The Tampa Bay Buccaneerss have to face Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers this Sunday at historic Lambeau Field, where it will be freezing cold and possibly even snowing. Not that it would make any difference for TB12, but for the rest of the Bucs who play in the sunshine of Tampa for most of the year, the conditions will be quite the change.
Since it has been more than a decade since the Bucs have made the playoffs, they usually don’t have to play in the frigid weather that comes around every December and January. But now? They have to face a formidable opponent, playing its best football at the perfect time.
The Packers are not the playoff Saints. They’re an actual football team. They have the likely MVP at quarterback, an elite offensive line, and a touchdown machine at wideout in Davante Adams. Green Bay has a defense that is really starting to play to its talent level, with some fantastic pass rushers coming off the edge like Za’Darius Smith, 2019 first-round pick Rashan Gary, and lockdown corner in Jaire Alexander. The Bucs will have their work cut out for them.
Tampa Bay might be getting some help in the form of nose tackle Vita Vea, as he was activated off injured reserve and is now able to practice. His status for Sunday’s game is still up in the air, though, as the Bucs will have to see how close to full strength Vea can be by Sunday. Bucs Wide receiver Antonio Brown suffered a knee injury in the Saints game, and was listed as questionable for Sunday. Without Brown the Bucs will likely turn to Scotty Miller as a replacement, who at times has looked like the next great slot receiver to thrive catching passes from Brady (joining Wes Welker and Julian Edelman). Hopefully, if AB is unable to go, Miller can submit one of those weird clutch performances from a random guy that always seems to happen on Tom Brady Super Bowl teams.
Unfortunately I’m afraid this might be the end of the road for the Bucs’ season. It might take one of those strange calls from the officiating crew to go the Bucs’ way for them to pull it out. The Bucs may have dominated the Packers in the regular season, but this is a very different team they are facing. Davante Adams is healthy and looks like one of the best receivers in the NFL, and the defense is giving up just 16 points per game in the last 4 weeks.
Honestly, it just feels inevitable that the Packers are going to face off against the Chiefs at RayJay (my pick for the Super Bowl at the beginning of the playoffs, and my pick for the Super Bowl right now), with the two MVP candidates facing off and dueling in what will hopefully be a much more entertaining game than last year’s snooze fest. The Bucs will certainly put up a fight, but they will ultimately fall to the Packers 27-21. The Packers simply have too much momentum right now, and they seem like they’re firing on all cylinders.
I really hope I’m wrong and it’s a Bucs-Bills Super Bowl (I mean, how awesome would that be), but I get the feeling that I’m not. We’ll see.
UPDATED: 01/20/21 11:16 p.m. Updated to correctly state nose tackle Vita Vea's position.
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This article appears in Jan 14-20, 2021.