After a fourth dramatic, come-from-behind win in five weeks, the Bucs return home to Raymond James Stadium Sunday afternoon for yet another big-time NFC showdown. This time, the 4-1 Bucs have the 4-1 49ers coming into town, with the winner set to gain some separation near the top of the conference while picking up what could be a crucial head-to-head victory when it comes to playoff seeding later this year.

For Todd Bowles and Tampa Bay, this game is as much about proving they’re a top contender in the NFC as it is finally getting over the hump and beating San Francisco. The 49ers beat Bowles, Tom Brady and the Bucs 35-7 in 2022, then beat Bowles, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs 27-14 in 2023. And after winning both of those games on the West Coast, the 49ers came to Tampa last year and won a third game in three years over Bowles and Co.

So now, it’s time for a bit of a revenge game from Tampa Bay, which will be looking for its sixth 5-1 start in franchise history after previously winning five of six to start the season in 1979, 1997, 2002, 2005 and 2021.

The Bucs would love to be 5-1 when they head to Detroit for a tough Monday Night Football matchup in Week 7, while the 49ers are looking to build on their big overtime win over the Rams on Thursday Night Football last week. With that Thursday night game, Kyle Shanahan’s team comes into this matchup in Tampa with a little bit of extra rest.

Before we dive further in our “What to Watch For” preview later this week, here’s a general preview of Sunday’s late-afternoon contest between the Bucs and 49ers at Ray Jay:

The Last Time…

As mentioned above, the Bucs have had their issues with the 49ers in recent years. Most recently, San Francisco visited Raymond James Stadium in Week 10 of the 2024 season and came away with a walk-off 23-20 win. That gave Tampa Bay its fourth straight loss at the time, dropping the team to 4-6 ahead of its bye week. And it was also a third straight loss to Kyle Shanahan and Co.

The Bucs were pretty banged up coming into that game, and it showed, particularly on offense. The 49ers led 10-3 at halftime and 13-10 going into the fourth quarter before it looked like the tide was about to turn between the two teams. Bucky Irving ran for a 12-yard touchdown early in the fourth to give Tampa Bay a 17-13 lead, and things continued to look good when Jake Moody missed a 50-yard field goal to keep it a four-point game.

But San Francisco came back with a touchdown on its next possession, with Brock Purdy hitting George Kittle for an 11-yard score to give the visitors a 20-17 lead. Another missed field goal by Moody later in the fourth from 44 yards out kept it a three-point deficit, which set Baker Mayfield and his offense up for a potential game-winning drive late.

Bucs QB Baker Mayfield – Photo by: USA Today

This was when Mayfield made what honestly might be one of the signature plays of his career to this point, as he rolled out on a do-or-die 4th & 7 with Nick Bosa in pursuit the whole way. But the whole way, Mayfield kept Bosa at an arm’s distance (literally) and created enough separation to get a throw off to Rachaad White for a first down. The drive would ultimately get all the way down to the 5-yard line, but unfortunately it stalled out there and the Bucs had to settle for a game-tying Chase McLaughlin field goal.

That left just enough time for Purdy and the 49er offense to get three quick first downs and set Moody up for redemption, as the struggling kicker nailed a 44-yard field goal as time expired to win the game 23-20.

The recent dominance for San Francisco over Tampa Bay isn’t anything new, really. All-time, the 49ers have a 21-7 advantage head-to-head. The Bucs haven’t beaten them since Nov. 25, 2018.

How The Bucs And 49ers Are Trending

The Bucs and 49ers have taken similar paths through the first five weeks, and that’s simply been finding ways to get the job done and win despite several key players on the injury report and even injured reserve. There’s been no shortage of adversity for either team, yet they both come into Sunday at 4-1 and leading their respective divisions.

Tampa Bay has continued to earn its place as the most fun team in the entire NFL, at least from a neutral viewer’s perspective. After all, this team only plays tight, down-to-the-wire, roller coaster-type games, which a neutral viewer has to love. If you’re a Bucs fan, however, you could probably go for a “boring” win at this point, huh? All five games thus far have been decided by one possession, with the team’s four wins coming by a combined nine points.

