The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are returning to the playoffs and the ultimate goal is to reach the Super Bowl LV at their own home, Raymond James Stadium, on February 7. But Buccaneers will have to hit the road first, and their way home starts in Landover, Maryland.
This is the FedEx Field website, where the Buccaneers and Washington Football Team will play a Wild Card matchup on Saturday night, January 9th. The game, which is the final action in a triple “Super Wild Card” header, is scheduled to start at 8:15 pm ET. It will be broadcast nationally on NBC.
The Buccaneers drew with Washington in the opening round due to ending the fifth overall division in the NFC with a 44-27 victory over the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. This sparked a clash with the NFC East champion, who could have been one of three teams when the day started, but proved to be the football team after the 20-14 victory over Philadelphia on Sunday night. Tampa Bay’s first playoff game since 2007 has not been fully determined until the 256th and final game of the 2020 regular season is over.
This will mark the third time that Tampa Bay and Washington have met in the postseason, and the winner will have the right to brag about the series. The Buccaneers won a 1999 NFC Divisional Round game over Washington, 14-13, on their way to the conference championship game in St. Louis. Washington took revenge in 2005 with a 17-10 Wild Card win over the Buccaneers, who beat NFC South with an 11-5 record. Both games were played at Raymond James Stadium.
Saturday’s game will mark the Buccaneers’ first playoff game on the road since the unforgettable 2002 NFC Championship game in Philadelphia. The Bucs won the game 27-10 to advance to Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego (a neutral local game), where they defeated the Oakland Raiders 48-21 for their first NFL title.
Saturday’s game will set the Buccaneers’ attack on fire against one of the league’s meanest defenses. Tampa Bay finished as the third highest scoring team in the league, with 492 points, behind only Green Bay and Buffalo, and in its last 10 quarters of the game accumulated 1,429 yards and 16 touchdowns. Meanwhile, Washington allowed only 329 points in the season to occupy 14th place in goal defense.
Washington’s defense is led by a defensive front laden with recent choices in the first round. The entire defensive line of the Football Team is made up of choices in the first phase of the last four years: Chase Young and Montez Sweat finish and face Da’Ron Payne and Jonathan Allen. Ryan Kerrigan, the all-time leader in the sack franchise, leaves the bank and has another 5.5 QB falls this year. Washington reached the final weekend of the season in fourth place in sacks by attempting a pass, and that pressure also helped the team’s defenders get 16 passes to tie for second place in the league. The football team has been particularly difficult to pass, allowing only 191.9 net yards per game in the air.
The football team’s attack was not as dynamic and obviously had problems in the position of defender. Dwayne Haskins, the choice of the first round of 2019 that started six games this season and was 1-5, was released earlier this week 17. Veteran Alex Smith made an inspiring comeback from a devastating 2018 leg injury and is now he returns to his helmet after wasting time with another leg injury. He launched two touchdown passes against Philadelphia on Sunday night, but has relatively dismal numbers this year, including a score of 78.5 passes and an average of 6.3 yards per pass attempt.
Washington’s offense is not without dangerous weapons. Terry McLaurin, the 12th receiver called up in 2019, was a revelation as a rookie and proved that it was no accident with 1,148 yards in 87 catches this year. The Football Team had another choice in the draft of Day Two in 2020 with running back Antonio Gibson, a selection from the end of the second round that accumulated 1,042 yards in scrimmage and 11 touchdowns, despite having lost two games.
The winner of Saturday’s game at FedEx Field will go to Green Bay in the Divisional Round, unless one or both winners of the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks division lose in the First Round. Unless all three NFC Wild Card teams win this weekend, the Buccaneers, who were 6-2 away from home this year, will be on the road again in Week Two. First of all, the Bucs need to stay on the way back to Raymond James Stadium with a first round win and to do so, they will have to beat the Washington Football Team at their own home on Saturday night.