The Tampa Bay Buccaneers return home in Week Six to play the San Francisco 49ers in a showdown of two of the NFL’s seven 4-1 teams. There are no undefeated teams remaining and Bucs-49ers will represent the only matchup of 4-1 teams on this week’s slate. The game is set for Sunday, October 12 at Raymond James Stadium, with kickoff at 4:25 p.m. ET and the CBS set to broadcast it locally and to a broader national audience.

After taking their first loss in Week Four to the defending-champion Eagles, the Buccaneers rebounded in Week Five with a huge road win over another top NFC contender in Seattle. As was the case in each of their first three victories as well, this 38-35 decision was secured by a score in the game’s final minute, in this case a 39-yard Chase McLaughlin field goal after a clutch interception by Lavonte David. Baker Mayfield was nearly flawless in the game, completing 29 of 33 passes for 379 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions, and his favorite target was rising star rookie Emeka Egbuka, who caught all seven passes thrown his way for 163 yards and his fifth touchdown of the season. The Buccaneers won the turnover battle, 2-0, and have avoided turning the ball over in four of their first five games.

The 49ers got the NFL’s fifth week started with a down-to-the-wire 26-23 overtime road win over the Rams on Thursday Night Football. After kicking a field goal on the first drive of the extra period, San Francisco won the game when rookie safety Marques Sigle and cornerback Deommodore Lenoir combined to stop Kyren Williams for no gain on a bold fourth-and-one call by Sean McVay. Mac Jones, making his third start in place of an injured Brock Purdy, completed 33 of 49 passes for 342 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions and the peerless Christian McCaffrey had 139 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown catch.

Here are four major storylines and four head-to-head player battles to keep an eye on in Week Six as the Bucs prepare for the 49ers’ visit and a third straight battle between two first-place teams.

TOP STORYLINES

NFC Bragging Rights on the Line – Last week, the NFL announced that it was flexing the Buccaneers game against San Francisco from its original 1:00 p.m. kickoff to the late afternoon slot in order to make it available to a larger national audience. That was unsurprising because, as noted above, this is the only Week Six contest featuring two of the seven times tied for the NFL’s top record. In the NFC, there are four such teams, and, barring a tie, either the Buccaneers or 49ers will still be atop the conference heap when the weekend wraps up. The Bucs and Eagles were the only 3-0 teams to play each other in Week Four, and when Tampa Bay went to Seattle in Week Five it was a battle between 3-1, first-place teams. The theme continues in Week Six, as the Bucs win over the Seahawks helped push San Francisco into sole possession of the NFC West. The Buccaneers are very interested in starting to even up what has become a lopsided series of late, with San Francisco beating them four times in a row over the course of the last six seasons, including once in each of the last three years. The Bucs’ four-game losing streak in the series is their longest active one against any NFC team; finding a way to break that 49ers stranglehold would further cement the Buccaneers’ case for prime contender status in the conference.

Mac Jones or Brock Purdy? – Brock Purdy, the 49ers’ starting quarterback since late in his 2022 rookie season, missed the 49ers’ games in Weeks Two and Three with a toe injury, then returned to start in Week Four but aggravated the injury and sat out again last Thursday against Arizona. As noted earlier, former Patriots first-round pick Mac Jones, who signed with the 49ers as an unrestricted free agent after one season in Jacksonville, has stepped in for Purdy and kept the team’s number-one ranked passing attack humming. The 49ers held a “bonus” practice on Monday after their mini-bye over the weekend, but Purdy was not on the field during the portion open to the media. Purdy would surely love to come back for this weekend’s game if he can, as he’s had some enjoyable experiences against the Buccaneers. He won his first career start against Tampa Bay in 2022 and is currently 3-0 against them with seven touchdown passes, no interceptions and a 137.8 passer rating. Jones has only made one career start against the Bucs, and it was a loss in his rookie season, but he played well in what was a very tight contest. In his three starts this season, he has thrown for 905 yards, six touchdowns, one interception and a 99.1 passer rating. Of course, it likely won’t matter which quarterback starts on Sunday if the Buccaneers are unable to apply pressure on him after failing to sack Seattle’s Sam Darnold once in Week Five. Both Purdy and Jones are fully capable of carving up an opposing defense if they consistently have time to throw.

Does the Drama Continue? – Each of the Buccaneers’ first five games has been decided by a single score, and the team is 4-1 despite having scored just three more points than their opponents (135-132). As mentioned earlier, all four of their wins have come on last-minute scores, and they had a legitimate shot to complete a big comeback in their 31-25 loss to Philadelphia. Can that sort of late-game drama continue in Week Six? As Mayfield said following the walk-off win Seattle, “[A]s long as we have time on the clock, we’ve got a chance, and our guys truly, truly believe that from the bottom of our hearts.” To double down on the theme, all five of San Francisco’s games so far have been decided by five or fewer points and the are only plus-eight in scoring differential, as well. The Niners scored on a walk-off field goal in Week Three to beat the Cardinals, scored the game-winning points in Seattle with 90 seconds left in Week One and went to overtime with the Rams last Thursday. There’s a good chance these two teams will take Sunday’s game down to the wire.

The Biggest Takeaway – The Buccaneers have only committed a turnover in one of their five games so far this season, and it is no coincidence that that was also their only loss. The Bucs had a negative-two turnover differential in their five-point loss to Philadelphia but were plus-two against both Houston and Seattle, which proved to be the difference in the outcome. Most recently, a fumble recovery led to a touchdown drive in Seattle and Lavonte David’s interception led directly to the game-winning field goal. The Bucs two giveaways on the season are tied for the second-lowest total of the season. The surprise counterpart to this is that San Francisco’s defense is one of only two in the league that is yet to secure an interception, though they are tied for the NFL lead with five opponent fumble recoveries. As coaches are fond of saying, turnovers often seem to come in bunches, so the Buccaneers will be trying to make sure the 49ers don’t flip the takeaway switch this weekend. If this is game is as tight as the previous note suggests it will be, turnovers could very well be the deciding factor.