Getty Todd Bowles will lead the Buccaneers to Detroit to play the Lions.
Give Tampa Bay Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles credit.
When a reporter asked him at his Tuesday, January 16 press conference how he planned to prepare his team for the frigid temperatures in Detroit, where temperatures have dropped to the single digits this week, Bowles could have been flippant or insulting.
More than a few NFL coaches would have done that. Instead, he smiled and in his always-steady voice, reminded the reporter about a fun fact concerning Ford Field where the Lions play.
“You do know we play indoors, right? They got a dome,” Bowles said.
Oh no… A reporter asked #Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles about how the team is preparing to get acclimated to the weather in Detroit ahead of Sunday’s game.
The Lions have played in a dome for nearly 50 years.
Sensing the awkward silence that followed, Bowles tried a rescue mission, returning to the question of whether he planned to prepare the team for the cold. After all, it would have been a fair question given the brutal cold in the Chiefs-Dolphins game, and the snow that forced the delay of the Bills-Steelers game.
“I don’t—um, no, nothing planned,” Bowles said, breaking the thick quiet. “We’re indoors, and we only have to be outside for 20 seconds, getting off the bus and going under the thing so, we’ll be OK.”
Buccaneers Lost to Lions in Week 5
It has been more than three years since the Buccaneers last went on the road to play the Lions, so it is, perhaps, easy to forget that they’ve got a domed stadium.
That game came on December 26, 2020, when the Bucs were on their way to a Super Bowl title with Tom Brady at the helm, and Tampa won, 47-7. More recently, though, the Buccaneers played the Lions in Tampa Bay in Week 6 and lost, 20-6.
That defeat marked quarterback Baker Mayfield’s worst game of the year, in which he completed only 19 of 37 passes for 206 yards and an interception. He had a season-low 56.8 quarterback rating.
“We were where we were at that time of year,” Bowles said. “I don’t wish we had done anything differently — we wouldn’t have learned from it. Very good team. They have a very good team, coached very well — very fast, [and] very physical.
“The electric crowd is going to be up there. I don’t wish we had done anything different, because we wouldn’t have learned from it with any of our losses from that matter. We’re a different team now. We’re mentally tougher.”
Jared Goff vs. Baker Mayfield Rematch
On the flip side, though, Lions quarterback Jared Goff had his most productive game of the season against the Bucs, racking up a season-high 353 yards passing. He was 30-for-44 passing and had two touchdowns and no interceptions.
The Buccaneers managed three sacks on Goff, but he mostly picked apart the Tampa secondary. The Lions controlled most of the game, holding the ball for 36:30 and going 9-for-16 on third-down conversions, compared to 2-for-12 from Tampa.
“(Goff) is a good quarterback,” Bowles said. “It’s real simple – he’s a good quarterback. He can play, [there are] great players around him — [they have an] outstanding offensive line, they have two very good running backs, they have speed at the receiver [position], they have shiftiness at the receiver [position] and they have two great tight ends.”
The Lions were 12-5 this season and certainly, they have a lot. Including a domed stadium.