After dominating the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte in Week Seven, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have their second straight emphatic road win and their first victory within the NFC South division. What they do not have, surprisingly, is a win at home despite four previous attempts. With the Atlanta Falcons coming to town and the division race both wide open and, for the Bucs, tenuous, the team knows it is imperative to get that first victory in front of the home crowd. The 2-5 Buccaneers and 3-4 Falcons will meet on Sunday, November 1, at Raymond James Stadium, with kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET.
And to get that win, Head Coach Todd Bowles believes the team’s offense needs to create something akin to the unstoppable ground game it displayed in Charlotte, even if it doesn’t match that 258-yard output. The Bucs also had 241 yards on the ground in their Week Five win at Dallas and now have the NFL’s third-ranked rushing attack.
“I mean, I think that’s our calling card,” said Bowles. “We play a lot better when we run the ball very successfully, whether we’re home or on the road. We haven’t had much success at home, running the football or winning at home, but we’ve got to turn that around and win a home game.”
Atlanta is coming off its own impressive Week Seven victory, as it knocked off the previously-unbeaten San Francisco 49ers, 29-20, thanks in large part to its defense’s four takeaways, including ones on the 49ers’ last two drives. The Falcons also have a notable win on their docket against the Green Bay Packers in Week Three and have talent on all three levels on defense. The safety duo of Jessie Bates and Xavier Watts remains a team strength but the offseason additions of defensive tackles Gervon Dexter and Maason Smith next to the emerging Brandon Dorlus have added juice to the defensive front.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously, you know, you look at their safeties – Bates is a hell of a player, Watts, I think, is extremely good as well,” said quarterback Baker Mayfield. “Those guys are so instinctive. They disguise well. But yeah, what really jumps out on tape is their front. You know, they’re kind of rotating a lot of guys in. Obviously, [Jalon] Walker is done for the year [and James] Pierce isn’t back yet, but [with] who they have in there right now, they’re creating chaos, jetting off the ball, attack-front style. Like I said, they’re creating chaos, doing a lot of different movement, kind of keeping you on your toes, and they’re doing a good job of mixing up their pressures out of different fronts and different looks, so you can’t really get a bead on where it’s coming from. But yeah, they’re playing aggressive, running to the football, and, obviously, going back to the safeties, they’re punching at it. Since they run to the football, they’re able to recover a lot of these fumbles, too.”
Atlanta’s offense has produced the 10th most points in the league and has averaged 31.0 over its last five outings. After starting the season on the shelf due to last season’s knee injury, quarterback Michael Penix has returned to start those last five games and has transformed the offense while producing a 109.0 passer rating and throwing nine touchdowns against one interception.
“He can throw the ball,” said Bowles. He’s got great zip on the ball and great timing on the football – [a] strong arm. He can get out of the pocket. He runs a lot better than you think he can run. He’s really not giving the ball away. They’re doing a great job taking care of the football, which is going to be critical in this game. We’ve been getting [interceptions], but they’re a hard team to get them off of, and he’s playing winning football.”
Penix is in a dream situation for any quarterback with a trio of highly-drafted and highly-productive skill-position players in running back Bijan Robinson, wide receiver Drake London and tight end Kyle Pitts. Robinson leads the NFL with 907 yards from scrimmage, Longdon already has 616 receiving yards through seven games and is averaging 16.2 yards per catch and Pitts has scored four touchdowns in Atlanta’s last three games. Which one is the top priority for the Bucs’ defense? There isn’t necessarily a good answer.
“Tough question, and they all take top priority,” said Bowles after first letting out a laugh at the premise.
“I don’t think you can not plan for one. It takes 11 guys to be where they’re supposed to be, and we’ve got to make plays. They’ve got some superstars over there.”
Pitts doesn’t have outsized numbers on the season yet but that doesn’t matter to the Buccaneers, who have been on the receiving end of some of the tight end’s best outings. That includes last year’s game in Tampa in Week 15 in which Pitts caught 11 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns.
“He’s torched us pretty good the past few ballgames,” admitted Bowles. “We’ve got to do a better job. He’s a great athlete and he’s a great player, but we’ve got to do a better job defensively.”