If there’s been one catalyst for the Bucs’ find-a-way mentality so far in 2025, it has to be Baker Mayfield. He is truly playing at an MVP level, with Tampa Bay’s franchise quarterback having completed 65.1% of his passes for 1,283 yards and 10 touchdowns to one interception through five games. He has, of course, engineered four game-winning drives in the final minute of the fourth quarter and he has done so behind what has largely been a banged-up offensive line and with Mike Evans, Chris Godwin Jr., Jalen McMillan and Bucky Irving all missing various degrees of time.

Bucs WR Emeka Egbuka Photo by: USA Today

Now, this is where rookie sensation Emeka Egbuka comes into play, too. Evans has missed the last two-plus games, Godwin missed the first three games and McMillan has yet to play this season. But Egbuka, the team’s 2025 first-round pick, has burst onto the scene and looked the part of a legitimate WR1 despite only being five games into his career. He has 25 catches on 38 targets for 445 yards (17.8 avg.) and five touchdowns. He is making history and shattering rookie records seemingly by the catch and while Mayfield might be in the MVP conversation, Egbuka has to be the early frontrunner for Offensive Rookie of the Year honors.

And while Mayfield and Egbuka have led the way for the Buccaneer offense under Josh Grizzard, there have been a host of unsung heroes for that side of the ball during this 4-1 start, too. Sterling Shepard has looked more like a WR2/WR3 than a WR5. Cade Otton has been selfless in the way he has stayed in to help Mayfield in pass protection, which cut into his target share until this past week. Graham Barton and Ben Bredeson played out of position for the first three weeks while the Bucs dealt with injuries along the line. And last week, Rachaad White stepped in for the injured Irving and scored two key touchdowns in the 38-35 win over Seattle.

Tampa Bay is still waiting for the day when it will have a fully healthy offense (minus Cody Mauch, who is out for the season). But for now, Grizzard, Mayfield, Egbuka and plenty of other contributors have stepped up to keep the offense going. After all, this is still an offense averaging 27 points per game after a 38-point outburst in Week 5.

On the other side of the ball, Todd Bowles‘ defense has largely been good and certainly improved over last year. That group has shut down the opposition for large stretches of games and on the whole, has looked more fundamentally and scheme sound this season. And that’s even without star defensive tackle Calijah Kancey, who suffered a season-ending pectoral injury in Week 2. The problem through the first four weeks, though, is that the Bucs still couldn’t take the ball away. They were getting stops, but they had just two takeaways, both of which came in Week 3 against the Jets.

Bucs head coach Todd Bowles – Photo by: USA Today

Well, things changed in Week 5 for better and worse. In terms of trending the wrong way, the Bucs looked the worst they have all season for much of the day on defense, letting Sam Darnold sit comfortably in the pocket and complete 28 of his 34 passes. They also looked uncharacteristically bad against the run, with the Seahawks averaging 6.1 yards per carry. But while the defense trended in the wrong direction overall, it did get two takeaways, with Tykee Smith recovering a fumble and Lavonte David coming up with a key interception late to help set up the game-winning field goal.

Now, it’s a matter of combining the scheme-sound play that they displayed early on in the season with those takeaways. Getting Jamel Dean and/or Benjamin Morrison back at cornerback would be a help, as would some more sack production out of Yaya Diaby and Haason Reddick.

Meanwhile, the 49ers have had to fight through their own injury issues to get to 4-1 and first place in the NFC West through five weeks. They started the season with a nice comeback victory over the Seahawks in Seattle, but they have since had to deal with several key absences. Starting quarterback Brock Purdy has been dealing with a toe injury and has played two of the team’s five games thus far. And when he has played, he hasn’t been the same Purdy, as he has four touchdowns to four interceptions in those two games.

The receiving corps has been impacted heavily by injuries, too. No. 1 wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk has yet to play this season, Jauan Jennings has missed two games and Ricky Pearsall has also missed one. The absence of tight end George Kittle, who is on injured reserve, has been another source of adversity both because of Kittle’s talent as well as what he means to the team itself. The defense hasn’t been immune to the injury issues either, with very few of the group’s top players playing all five games thus far. Plus, top pass rusher Nick Bosa is out for the season.

