Are The Lions The New Eagles Or Slimy Saints?
May 25th, 2024
No hatred of the Lions (yet).
Back in the early aughts of the 21st Century, the Eagles were a speedbump the Bucs simply could not find a way to navigate.
The Bucs lost to the Eagles four straight times. Tampa Bay was the Eagles’ female dog. But then the Bucs found a way to win at the right time, beating the Eagles in the 2002 NFC Championship game. Thank you, Rondé Barber.
The Bucs would win the Super Bowl the next week.
Fast forward almost 20 years. The Bucs were the redheaded stepchild of the slimy Saints. Drew Brees, Sean Payton and the slimy Saints simply stomped on the Bucs time and again, winning five straight at one point.
Then came the 2020 playoffs. The Bucs traveled to New Orleans and got one over on the slimy Saints. Three weeks later, the Bucs hoisted the Vince Lombardi Trophy aloft into the thick Florida night air in The Licht House. Champions of the world!
Are the Lions the new Eagles and slimy Saints?
The Lions used to be everyone’s throw rug until Dan Campbell arrived and changed the culture in the Motor City. Last year, the Lions thumped the Bucs twice, including in the divisional round, though the Bucs gave the Lions a damn good fight.
Veteran NFL scribe Dan Pompei of The Athletic looks at the Week 2 matchup with the Bucs at the Lions and believes if the NFL is going to take the Bucs seriously as a Super Bowl contender, the Bucs must show they can hang with the big boys and beat Detroit in its own crib.
If the Bucs are a better team than they were last season, they need to show it against the team that sent them home last January. The Lions beat the Bucs 31-23 in the postseason after beating them 20-6 in the regular season. The next step for Tampa is to compete with the elite in the NFC. They’ll have a chance later in the season against the 49ers, but this is an early opportunity to set the tone. Beating the Lions would be a confidence builder for a team that believes it is ready to ascend.
Well, Joe cannot kill any team for what they did early in the season, especially the first two weeks. For example, Detroit beat Kansas City in Week 1 last season. Kansas City repeated as champs and Detroit gagged in the NFC title game.
But Pompei is right. The Lions sort of have the feel that the Eagles and slimy Saints had in previous years, only without the vitriol.
If the Bucs are to reach a Super Bowl in the next two seasons, they’ll probably have to go through Detroit at some point.
Joe doesn’t sense any loathing of the Lions, certainly nowhere near the way Bucs fans abhor the Eagles and slimy Saints. If there is a team Bucs fans despise more than New Orleans and Philadelphia, Joe isn’t aware of such a team.
May 25th, 2024 at 8:19 am
I remember when Barber snagged that ball telling my friends that this was the Bucs SB. Of course the final game was a cakewalk.
May 25th, 2024 at 8:24 am
Pretty sure the only other team bucs fans hate other than Saints and Eagles is the Rams. We don’t have a good history beating the Rams and we should have beat them in 2021 divisional round if Bowles wouldn’t have did an all out blitz at the end of the game and we would have been back to back champs.
May 25th, 2024 at 8:25 am
Bucs Buletin board
To be the man, you gotta beat the man!
Rick Flair
Go Bucs!
May 25th, 2024 at 8:41 am
Cowboys. I HATE the Cowboys. Since before the Bucs were a franchise, I’ve hated the Cowboys.
May 25th, 2024 at 9:00 am
Forget about new Saints, or whatever, they’re in our way. Beating them would be sending a message early to the rest of the NFC. Bucs want to be taken seriously by the national media, beat the Lions week two at Detriot.
May 25th, 2024 at 9:03 am
The Eagles (team) I don’t despise. It’s their fan base. They are the lowest form of human debris.
May 25th, 2024 at 9:18 am
Depends on the love affair the Falcons get this year. I might start to hate them. Most hatred for me stems from unearned Media Affection
May 25th, 2024 at 9:32 am
Historically from 70’s to date, it’s the Bucs defense that got us to the big dance. 1979 Bucs beat eagles to advance to nfc conference championship against rams. 2002, Bucs defense beat eagles to shut down vet stadium in nfc conference championship. In an earlier loss against eagles that same year in week 7, Drooks told eagles players we’ll be back. 2020 Bucs defense stopped packers in nfc conference championship. Packers were heavily favored. It was Bucs defense 2023 that cause us a loss against Lions in 2023 playoff game, Goff was allowed too much time to find open receivers. Our d must generate more sacks, pressures,n turnovers, mainly ints by cb…PERIOD!!
