive lineman Patrick O’Connor, who is currently on Detroit’s practice squad, appeared in 68 games for the Buccaneers from 2017-23. O’Connor actually began his career in Detroit as a seventh-round draft pick in 2017 and had a brief stint on Detroit’s practice squad to start his rookie season but later that year ended up on the same crew with the Buccaneers.
Safety Kaevon Merriweather entered the NFL as an undrafted free agent with the Buccaneers in 2023 and has spent most of his first three seasons in Tampa. However, he was briefly a Lion in 2024. After the Buccaneers waived him on November 18 during a round of roster moves aimed at shoring up injured positions on the depth chart, he chose to sign with Detroit’s practice squad. Two weeks later, the Buccaneers’ injury issues had shifted to safety and the Buccaneers’ re-signed Merriweather to their active roster on December 3.
Tampa Bay Pass Game Coordinator/Outside Linebackers Coach Larry Foote played 13 seasons in the NFL, including one with the Lions. Foote started all 14 games in which he appeared for Detroit in 2009, recording 99 tackles and two sacks.
Buccaneers Senior Offensive Assistant Tom Moore has spent more than four decades coaching in the NFL, and unsurprisingly that included a stint in Detroit. From 1994-96 he served as the Lions’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach on Wayne Fontes’ staff, working with the likes of Barry Sanders, Herman Moore and Scott Mitchell. The Lions made the playoffs in two of his three seasons with the team.
Kacy Rodgers is in his first season as the Lions’ run game coordinator/defensive line coach. Rodgers had spent the previous six seasons as an assistant for the Buccaneers, first on Bruce Arians’ staff for three years and then another three years under Todd Bowles. Originally the team’s defensive line coach, he added the title of run game coordinator in 2022.
Bruce Gradkoswki joined Dan Campbell’s this season as an offensive assistant. Prior to transitioning to coaching, Gradkowski had a nine-year playing career as a quarterback in the NFL, which began when he was drafted by the Buccaneers in the sixth round in 2006. Gradkowski spent his first two seasons in Tampa, starting 11 games as a rookie.