After keeping themselves in the fight with a dominant 43-13 victory over the NFC South-leading Panthers on the road this past Sunday, the 2-5 Bucs now have their attention on another big-time divisional game this Sunday. This time, they’ll be back home at Raymond James Stadium to host the 3-4 Falcons in a critical Week 8 matchup.

At 1-5, it felt like Tampa Bay was on the brink of a completely lost season after only six weeks. But because the NFC South is the worst division in football and the Bucs had yet to play even one of their six games against the Panthers, Falcons and Saints, Week 7 presented them with a massive fork in the road that is their 2026 season.

With back-to-back games against teams within their division, Todd Bowles and Co. still had a little bit of life. Everything was right in front of them heading into Carolina, and a 30-point victory in that game gave them a lifeline in the race for the division title with plenty of football left to be played.

Now, there’s another big divisional game at home. A loss to the second-place Falcons at home this Sunday would do a good bit of damage to the lifeline they created for themselves, as it would drop them to 2-6 and 1-1 in the division. Meanwhile, the Falcons would jump to 4-4 and 2-1 in the division. Not only that, but Tampa Bay would fall to an embarrassing 0-5 at home this season.

Bucs HC Todd Bowles – Photo by: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

On the flip side, a Buccaneers win would put the team at 3-5 and 2-0 against the NFC South. That, ridiculously enough, would put them into second place and within striking distance of the Panthers. In fact, if Carolina loses at Green Bay on Thursday Night Football, a win for Tampa Bay would mean only a half-game deficit for first place.

So, this Sunday’s game is about as big of a 2-5 vs. 3-4 matchup as you’ll find, isn’t it? The Bucs need to keep things rolling and secure back-to-back wins for the first time since Weeks 5 and 6 of last season while also earning their first home victory of the year ahead of a daunting Week 9 primetime game in Chicago. Can they do it?

Before we dive deeper into a more comprehensive look at this matchup on Friday, here’s a general preview of this Sunday’s NFC South showdown at Ray Jay:

The Last Time…

These two teams last met in Week 15 of the 2025 season in a Thursday Night Football contest that Buccaneers fans would rather forget.

Falcons tight end Kyle Pitts caught three touchdowns, the Bucs blew a 14-point fourth-quarter lead thanks in part to that 3rd & 28 debacle and the eventual loss – along with some others down the stretch – wound up costing them their four-year reign atop the NFC South.

There’s no need to rehash that game any more than we just did, really.

The Falcons have a 33-32 advantage in the all-time series with the Bucs. The two teams split their meetings with each other in 2022, 2023 and 2025, with Atlanta sweeping the two games in 2024. Tampa Bay hasn’t swept Atlanta since the 2021 season.

How The Bucs And Falcons Are Trending

The Bucs had some positive momentum after beating the Cowboys on Thursday Night Football in Week 5, but they quickly squandered that by coming back home and losing to the Steelers in Week 6. Now, after a 30-point victory that saw them dominate the Panthers in all three phases in Charlotte, they’ll once again come back to Raymond James Stadium and attempt to actually build off what they did on the road. Tampa Bay would still be two games under .500 with a win, but 3-5 would feel a whole lot different than 1-5 did.

Bucs RB Bucky Irving – Photo by: IMAGN Images via Reuters Connect

A big part of the Bucs’ success in their two wins has been their ability to run the football. Bucky Irving has looked like the guy he was as a 1,000-yard rusher in his 2024 rookie season thus far in 2026, having posted 558 yards and four touchdowns on 120 carries (4.7 avg.) through seven games. In Tampa Bay’s win at Dallas, he ran for 165 yards and a touchdown. In last week’s win over Carolina, he ran for 106 yards and two scores.

Irving has been the key for this Buccaneers offense, which also got Kenny Gainwell‘s best game in red, white and pewter last week as he rushed 14 times for 88 yards, averaging a healthy 6.3 yards per carry. In fact, led by Irving, Tampa Bay has the league’s No. 3 rushing offense right now.

The Bucs’ passing offense, though? It’s the league’s worst. Baker Mayfield threw for 216, 182 and 217 yards over the first three games of the season, respectively, and Jalon Daniels followed up with 148, 189 and 164 yards over his three starts in Mayfield’s absence. Then, Mayfield threw for just 64 yards in last week’s win. Granted, he only attempted 11 passes as the Bucs ran wild on the Panthers, but the passing attack is a massive problem at worst and a giant question mark at best. We haven’t seen this Zac Robinson offense beat a team by throwing the football, and until we see that, it’s fair to question whether it’s even a possibility.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

On the other side of the ball, the Bucs defense is playing the best that it has in years. Even early on in the season when the team started 0-4, the defense was largely doing its part. The secondary has been a welcome surprise, with Zyon McCollum and Jacob Parrish both playing at Pro Bowl/All-Pro levels, Tykee Smith remaining as steady as ever and rookie Keionte Scott stepping in nicely at the nickel position right from the jump. Rookie inside linebacker Josiah Trotter hit the ground running right away as well.