May 25th, 2024 at 9:41 am
garro … ‘To be the man, you gotta beat the man!’ (Rick Flair)
That says it all garro. Bucs have been doing pretty good in recent years at beating the teams they ‘should’ beat, but lousy at beating those teams with better records than us. Even in 2020 when we went 11-5 & won the SB, we lost to the 12-4 Saints twice, to the 14-2 Chiefs once & to the 10-6 Rams once (also lost to the 8-8 Bears). It wasn’t until the playoffs that we really stood tall & kicked butt against teams with winning records.
This is the year that we’ll show that we can go toe-to-toe with the big boys, and come out on the winning end.
May 25th, 2024 at 9:52 am
I agree about Campbell, he turned things around. Jared Goff turned around. True, don’t loathe them either. Yes, worried about playing them in the future more than the Saints (Derek Carr) and Eagles.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:09 am
The Saints have been the low life’s of the NFL since Sean Payton first arrived. Cheating, cheap shots, constant whining and refs allowed it. I always liked and respected Drew Brees because he was as good as any QB ever, but his coach was a dirt bag. Dennis Allen isn’t much better and continues the Slimy culture there. Hate doesn’t begin to describe how much I loathe that team. Having said all of that, their scummy fans, made up of escaped convicts and gold clad hoochie-mommas are rude dbags with about as much class as a palmetto bug in a bag of meth.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:10 am
I’m thinking about the Washington Commanders. Win that one, then start talking about the Lions.
But, I admire the Lions very much. They have one of the best head coaches ever.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:15 am
I hate any team that has more fans than Bucs fans at home games.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:38 am
I still hate the Saints but even they don’t hold a candle to the hatred I now hold for the Panthers. I hope we slaughter them.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:39 am
All those years of pummeling us, the Saints utterly owned us in the trenches. Even in our Super Bowl year they beat us twice, including a 38-3 curbstomping. I think those days are over
May 25th, 2024 at 11:00 am
The Eagles were pretty frustrating until we finally did them in.
I remember Green Bay frustrating me in the Favre years when we were in NFC North…the refs ALWAYS favored them.
I actually don’t hate the Saints. I don’t support them, of course, but it’s the Dirty Birds for me. Their fans have got to be the dumbest I have ever seen, and the Falcons were known to take out the knees of other players for a long time.
The Lions don’t bother me. They beat us fair and square, unlike the Eagles back in the day. We’d possibly have another ring if not for the Eagles.
May 25th, 2024 at 11:01 am
Beeej Says:
May 25th, 2024 at 10:39 am
“All those years of pummeling us, the Saints utterly owned us in the trenches.”
Very fair point. As I recall, we even had to get a center from them.
May 25th, 2024 at 11:21 am
Lions have the best Oline in football and a darn good Dline. NFL games are won and lost in the trenches.
May 25th, 2024 at 11:43 am
When the Bucs were in the NFC Central, I couldn’t stand Detroit. Have you ever noticed that most of Barry Sanders’ highlight reels are against the Bucs?
May 25th, 2024 at 11:59 am
I remember the NFC North and Barry Sanders. Yeah, I still hate the Lions, the Bears and their stupid fans , and the stinking Vikings.
May 25th, 2024 at 12:48 pm
Nah, I hate the Saints, the Lions don’t even come close to them. They are projecting like how we should have been in ’20, but moreso with homegrown guys and savvy free agents, more so than the GOAT coming here. With Brees gone, not even Derek Carr’ s good person attitude can make up the scum and villainy that plagues Nola. Taysom Hill just has a punchable face. Lattimore is a holding dbag, Cam Jordan, we know all about him. Dennis Allen just seems moreso unaware and over his head than butthole pucker lips Payton. Who by the way, we better mollywhop when his ponies come to town.
May 25th, 2024 at 1:06 pm
Bucs fans should have hate for the Rams who beat us in the “79” NFC Title game and 20 years later beat us in the “99”NFC Title game where we got robbed and the Bert Emanuell rule came about and then in “21” NFC Divisional game where the defense gave up the azz and lost again and all 3 of these games were close heartbreakers.
May 25th, 2024 at 1:18 pm
We will beat the Lions.i don’t feel that they have beat us enough in recent years to compare with what we went through with the Saints.
Go Bucs!!!
