Three Keys to the Game for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at the Detroit Lions

Here are three things the Bucs must do against the Lions to win on Saturday.

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-5) travel Saturday to face the Detroit Lions (5-9) and can clinch the franchise's first spot in the playoffs since 2007 with a win.

The Lions have lost two in a row and four of their last five games sitting in fourth place in the NFC North. As for the Bucs, Tampa Bay is looking to extend its two-game win streak before returning home to face the Atlanta Falcons on Jan. 3 in the regular-season finale.

Saturday's game will be a battle of two pass-heavy offenses between Bucs' quarterback Tom Brady and Lions' quarterback Matthew Stafford. For Brady, it will be his 300th career regular-season game as he aims to throw two or more touchdowns for a sixth straight game. Stafford has been efficient this season for the Lions and needs 226 pass yards for his 8th-career 4,000-yard season. 

Detriot's passing offense ranks 6th best in the league averaging 282.3 yards per game, just two spots higher than the Bucs, who average 277.6 yards. The main difference between these two teams is their defenses. Detriot's total defense ranks two spots out of last place in the NFL, while Tampa Bay's 6th best leaguewide.

Of course, there's much more to know about these two teams ahead of Saturday's game. So with that in mind, here are three things the Buccaneers must do if they want to head home with a win:

1. The Bucs must score early and often

Brady and the Bucs haven't scored any points in the first quarter in a number of weeks and while this is possible to do against bad teams and still win, Tampa Bay really needs to figure out the first quarter ahead of the postseason.

The slow start to games is one of the more confusing things about this team. When the Bucs perform how they did in the third quarter last week against the Atlanta Falcons scoring three times, the team looks unstoppable. Offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich called Tampa Bay a "very confident team," regardless of the recent struggle early in games.

"These guys stay confident in every situation," Leftwich said. "The game of football tries to eat at that sometimes, but this is a confident group of guys. It wasn’t a confidence thing. It was more a matter of fact, ‘Hey man, let’s go and get the job done.’ This group together has had a few opportunities throughout this year to respond in that way."

The Bucs overcame a 17-point deficit and escaped Atlanta 31-27 last week and Leftwich explained that the situation wasn't new for this team. And he's right, Tampa Bay has won four games where they've trailed by at least 10 points.

"We’re trying to win football games – they understand the game is four quarters," Leftwich said. "As much as we want to start off fast, that didn’t happen again this week, but we did what we had to do to win the football game, which is ultimately the ultimate goal.”

Leftwich said the Buc are doing "everything" they can do to avoid another slow start against the Lions.

"We’re not going to assume that if we’re in the game, we’re going to start slow," Leftwich said. "We’re not assuming [that]. We can’t tell what’s going to happen in the future. All we can do is prepare each day to try to fix that issue. I believe in these guys [and] I believe in the coaching staff that we will get that fixed. When will it happen? Hopefully, it happens when we need it to happen."

2. Tampa Bay has to return to running the ball.

Yes, the Bucs were without starting running back Ronald Jones II against the Falcons, but there are still very capable running backs in Tampa Bay in Leonard Fournette and Ke'Shawn Vaughn.

“I think our backs did well," Leftwich said. "I think there are some things we have to correct as a group, but I think they did well. I think just the way the game went, there weren’t a lot of opportunities from an attempt standpoint."

Fournette carried the ball 14 times for 49 yards and two touchdowns. As for Vaughn, he only ran it twice for four yards.

It's not clear if Jones will be available Saturday as he remains on the Reserve/COVID-19 list and continues to recover from a finger injury.

"‘Ro’ (Jones) is going to be doubtful – getting through the COVID and not having any practice with the finger," Bucs' head coach Bruce Arians said Tuesday. "We still haven’t been able to see him with the finger, so we’ll have to wait and see on that one."

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If Jones isn't cleared for the game, Fournette is expected to serve as the starting back with Vaughn as the backup. Leftwich said he wants to see the Bucs not only run the ball more but be more efficient doing so.

"[I’m] not saying that we weren’t efficient in the ballgame, but sometimes the way football games go, you don’t really have a lot of attempts," Leftwich said about last week's game. "Sometimes football games happen in ways where you just don’t have enough attempts. We had to do what we had to do to win the game. Our ultimate goal is trying to find a way to do what we can to win the football game."

3. The Bucs can't allow big plays early on defense against the Lions.

In the first half against Atlanta, the Bucs allowed eight plays of 10 yards or more, including back-to-back plays of 23 and 27 yards in the first quarter. 

Defensive coordinator Todd Bowles explained why this happened and what changed in the second half vs. the Falcons.

“The biggest thing in the first half – especially the first drive – is we didn’t get off the field on third downs," Bowles said. "We missed a couple [of] tackles there and let the flat out of there, by getting too nosey going somewhere else. We corrected that at halftime and then we came out with a different mentality.”

Bowles said the adjustments made by the Bucs on defense were made both at halftime and on the sidelines. 

"It was [more] of us keeping our composure, understanding the things we did wrong, and bringing out the energy in the second half more than anything else," Bowles said. "We switched up a few things here and there, but for the most part it was just us focusing on the mistakes we made in the first half and clamping down on those things."

This week the Bucs will look to contain Stafford and the Lions' top passing offense. Detriot has lost nine games this season, but Bowles said focusing on just the team's poor record could be dangerous.

"We’re not looking past this game at all," Bowles said. "Obviously, if you saw the Jets [versus] the Rams and the Steelers [versus] the Bengals, you know better. If you don’t show up on Sunday, you’re going to get your butt kicked regardless of who you’re playing in this league. We know they have a lot of talent on that team and we’ve got to worry about us and take care of us."