The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set to face the Chicago Bears on Sunday, and while the two teams have been in different divisions for years, there’s quite a lot of history between the squads.
The Bucs used to be in Chicago’s division in the NFC Central, which became the NFC North with the departure of Tampa Bay. The two teams have met 61 times before, and the Bears definitely got the better of Tampa Bay — times have changed recently, though, and those results may have the odds in the Bucs’ favor come Sunday.
Here are five things to know about Tampa Bay’s Week 2 matchup against their old division rival:
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The Bucs used to play in what is now the NFC North before moving to the NFC South in the early 2000s, and Tampa Bay wasn’t a great football team for most of the time the two shared a division. The Bears currently lead the series by a wide margin, boasting a 40-21 record over the Bucs.
However, the Bucs have gotten the better of the Bears recently. The teams have played five times since 2016, and Tampa Bay leads the series 3-2 — furthermore, all of those wins came at Raymond James Stadium.
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In a somewhat bold move given the creamsicle history in Tampa Bay, the Bears are set to wear their all-orange uniforms against the Bucs on Sunday. The Bears wore these uniforms last year on the road against the Dallas Cowboys, where they got shellacked 49-29.
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There have been 67 total players who have played for both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Chicago Bears across the history of the NFL. Interestingly enough, of those 67 players, only two of them are on an active roster.
The first is Cairo Santos, who is currently kicking for the Bears. Santos played for the Buccaneers for just one stint in 2018 and is currently in his second stint in Chicago. The other is long snapper Andrew DePaola, who the Bucs saw last week — he’s currently the long snapper for the Minnesota Vikings and began his career with the Bucs in 2012.
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The Bears have lost 3 in a row in Tampa by a combined score of 103-20.
— Kevin Fishbain (@kfishbain) September 13, 2023
As we mentioned before, the Bucs are 3-0 in Tampa Bay in the last three meetings with the Bears, but it goes a little deeper than that. The Bucs do a lot more than simply win when Chicago comes to town.
The Bucs have outscored the Bears 103-20 over the last three meetings at Raymond James Stadium. Whenever Chicago plays Tampa Bay on the road, they don’t just get beat, they get punished — and that’s definitely a trend that the Bucs will look to continue on Sunday.
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Baker Mayfield played a majority of his opening stint in the NFL in the AFC with the Cleveland Browns, so it’s no surprise that he hasn’t played the Bears often. He did once before, though, and his Browns won the game 26-6.
In that game, Mayfield went 19-for-31 for 246 yards and a touchdown.