May 25th, 2024 at 1:22 pm
I think yes those three teams are the same they might have good teams but won’t ever get a ring not in this life or the next
May 25th, 2024 at 2:42 pm
I am with everyone about the Saints. Never liked them. Payton = Bounty-gate…
The Lions, I have all kinds of respect for. They have come a long way. In the end, they both are beatable.
May 25th, 2024 at 2:44 pm
Rams are a close second. Von Miller launching and bloodying Brandy’s lip and him not getting a flag was so terrible. I was so mad.
May 25th, 2024 at 3:05 pm
Joe’s- Just out of curiosity, why do you believe we only have a two year window?
May 25th, 2024 at 4:05 pm
I certainly remember the Barry Sanders years
I used to have to hear all the home games over the radio. One radio game Barry ripped off an eighth yard run with one shoe.
May 25th, 2024 at 4:05 pm
Oops eighty
May 25th, 2024 at 5:16 pm
“Get into the playoffs & anything can happen,” isn’t a tired cliché for no reason. We had a legitimate chance against Detroit in the playoffs because our Bucs unexpectedly kept it close & the lions got a little “tight”. If gambling Dan hasn’t learned his lesson, he’ll always keep a good opponent close. Would you rather have two regular season wins & lost to the bountygates in the playoffs, in 2020? They wouldn’t.
The lions certainly have the talent but, as someone said earlier, some teams will never win it all. Universal laws are never broken; gravity, taxes & no SBs for lions, ‘aints or falcan’ts! The universe had spoken!
May 25th, 2024 at 5:31 pm
Ok, I forgot the bountygates won a SB in 2010. Screw them, anyway!
Their logo has multiple meanings but, to the slaves that were branded with this emblem because they were “troublesome”, none of them matter.
May 25th, 2024 at 5:40 pm
Dan is an idiot! sorry a$$$ sticking to his stubbornness. I barely made 1400 on a parlay last year because of that san fran game. I took detroit but they blew that lead like crazy.
May 25th, 2024 at 5:43 pm
If not playing the Bucs I always root for Detroit, because of their fans. Their fans have never tasted a SB.
Same with the Browns….always root for them too.
May 25th, 2024 at 8:25 pm
Most hated team IMHO: the Saints, Bounty-Gate, the hatred between the teams in general, heck, it goes back to 1978 when Archie Manning allegedly told his team that losing to the Bucs would be an embarrassment of epic proportion. Bucs won 33-14, getting Hank Stram fired and Manning went off into mediocrity to live through his kids…… As far as fans go: dls5492 is spot on: the Eagles’ fans are the worst. Everyone loved Barber shutting down the Vet and especially the Philly fans via the pick 6. “Human debris”…. lol, good one dls5492!
May 25th, 2024 at 9:21 pm
Fred McNeil, I remember one old WDAE talk shownwhen us fans got to call in and vent on Sanders, I believe it might have been pre-Dungy when Wyche was still coach, ’94 or 95, and a common question was: “Why can’t anyone simply push Barry Sanders out of bounds?” If you look at some of his runs during games where Sanders racked up 150 or 200 yards on the Bucs, it looked like the Bucs defenders would parallel Sanders when he ran down the sideline but simply would not cut toward the sideline to force him to take contact or run out of bounds. I think Floyd Peters was the DC. By ’97 the Bucs made sure that Sanders “earned” every yard once Coach Dungy and Monte Kiffen perfecting the Tampa 2.
May 25th, 2024 at 10:39 pm
I know Barry’s highlights were mostly from Bucs games. I was going to all home games back then. I recall telling someone that Barry was making monkeys out of us. He was darned scary.
May 25th, 2024 at 11:46 pm
I’m an old fart- teams that beat us:
Bears
Packers
Vikings
Lions
May 26th, 2024 at 2:02 am
The Lions are our ol’’ black & blue division rivals – I didn’t like them – but never hated them.
I think Detroit felt lucky to walk out of that ‘23 divisional playoff game with a victory. I think we have a good chance of beating them next time we meet.
May 26th, 2024 at 6:28 am
I hate Philly for there low life fans only.
I will always hate the Saints for both their lowlife scumbag fans and their lowlife scumbag players and coaches. A bunch of cheap shot artists! Lone exception is Brees. Kind of feel bad for him having to endure them and the cesspool of a city for so long.
Back in the NFC Central days it was the Bears fans that crowded in to the Sombrero with no clue and no class. Many of them were transplants and lived in Tampa and it riled me. Actually loved McMahon and of course Sweetness. (till he reeled off a long one on us)
Go Bucs!