The Bucs were flying high for 24 hours after their outstanding showing at Carolina, but they’ve turned the page and know they are facing a significant challenge and a golden opportunity in Week Eight with the Falcons coming to town. The focus: getting that first win at home.
“Very eager,” said Mayfield. “We talked about that this morning. We haven’t won a home game yet. It’s not just about that – obviously, this division game is extremely important, but [we] definitely need to get our mojo back at home.”
GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS
Atlanta Falcons (3-4) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-5)
Sunday, November 1, 1:00 p.m. ET
Raymond James Stadium (capacity: 65,844)
TV Broadcast Team: Mark Followill (play-by-play), Daryl Johnston (analyst), Allison Williams (reporter)
Radio: 98Rock (WXTB, 97.9 FM), Flagship Station
Radio Broadcast Team: Tony Castricone (play-by-play), Dave Moore (analyst), Jay Recher (reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente
Spanish Radio Broadcast Team: Martin Gramática, Santiago Gramática
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
Coming to the game or enjoying pregame festivities? Check out our Buccaneers Gameday Page for everything you need to know about getting ready for the game, Tailgate Packages, Bucs Beach and more!
The 2026 season is underway and there are a limited number of Single Game Tickets on sale now! Visit Buccaneers.com to purchase tickets.
ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES
In a series in which the all-time lead has frequently changed hands, the Buccaneers had a chance to regain it in Week 15 of last year but instead handed it back to Atlanta in perhaps their most frustrating games of the season. The Falcons’ comeback 29-28 victory put them up in the series 33-32 and eventually proved to be the game that cost them the division tiebreaker at the end of the year.
In that game, the Bucs took a 28-14 lead early in the fourth quarter on touchdowns from Chris Godwin, Sean Tucker and Devin Culp but Atlanta scored three times in the final 9:37. After pulling within two on touchdowns by Bijan Robinson and Kyle Pitts, Atlanta faced a third-and-28 at their own 29 after a sack by Haason Reddick, which forced a fumble that the Falcons were able to recover. Kirk Cousins completed passes of 14 and 28 yards to keep the drive alive and the Falcons eventually won on a 43-yard Zane Gonzalez field goal as time expired.
The Bucs once again could regain the series lead in 2026 with a two- game sweep, and if they do so, it would mark the 10th time that the lead in the series has changed hands. With a 23-20 win in Atlanta in last year’s season opener, the Buccaneers had tied things up, 32-32. Baker Mayfield threw three touchdown passes in the Bucs’ comeback victory, including the 25-yard game-winner to rookie Emeka Egbuka with less than a minute to play.
Atlanta engineered the ninth lead change in the series by sweeping both games in 2024. The Falcons first tied the series up in Week Five with a 36-30 overtime win in Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The game was tied four different times, the last when Cousins was able to spike the ball with one second left in regulation to set up Younghoe Koo’s 52-yard field goal. Atlanta got the ball first in overtime and won on a 45-yard catch-and-run by KhaDarel Hodge. Cousins threw for 509 yards and four touchdowns. Just three weeks later, the two teams met again in Tampa and this one also came down to the wire. After Mayfield hit Cade Otton on a four-yard touchdown pass with seven minutes to play, the home team still trailed, 31-26. Atlanta was able to burn six minutes off the clock with their final possession and the Bucs could advance only to the Atlanta 33 before one last crack at the end zone was incomplete.
In 2023, the Falcons initially tied the series up at 30-30 with a 16-13 win at Raymond James Stadium, but the Bucs took the lead back later in the season with a 29-25 victory in Atlanta. The first of those games was also tied three times, at 7-7, 10-10 and 13-13, before Koo won it at the buzzer with a 51-yard field goal. Mike Evans scored the Bucs’ only touchdown on a 40-yard catch, and safety Antoine Winfield Jr. kept his team alive in the fourth quarter with a remarkable forced fumble at the goal line against quarterback Desmond Ridder. In the rematch, Ridder put the Falcons ahead, 25-22, with three minutes left on a six-yard touchdown keeper but Mayfield was able to counter that with a 12-play, 75-yard drive ending in his 11-yard touchdown pass to Otton. Overall, the Buccaneers have won six of the last 11 meetings in the series but Atlanta has won four of the last five.
