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Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Shaquil Barrett showed a little extra swagger after a 32-9 beatdown of the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday.
Barrett expects to do the same to the Detroit Lions in the NFC Divisional Round on Saturday. Similar to the Eagles, the Lions beat the Buccaneers early in the regular season. Tampa Bay lost 25-11 to the Eagles in Week 3 and 20-6 to the Lions in Week 6.
“I know playoff football hasn’t been there [Detroit] for a long time, and it’s finally back,” Barrett told the media on Monday. “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,” Barrett continued.
Detroit will host a Divisional Round game for the first time since 1992 when the Lions beat the Dallas Cowboys at home, 38-6. That marked the Lions’ last playoff win until Sunday’s 24-23 Wild Card victory over the Los Angeles Rams.
Shaq Barrett: ‘We Don’t See Ourselves as the Underdog’
National media didn’t have high expectations for the Buccaneers in 2023 after Tom Brady’s retirement, and a hot 3-1 start soon turned into a four-game slide. The Buccaneers recovered in time to make the playoffs with a four-game winning streak in December, and Barrett considers Monday’s win only the beginning.
“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 told reporters. “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.”
Detroit also finished hot down the stretch with three wins in the final four regular season games. The NFL North champions average 27.1 points per game offensive and hold opponents to 23.2 points per game defensively.
The Buccaneers torched suspect defenses down the stretch, but the Lions defense keeps opponents in check amid 247.4 yards passing and 88.8 yards rushing allowed per contest. Detroit also has 41 sacks and 16 interceptions this season.
Buccaneers Defense Looked Dominant Against the Eagles
It will behoove the Buccaneers to take the latest defensive performance to the Motor City on Saturday.
Tampa Bay didn’t allow a third or fourth down conversion against the Eagles. The Buccaneers held the Eagles potent ground game to 42 yards, sacked quarterback Jalen Hurts three times, forced and recovered two fumbles, and forced the Eagles to punt four times.
“As you know, the last time we played them, they got over 200 yards rushing,” Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles told the media after the game. “We were bound to not let that happen again, so we made sure we put some calls in to try to scheme up some things and get them out of it a little bit.”
The Buccaneers will need to slow down another potent running game on Saturday. Detroit averages 135.9 yards per game, primarily between running backs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs.
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