Both teams seek redemption after late-season collapses as Alex Anzalone returns to Ford Field, facing a revamped Lions defense anchored by former Bucs standout Devin White.
One could argue that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ collapse last series started in “The Motor City.”
Coming into their Oct. 20 matchup with the Detroit Lions, the Bucs were as hot as anybody, starting 5-1 and coming off back-to-back wins over the eventual Super Bowl champion Seattle Seahawks (in Seattle, no less) and the playoff-bound San Francisco 49ers at Raymond James Stadium.
The Bucs took on the Lions with a chance to further establish themselves as not just the NFC South’s top dog, but as surefire Super Bowl contenders.
Instead, the Bucs came out flat and never recovered, losing a snoozer, 24-9. Tampa bounced back with a 20-point win over an ordinary New Orleans Saints squad the next week, but ended up going 2-7 the rest of the way to finish 8-9 and lose the NFC South.
But the Bucs weren’t the only team with problems in 2025.
After back-to-back playoff appearances, it looked like the once laughable Lions and their popular head coach, Dan Campbell, could do no wrong.
Last year was going well, too, with the win over Tampa moving Detroit to 5-2.
But a combination of injuries (the entire starting secondary ended up on injured reserve at some point) and bad luck (the Lions lost five games by a touchdown or fewer) led to Detroit finishing a pedestrian 9-8 and missing the playoffs. Not too long ago, a winning season would be cause for a parade in Detroit, even if it wasn’t good enough for the postseason. But Campbell has raised the standard to a point where 9-8 just isn’t good enough, and this year, they expect to be back in the playoffs, as do the Buccaneers. The Lions have what every playoff team needs: a quality quarterback. Jared Goff was his usual excellent self last year, ending with 34 touchdown passes to just eight interceptions and eclipsing 4,000 yards passing for the fourth straight year (his 4,564 yards were second in the league).
Only three teams scored more points than the Lions last year, so Goff and the offense clearly weren’t the issue. The injury-riddled defense was a different story. The Lions ranked just 18th in points allowed and took steps over the offseason to fix that.
Although Detroit lost a franchise mainstay in linebacker Alex Anzalone, who is now a Buccaneer and will be making his return to MoTown Nov. 22, the Lions added former Buccaneers All-Pro Devin White at linebacker and added Roger McCreary and Keith Abney to the secondary.
Bucs-Lions is scheduled to begin at 1:00 on CBS.