Since the Bucs and Falcons became fellow NFC South denizens in 2002, the Bucs and Falcons have a series tie, 23-22. The Bucs’ longest winning streak in the series is six, between 1997 and 2003; the Falcons have won five in a row on two occasions, first from 2008-10 and again from 2016-18.
The Falcons won the 2022 regular-season finale, a contest in which the Buccaneers, having already been locked into the fourth seed in the NFC playoff field, rested many of their starters and pulled most of the rest early in the contest. Ridder, in just his fourth career start, threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns and Atlanta’s defense held the Bucs to 222 total yards of offense.
Earlier in the 2022 season, the Buccaneers held on to a 21-15 victory despite a late Atlanta comeback. Tampa Bay controlled the action for three quarters and used two Leonard Fournette touchdowns to take a 21-0 lead into the final period before Atlanta stormed back with two touchdowns. After an Olamide Zaccheaus touchdown catch made it a one-score game, the Bucs’ offense was able to drain the final 4:38 from the clock with one long drive.
The Bucs’ two wins in 2021 were both by double-digit margins. In Week at Raymond James Stadium, the Buccaneers got five touchdown passes from Tom Brady, including two each to Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski – plus Mike Edwards’ two fourth-quarter pick-sixes as an exclamation in a 48-25 victory. In the rematch in in Atlanta, Godwin set a team single-game record with 15 catches and Gronkowski once again found the end zone twice in Tampa Bay’s 13-point win. Russell Gage, who is now a Buccaneer, caught 11 passes for 130 yards for the Falcons.
Prior to briefly retaking the series lead in 2021, the Buccaneers had been on top with a 24-22 advantage midway through the 2016 season before Atlanta reeled off five straight victories in a streak that included sweeps in 2017 and 2018. Tampa Bay has the all-time edge in scoring in the series, with 1,510 points to the Falcons’ 1,443.
In their run to the Super Bowl championship in 2020, the Buccaneers won eight straight spanning the regular season and the postseason, and they downed the Falcons twice in the final three weeks of the regular season, scoring a total of 75 points. Tampa Bay won, 31-27, at Atlanta in Week 15 and then took the rematch in Tampa by a 44-27 margin. The first win required a wild comeback after the Falcons raced out to a 17-0 halftime lead, with Tom Brady throwing for 330 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. The second game at Raymond James Stadium was less stressful, as the Buccaneers led from wire to wire, but included another huge day by Brady, who threw for 399 yards and four touchdowns.
The Buccaneers came close to taking both halves of the series in 2019, winning by a 35-22 score in Atlanta and taking a 22-16 lead into the fourth quarter in the Week 17 rematch in Tampa. However, Matt Ryan led a game-tying drive in the final three minutes of that contest, leading to Koo’s 33-yard field goal as time expired in regulation. The Buccaneers won the overtime coin toss but lost the game on the first play of the extra period, as Jameis Winston’s last pass for Tampa Bay was picked off and returned 27 yards for a touchdown by Deion Jones.
Both of the games in 2018 went down to the wire, neither ending well for the Buccaneers. In Week Six in Atlanta, Tampa Bay rallied from a 15-point deficit to make it a 31-29 game with four minutes to play on Peyton Barber’s five-yard touchdown catch. The Falcons then tacked on a field goal to make it a five-point game with just over a minute to play but Winston got the visitors back into scoring range with consecutive completions of 18, 18 and 19 yards to DeSean Jackson, Evans and Adam Humphries. With seven seconds left and the ball at Atlanta’s 21, the Bucs tried a tricky play in which Winston began to scramble up the middle and then suddenly attempted a lateral to Humphries. The ball ended up on the turf before Evans scooped it up and got a one-hopper off to Jackson, who appeared to have a path to the end zone pylon along the left sideline. However, Jackson couldn’t haul it in and time expired on a 34-29 Falcons victory.
In the Week 17 rematch, at Raymond James Stadium, the Bucs gave up a 10-point halftime lead and fell behind by 11 in the fourth quarter before once again rallying, this time taking the lead with five minutes to play on a 19-yard Godwin touchdown catch. That was too much time to leave Ryan, however, and he hit Jones on a pair of 16-yard passes to get the ball into field goal range. Matt Bryant won it as time expired with a 37-yarder.
