The Buccaneers spent last week preparing to play a team that beat them in the regular season and the work they did to get ready for the Eagles paid off for them.
A 32-9 win on Monday night sent them into the divisional round of the playoffs and set them up for another game against a team that they ran into months ago. The Lions beat the Bucs 20-6 behind 353 yards and two touchdowns from quarterback Jared Goff, but Bowles’ message on Tuesday was similar to the one that he shared heading into the Eagles game.
Bowles said it’s a different game and he feels that the Bucs are a better team for having gone through that loss and the other twists of a long season.
“We were where we were at that time of the year,” Bowles said, via Rick Stroud of the Tampa Bay Times. “I don’t wish we would’ve done anything different or we wouldn’t have learned from it. They’re a very good team. They’re coached very well. Very fast, very physical. An electric crowd is going to be up there. Wish we hadn’t done anything different, but we’ve got to learn from it. Any of our losses, for that matter. We’re a different team now. We’re mentally tougher. I think we’ve gotten stronger from it, and we learned some things. We’re still piecing it together, but we’re happy where we’re at.”
The Bucs’ rematch with the Eagles looked nothing like Philly’s 25-11 regular season win, which explains why the Bucs wouldn’t feel like the past is predictive of the future. The Eagles came to Tampa during a total collapse, however, and the Lions are riding high at home off of their first playoff win, so the picture is different this week in many ways.