The Tampa Bay Buccaneers won their Wild Card game with the Washington Football Team, 31-23, on Saturday night and one step closer to the ultimate goal of playing in Super Bowl LV in their own home of Raymond James Stadium. With the Los Angeles Rams also winning Sunday, the Buccaneers could actually be back on their home field sooner than expected.
The Buccaneers, who finished fifth in the seven-team NFC playoffs, eliminated the fourth-seeded Saturday night. Meanwhile, the sixth-seeded Rams defeated the third-seeded Seattle Seahawks, 30-20, earlier Saturday night. That leaves only one game left in the NFC Wild Card round, as the Chicago Bears play Sunday afternoon in the New Orleans Saints. The kickoff is scheduled for 4:40 p.m. ET.
This is the match between the seventh and second seed, and the outcome will determine whether the Buccaneers’ Divisional game takes place in New Orleans or Tampa Bay. The latter would be an unprecedented result in NFL playoff history.
If the favorite Saints win Sunday, it will make the Rams the lowest remaining bat in the NFC and send them to Lambeau Field in the next round to play the Packers, who selected the first event of the conference as the best. The Buccaneers would then return to the Superdome to face the Saints for the third time this season.
If the Bears upset the Saints in the Superdome and complete a sweep by the NFC Wild Card teams, the Bucs will, surprisingly, come home for the Division Round. They play host to the sixth seeded Rams, while the seventh seeded Bear prefers to go to Green Bay. This is how the Buccaneers would make league history.
Under the previous NFL playoff format, with two teams in each conference receiving a first round of bees, it was not possible for a fifth or sixth seed to play a home game in the Division I Division playoffs. The only way a fifth seed could host a playoff game would be if the two Wild Card teams each won in the first two rounds, and a home game in the conference championship for the fifth seed against the sixth seed. would set up. This has never happened before. The Arizona Cardinals in 2008 were the lowest team ever to host a playoff game. Arizona, the NFC West champion, finished fourth, winning a home game in the opening round and a division game on the road before hosting the NFC. Championship game against the sixth seeded Philadelphia Eagles. Arizona won that game to advance to Super Bowl XLIII, which happened to be played at Raymond James Stadium.
Both results Sunday will set up a second chance for the Buccaneers and a chance for revenge on a bigger stage. A trip to New Orleans would be another game between the two top teams in the NFC South, as the Saints won the division with a 12-4 record and the Buccaneers were 11-5 behind. However, two of the five defeats in Tampa Bay were at the hands of the Saints, who won in the first week in New Orleans, 34-23, and in Week Nine, 38-3, again in Tampa. The Buccaneers and Saints have never met in the post-season before.
A home game against the Rams would not only be a rematch with LA’s 27-24 win at Raymond James Stadium in Week 11, it would also be the third time the two teams have met in the playoffs. The previous two were both championship games, with the Rams winning 9-0 in Tampa in 1979 and in St. Louis. Louis in 2002, 11-6. This last game was a famous game between the Buccaneers ‘extreme defense and the Rams’ Greatest Show on Turf attack, and Tampa Bay led 6-5 until late in the fourth quarter.