The Buccaneers will enter the Mercedes-Benz Superdome this Sunday as 11 point underdogs. Combine that with the fact they’re playing a divisional rival – one that’s beaten them the last 7 of 8 times – and you realize what a rebounding victory in Week 2 could do for the team’s confidence.

“We’re right back on track with a win this week – it’s as simple as that,” head coach Lovie Smith said after practice Friday. “It’s early in the year. There are a lot of things we haven’t done (record of .500), but a chance to come back 1-1 and have the only division win, that would be big for us and we realize that.”

After watching the film of last Sunday’s dreadful opener, Smith said the good news was that all their mistakes – and there were a lot – were correctable moving forward. Now, after a full week of practice since the 42-14 loss, Smith believes it’s time to put their money where their mouth is Sunday.

“Confident, but we need to play the game – that’s the only way,” Smith said about finding out if mistakes are corrected. “Me saying what we’ve done and what we need to do doesn’t really matter an awful lot.

“Again, when you play like that you want another opportunity, another chance. We have that chance against a good opponent. And to get a win on the road would make us feel a lot better. We can have a short memory if we win this week.”

It’s still very early in the 2015 season, but if there’s such thing as a must-win Week 2 game, this has to be it.