It took the pass rush a little bit to get going, but Tampa Bay has finally been getting after the quarterback over the last two weeks. After racking up only six sacks in the first five games, the Bucs have 10 over the last two. They got to Aaron Rodgers five times in Week 6 and took Bryce Young down five times in Week 7.

David Walker leads the team with four, while Yaya Diaby broke out of a slump with three sacks last week alone to get right back in the race for the team lead. It’s really been a group effort as of late, and Todd Bowles would love to see that continue in Week 8 against the Falcons.

Speaking of the Falcons, they sit at 3-4 so far and have been a mixed bag in their first seven games under new head coach Kevin Stefanski, who previously went 45-56 over six seasons as the Browns’ head coach. It was a mess of a start to the year for Atlanta, as starting quarterback Michael Penix Jr. and veteran backup Tua Tagovailoa were both sidelined to begin the year. That left Stefanski to roll with a combination of Jack Strand and Cooper Rush to begin the year, which went about as you might expect. The Falcons lost 20-13 to the Steelers in Week 1 and fell 34-3 to the Panthers in Week 2.

However, Penix returned to action in Week 3 against the Packers on Thursday Night Football and lit it up, leading Atlanta to a 35-14 statement win at Lambeau Field. The next week, the Falcons blew out the Saints by a score of 45-24, getting to 2-2 on the year. But what followed were two more losses, a winnable 30-23 overtime game against the Ravens and a 31-23 loss to the Bears. But after sinking to 2-4, Stefanski’s club bounced right back with another statement win, this time a 29-20 victory over the previously undefeated 49ers.

Falcons QB Michael Penix Jr. – Photo by: IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Penix has played well since his return to action, completing 66.7% of his passes for 1,157 yards and nine touchdowns to one interception while leading the Falcons to a 3-2 record in his five starts. It certainly helps that he still has an elite running back next to him in Bijan Robinson, who has 704 yards and four touchdowns on the ground this year while averaging 5.4 yards per carry. He also has 25 catches for 203 yards (8.1 avg.) and another touchdown as a receiver. Plus, out wide, Drake London is off to a good start with 38 catches for 616 yards (16.2 avg.) and a touchdown.

Defensively, the Falcons have struggled to overcome the injury to 2025 first-round edge rusher Jalon Walker and the suspension of fellow 2025 first-round edge rusher James Pearce Jr., who is eligible for reinstatement following Sunday’s game. With that said, 34-year-old Za’Darius Smith has picked up some of the slack with a team-high 4.5 sacks and 6.5 total tackles for loss.

Plus, safety Jessie Bates III continues to make plays every week. Coming off a game against the 49ers that saw him record an interception and a forced fumble, he now has four passes defensed, two forced fumbles and a fumble recovery to go with his 40 tackles.

Overall, the Falcons are an interesting team, as it doesn’t seem clear just yet exactly what they are. Not much was expected of this Atlanta team prior to the season, as it looked like the least talented squad in the NFC South. The Bucs, Panthers and Saints were all more popular picks to win the division, yet the Falcons are right there in the mix as they pretty much have been year in and year out (granted, without being real contenders and finishing the job because they’re the Falcons).

Falcons FS Jessie Bates III – Photo by: USA Today

And since Penix’s return, Atlanta has often looked dangerous, beating Green Bay, New Orleans and San Francisco while hanging right with two very good teams in Baltimore and Chicago. We’ll see this Sunday whether Stefanski and Co. can truly separate themselves from Tampa Bay the way they did with New Orleans a few weeks ago.

Here’s how the two teams stack up with the rest of the league leading into Week 8:

Bucs Offense: T-17th in scoring offense (23.1 PPG), 26th in total offense (296.9 yards per game), 32nd in passing offense (150.4 yards per game), 3rd in rushing offense (146.4 yards per game)

Falcons Offense: 10th in scoring offense (24.4 PPG), 17th in total offense (337.3 yards per game), 23rd in passing offense (197.4 yards per game), 6th in rushing offense (139.9 yards per game)

Bucs Defense: 14th in scoring defense (21.6 points allowed per game), 3rd in total defense (294.7 yards allowed per game), 14th in passing defense (217.4 yards allowed per game), 2nd in run defense (77.3 yards allowed per game)

Falcons Defense: 20th in scoring defense (24.7 points allowed per game), 19th in total defense (344.4 yards allowed per game), 29th in passing defense (255.6 yards allowed per game), 4th in run defense (88.9 yards allowed per game)

As of Wednesday night, the Bucs are 2.5-point home favorites over the Falcons, with the Over/Under set at 45 (per Hard Rock Bet).

Bucs vs. Falcons Game Information

When: Sunday, November 1
Where: Raymond James Stadium Stadium (Tampa, FL)
Kickoff: 1:00 p.m. ET
TV: FOX – Mark Followill (Play by Play), Daryl Johnston (Analyst), Allison Williams (Reporter)
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Tony Castricone (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), Jay Recher (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Martín Gramática, Santiago Gramática