Buccaneers receive a potentially huge gift from Packers on Sunday
Christmas has come and gone, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might have just received a very big gift from the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night. The Packers throttled the Dallas Cowboys 48-32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Cowboys were the two seed, becoming the first to lose to the seven seed in the […]
Christmas has come and gone, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers might have just received a very big gift from the Green Bay Packers on Sunday night.
The Packers throttled the Dallas Cowboys 48-32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. The Cowboys were the two seed, becoming the first to lose to the seven seed in the playoffs since the league expanded from 12 to 14 playoff teams in the 2021 season.
What it means for the Buccaneers – and the Eagles, for that matter – is that the winner of Monday night's game in Tampa will ship out to the three seed Detroit Lions instead of traveling to play the top-seeded San Francisco 49ers in the divisional round. The Lions defeated the Los Angeles Rams 24-23 on Sunday night.
That's no small thing. The Niners have been a buzzsaw lately. That's especially been the case for the Buccaneers, who have struggled massively on the road at San Francisco the last two seasons. Tampa Bay was hammered 35-7 in 2022 and 27-14 in 2023 in Santa Clara.
The Buccaneers didn't exactly fare well against the Lions this season either. They stumbled and fell 20-6 to Detroit back on October 15 in the "creamsicles" throwback game.
However, when it comes to picking your poison, traveling to Detroit simply feels like a significantly less daunting trip for either the Buccaneers or Eagles to make as opposed to taking on the 49ers in their backyard.
Of course, unless the Packers trip up the 49ers on Saturday, either the Buccaneers, Lions, or Eagles will eventually have to go out there for the NFC championship game. If the Packers were to pull off another monumental upset, one of those three teams would get to host the Packers for a trip to the Super Bowl.
For now, the Buccaneers get to steer clear of their own Santa Clara house of horrors for at least one more week if they can knock off the Eagles on Monday night.
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