The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are moving onto the divisional round after a convincing 32-9 win over the Philadelphia Eagles at Raymond James Stadium on Monday night.  

Despite the lopsided win, the Buccaneers were actually underdogs entering the game.  Most sportsbooks generally had the Buccaneers around a 2.5-point underdog.  After the win, the books have established the Detroit Lions as a 6-point favorite over the Buccaneers in the divisional round. 

That suits Bucs QB Baker Mayfield just fine. 

"There's something about whether it's you're an underdog or a road game, just having your backs against the wall and knowing it's just your team versus everybody else when you're counted out and it's always fun to be in that role," Mayfield said after the game. "Obviously I'm pretty comfortable in it, but our team has completely embraced that throughout the year."

A perfect match

Mayfield and the Buccaneers are a perfect marriage because they're both coming from the same place after the 2022 season: downtrodden afterthoughts.  Very few outside of the Tampa Bay area gave the Buccaneers a shot at making the playoffs in 2023 after their season ended with a whimper in a 31-14 Wild Card loss to the Dallas Cowboys and Tom Brady announced his retirement.  Many pegged the Bucs as a four-win team this year.  

Many of those same pundits also scoffed when the Bucs signed Mayfield to an incentive-laden one year, $4 million contract.  The number one overall pick from 2018 was released by the Panthers and had just finished the season with the Rams.  The Buccaneers pegging him as the replacement for the best quarterback ever seemed like a mouse trying to fill elephant-sized shoes. 

And what a year it's been for Mayfield and the Buccaneers together.  Mayfield threw for 4044 yards with 28 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in 2023.  The Buccaneers managed to find a way to claim their third straight division title and extend their playoff streak to an NFC-best four straight years.  Not bad for a pair that many had written off before they'd even joined up. 

Turning their sights north

Now, the Buccaneers have their sights set on Detroit, where they will look to do what they did with the Eagles: avenge a regular season loss.  The Bucs answered a 25-11 loss to the Eagles with a 32-9 beat down.  Tampa Bay will look to do the same to the Lions, who beat them 20-6 in Raymond James Stadium on October 15. 

Todd Bowles says his team will be ready and that they share Mayfield's underdog motivation. 

"They were ready to play, you know," Bowles said after the game. "We're not going to go in there trying to play for a tie. We were going for the win. We know we're underdogs. We'll be underdogs next week, too. We understand that. We embrace it. We like it. Them guys come up play after play. We'll enjoy tonight, and we'll get going tomorrow on Detroit."

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The Buccaneers will have a true challenge going into Ford Field, which was a wild scene as the Lions won their first playoff game since 1991 with a 24-23 win over the Rams on Sunday night.  

It sounds like that's just the way this group wants it.  

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