ASHBURN, Va. (AP) \u2014 Todd Bowles as a defensive coach does not want to see the\u00a0wild-card playoff game between his Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Washington Commanders\u00a0turn into a high-scoring shootout. His quarterback wouldn\u2019t mind.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay\u00a0won six of seven\u00a0down the stretch to\u00a0finish atop the NFC South, while Washington won five in a row to\u00a0get the conference\u2019s sixth seed at 12-5
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The teams meet in a Sunday night playoff game at Raymond James Stadium
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The Bucs won an earlier matchup between the teams, 37-20<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you come out on the right side of it, yeah,\u201d Baker Mayfield said.<\/p>\n
The points could come fast and furious when Mayfield and the Buccaneers host\u00a0standout rookie QB Jayden Daniels\u00a0and the Commanders on Sunday night in a matchup of two of the NFL\u2019s top-five scoring offenses. Tampa Bay\u00a0won six of seven\u00a0down the stretch to\u00a0finish atop the NFC South, Washington won five in a row to\u00a0get the conference\u2019s sixth seed at 12-5\u00a0and these teams are facing off again a little more than four months since meeting to open the regular season.<\/p>\n
The Bucs won that game\u00a037-20. They\u2019re 3-point favorites now, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, and competitors on either side acknowledge much has changed since Week 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a full-circle moment,\u201d Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. \u201cYou don\u2019t usually get to play somebody at the start of a season, then the start of a second season. They absolutely got the best of us on that day, and so it\u2019s a good measuring stick to see how much we\u2019ve improved. They\u2019re an excellent team and clearly on that day showed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tampa Bay (10-7) is in the playoffs for a fifth consecutive year, a streak that started with Tom Brady beginning\u00a0his march to his seventh Super Bowl title by winning\u00a0at Washington. Nearly everything has changed with these organizations since that Jan. 9, 2021, game, including that the home team was a full year away\u00a0from being renamed\u00a0the Commanders.<\/p>\n
Mayfield is in his second season running the Buccaneers\u2019 offense, which averaged nearly 32 points a game during the 6-1 run since the bye week to take the team from 4-6 to division champions again. Most of the celebration last week centered on\u00a0Mike Evans reaching 1,000 yards for an 11th consecutive season\u00a0to tie Jerry Rice\u2019s record and trigger a $3 million contract bonus, not clinching a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
\u201c(We are) happy we won the division obviously, but that\u2019s not like, \u2018OK, we won the division,\u2019\u201d rookie center Graham Barton said. \u201cNow it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s, \u2018Now we\u2019re in the playoffs,\u2019 and so we have to win each and every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Bucs win, they would play at Philadelphia if the Eagles beat Green Bay or host the Los Angeles Rams or Minnesota if the Packers win.<\/p>\n
The Commanders could go to Detroit, LA or Minnesota if they get past Tampa Bay, but with Daniels set for his NFL playoff debut at\u00a0the site of his first professional game, the focus is one game at a time after he and Quinn helped Washington turn things around from going 4-13 last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people are going to put a lot of emphasis on it because at this point it\u2019s really win or go home,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cAt the end of the day, you got to go out there and play ball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Evans vs. Lattimore<\/p>\n
The rivalry between Evans and cornerback Marshon Lattimore was front and center whenever the Buccaneers played the New Orleans Saints since 2017, including a playoff matchup four years ago. It\u2019s adding another chapter Sunday night now that Lattimore is with Washington and on track to play after missing time with a hamstring injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely matchups all over the field that make a difference in winning and losing,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cThese are two elite competitors, and it\u2019s honestly what makes coaching so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rookies in the spotlight<\/p>\n
Daniels is a shoo-in to be AP Offensive Rookie of the year, but he\u2019s not the only first-year player to watch in this game. Irving, Barton, receiver Jalen McMillan, safety Tykee Smith and reserve linebacker Chris Braswell\u00a0have played big roles\u00a0in Tampa Bay\u2019s success.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like our draft class,\u201d Bowles said. \u201cI think they play very well. … Just have to keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniels has focused on getting better each game, and that has worked. Before being pulled at halftime of the regular-season finale against Dallas with leg soreness that\u00a0he and Quinn brushed off\u00a0as no cause for concern, Daniels finished the season completing 72% of his passes for 955 yards, 13 touchdowns and four interceptions, and the Commanders haven\u2019t lost since Nov. 24.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can do it all, honestly,\u201d Tampa Bay linebacker Yaya Diaby said. \u201cHe can throw the ball the right way, get active with his feet, so he does it all. For us, we just have to go in with a great game plan, and I feel like I know we will.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASHBURN, Va. (AP) \u2014 Todd Bowles as a defensive coach does not want to see the\u00a0wild-card playoff game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180665,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2077],"tags":[12606,1613,2910,211,380,7,88,6,10738,9,209,704,250,15556,2597,2596,1004],"class_list":{"0":"post-185116","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa-bay-buccaneers","8":"tag-app-professional-sports","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-associated-press","11":"tag-buccaneers","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-orlando","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-tampa","19":"tag-tampa-bay","20":"tag-tampa-bay-buccaneers","21":"tag-tampa-bay-bucs","22":"tag-tampabay","23":"tag-tampabaybuccaneers","24":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114804609806662594","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}