Hard Rock Bet<\/a>, as of midnight, Bucs +4 (-110); over\/under 50.5.<\/p>\nReferees: John Hussey and his gang will work today\u2019s game. Hussey is a homer referee and the numbers prove it. Since 2016, games worked by Hussey\u2019s outfit, the home team is 113-51.<\/p>\n
Injuries: Bucs \u2014 Doubtful: WR Jalen McMillan (knee), T Justin Skule (oblique),\u00a0 RB Sean Tucker (hamstring). Questionable: LB Christian Rozeboom (foot). Bengals\u2013 Out: DE Shemar Stewart (knee).<\/p>\n
Outlook: Joe is just scared to death the thin and in some cases inexperienced corners of the Bucs are going to get lit up by Joe Burrow, Ja\u2019Marr Chase and Tee Higgins. Stop with the pass rush line! We\u2019re talking KitKat-eating Todd Bowles here. We don\u2019t know if the Bucs will have a pass rush. We have a lot of evidence the Bucs will have a subpar pass defense. Picture in your head Chase and\/or Higgins going against a leaky secondary. Or, if Zac Taylor has any common sense, he will craft plays to get Chase matched up on Josiah Trotter. Joe is a big fan of Trotter and doesn\u2019t necessarily swallow the Trotter-can\u2019t-defend-the-pass drivel. Most rookies take a while to learn to defend the pass in the NFL. And a rookie linebacker trying to stop Chase or Higgins? M&Mer, baby. Joe is very much a burning bush kind of guy when it comes to a Bowles defense. He\u2019s seen enough to know it is hard to buy into the sell.<\/p>\n
Fun facts: KitKat-eating Bucs coach Todd Bowles is 4-0 in Week 1 games as a Bucs coach. QB Baker Mayfield is 3-0 as a Bucs quarterback in Week 1 games. Mayfield is 3-0 when facing a Joe Burrow-led Bengals. Mayfield has thrown more touchdowns against the Bengals than any active quarterback (16). Bucs win, right? Well\u2026 not so fast, pirate breath. Bowles is 0-6 against AFC North teams as Bucs coach. So what gives today? \u2026 Mayfield passed for 3,693 yards and 26 touchdowns in 2025. Aims for sixth game in a row against Cincinnati with at least two touchdown passes. Mayfield had a touchdown pass in 16 of 17 games last season. Since 2023, he ranks second in touchdown passes (95) and third in passing yards (12,237). \u2026 RB Kenny Gainwell should make his Bucs debut. Had 1,023 scrimmage yards (537 rushing, 486 receiving and eight touchdowns (five rushing, three receiving) in 2025. \u2026 WR Chris Godwin recorded 33 receptions for 360 yards and two touchdowns in nine games in 2025. Had eight receptions for 83 yards and a touchdown in the last game the Bucs played the Bengals.\u00a0 \u2026 DT Vita Vea had 34 tackles, 4.5 sacks, 7 tackles for loss, a fumble recovery and two passes defensed last season. \u2026 ILB Alex Anzalone recorded 95 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 9 passes defensed and a pick last season. He should make his Bucs debut today after five seasons in Detroit. Last season Anzalone had a pass defensed in two of his last three games. \u2026\u00a0 S Antoine Winfield racked up 93 tackles, a sack, 4 tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, 8 passes defensed and two picks in 2025. \u2026 Bengals QB Joe Burrow totaled 1,809 pass yards and 17 touchdown passes in 8 games last season. Passed for 225+ yards in each of the final 6 games of the season and at least two touchdown passes in 5 of the final 6 games. Completed 27 of 39 attempts (69.2 pct.) for 200 yards and 4 touchdowns vs. 1 pick the last time the Bucs played the Bengals. \u2026\u00a0 RB Chase Brown had a career-high 1,456 scrimmage yards (1,019 rushing, 437 receiving) and tied career-high 11 scrimmage touchdowns (6 rushing, 5 receiving) in 2025. Tied at sixth in the league among running backs with at least 100 scrimmage yards last season (8). \u2026 WR Ja\u2019Marr Chase ranked second in NFL with 7 100-yard games receiving, third with 125 receptions, fourth with 1,412 receiving yards and eight touchdowns. Became the third player ever with 125+ receptions in multiple career seasons. Had a touchdown catch last time he played the Bucs. \u2026 WR Tee Higgins was tied for second in the NFL with a career-high 11 touchdown catches. Higgins also had 59 receptions for 846 yards in 2025. He also had a touchdown catch against the Bucs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Game 1 Bucs at Bengals Kickoff: 1 p.m. TV: FOX (WTVT-TV Channel 13, locally) with Kevin Kugler, windy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[10998,10997,135,2964,137,136],"class_list":["post-398407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-bucs-message-boards","tag-bucs-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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