Getty Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett put the Detroit Lions on notice while speaking to the media after beating the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Detroit Lions defeated the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by two touchdowns in Week 6 of the 2023 season. But the Buccaneers just went a long way to proving regular season results don’t mean all that much in the playoffs.
According to linebacker Shaquil Barrett, the Buccaneers plan to do the same thing in the NFL divisional round against the Lions.
“I know playoff football hasn’t been there (Detroit) for a long time, and it’s finally back,” Barrett told the media after the team’s NFC wild-card win, via MLive.com’s Kory Woods. “They beat us early in the year, so it’s another step in our revenge tour, and I’m looking forward to it.
“It’s going to be a good game, and once we prepare and start figuring out what we got to do, and we do that stuff, we should be able to come out on top.”
The Buccaneers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 25-11, in Week 3 of the regular season. But in the rematch during the NFL wild-card round on January 15, Tampa Bay defeated Philadelphia, 32-9.
The Lions also knocked off the Buccaneers, 20-6, in the regular season. The two teams will meet again in the NFC divisional round at Ford Field on January 21.
Buccaneers Embracing Underdog Mentality
Tampa Bay came into the playoffs having won five of its last six games. The Buccaneers were also hosting the Eagles in the wild-card matchup.
And despite the fact the Eagles ended the season losing five of their last six games, Tampa Bay was still the underdog against Philadelphia.
That’s a role the Buccaneers are clearly embracing. So it’s not likely to matter when that’s the case again for Tampa Bay against the Lions.
“We know our capabilities in the locker room no matter what’s projected or what people think is going to happen in the game,” Barrett said, via MLive.com’s Kory Woods. “So we always come in thinking we got a great chance of winning the game. People see us as the underdog. We don’t see ourselves as the underdog, but going into Detroit, it’s just going to be the same thing.”
According to ESPN Bet, the Lions are favored to beat the Buccaneers by 6 points.
New Role for Lions in NFL Divisional Round
Betting odds had the Lions favored by about 3 points on wild-card weekend against the Los Angeles Rams. But a lot of NFL pundits were still picking the Rams to win the game, so it didn’t feel like the Lions were favorites.
After all, the Lions were on a 9-game playoff losing streak and hadn’t won a playoff game since January 1992 before beating the Rams.
It will be interesting to see how the experts handle predicting the winner of the Lions-Buccaneers showdown. But the Lions are likely to enter the matchup as the clear favorites and the preferred pick in the media.
That will be a bit of a new role for them. Although they have been one of the league’s better teams all year, not everyone has taken them as serious Super Bowl contenders because of past Lions’ failures.
How the Lions handle the pressure of a playoff game they are widely expected to win will be a significant storyline heading into the matchup.