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. and 49ers RB Christian McCaffrey – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

So, how is this a 4-1 49ers team? Like the Bucs, they’ve had guys step up. There are the usual suspects like Christian McCaffrey, who hasn’t been as explosive on the ground but leads the team in receiving with 39 catches on 52 targets for 387 yards (9.9 avg.) and three touchdowns. On the defense, Fred Warner is still Fred Warner, while Bryce Huff has had to step up as the top pass rusher with Bosa out and has two sacks, three tackles for loss and a forced fumble.

There have also been some more unlikely heroes who have emerged for San Francisco, particularly on offense. Backup quarterback Mac Jones, once a Patriots first-round pick-turned-castoff-turned-Jaguars backup, is 3-0 as a starter this year. Give plenty of credit to head coach Kyle Shanahan, who can seemingly make things work with just about any quarterback. But also give credit to Jones, as he has played some really good football. Over three games, he has completed 66.7% of his passes for 905 yards and six touchdowns to just one interception. The problem is that he, too, is now on the injury report this week with both a knee and an oblique injury.

Another big contributor, especially with Kittle out, has been tight end Jake Tonges. His three receiving touchdowns tie him with McCaffrey for the team lead, and 12 of his 17 catches have gone for first downs this year. Pearsall, who has a knee injury himself, has been the top wide receiver this season in Aiyuk’s absence. The former Florida Gator has 20 catches on 29 targets for 327 yards (16.4 avg.), with 16 of his 20 catches going for first downs.

49ers WR Ricky Pearsall – Photo by: USA Today

The San Francisco defense has gotten help from the 2025 rookie class, with first-round pick Mykell Williams totaling three tackles for loss thus far, second-rounder Alfred Collins had a key forced fumble and fumble recovery in last week’s win and third-round corner Upton Stout has a sack and two passes defensed himself. Fifth-round safety Marques Sigle has also been a steal thus far, as he’s third on the team with 26 tackles (15 solo) to go along with a pass defensed and a fumble recovery. Of course, Williams, Collins and Stout are all on the injury report as of Wednesday, so their statuses will be worth keeping an eye on, too.

There’s been one other saving grace for the 49ers amid all the injuries, and that’s kicker Eddy Pineiro. Jake Moody, a 2023 third-round pick, was just 24-of-34 (70.6%) on field goals last year, and he started this season with a 1-of-3 performance. So, San Francisco wisely moved on. And since Pineiro came in, he’s gone 11-of-11 on field goals, with a 3-of-3 mark from 40-49 yards and a 2-of-2 mark from 50+. That’s predictable made a major difference given Moody’s previous struggles.

Here’s how the Bucs and 49ers stack up heading into Week 6:

Bucs Offense: 7th in scoring offense (27.0 PPG), 11th in total offense (353.8 yards per game), 6th in passing offense (243.4 yards per game), 22nd in rushing offense (110.4 yards per game)

49ers Offense: 22nd in scoring offense (21.2 PPG), 5th in total offense (375.8 yards per game), 1st in passing offense (290.6 yards per game), T-28th in rushing offense (85.2 yards per game)

Bucs Defense: 23rd in scoring defense (26.4 points allowed per game), 11th in total defense (310.8 yards allowed per game), 20th in passing defense (218.4 yards allowed per game), T-8th in rushing defense (92.4 yards allowed per game)

49ers Defense: T-6th in scoring defense (19.6 points allowed per game), 15th in total defense (315.6 yards allowed per game), 14th in passing defense (207.6 yards allowed per game), 15th in rushing defense (108.0 yards allowed per game)

As of Wednesday night, the Bucs are 3-point favorites, with the Over/Under set at 47.5 (per Hard Rock Bet).

Bucs vs. 49ers Game Information

When: Sunday, October 12
Where: Raymond James Stadium (Tampa, FL)
Kickoff: 4:25 p.m. ET
TV: CBS – Jim Nantz (Play by Play), Tony Romo (Analyst), Tracy Wolfson (Reporter)
Bucs Radio: 98Rock – Gene Deckerhoff (Play by Play), Dave Moore (Color), T.J. Rives (Reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente – Martín Gramática, Santiago Gramática