The Tampa Bay Buccaneers rushed out to a 10-0 lead over the visiting Baltimore Ravens on Monday night in Week Seven but were eventually submerged by the twin tidal waves of Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry, plus their own red zone woes and – worst of all – a rash of injuries to their top playmakers. The Ravens left with a 41-31 victory in a game that featured nearly 1,000 yards of combined offense, and the Bucs were left with a 4-3 record that is still good enough for a tie for first in the NFC South with the Atlanta Falcons.

Appropriately enough, those very Falcons are the next team coming to Raymond James Stadium, as the two will meet on Sunday, October 27 as part of the NFL’s Week Eight slate. It will be a rematch of a Week Five contest in Atlanta in which the Bucs let a late lead slip away and eventually succumbed in overtime, 36-30. The game will decide, at least temporarily, who leads the all-time head-to-head series, as right now it is tied at 31 wins apiece. Much more critically, it also could be one of the more decisive outcomes in this year’s NFC South race. The winner will have a one-game lead in that race, but if Atlanta gets the victory they will own a hammer of a tiebreaker with a season sweep of the Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay has a short week to prepare for this enormous game, and those preparations took on an added level of difficulty when injuries knocked out both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin on Monday night, the latter likely for the remainder of the season. More on that unwelcome development below. On the flip side, the Buccaneers’ trio of running backs – Rachaad White, Bucky Irving and Sean Tucker – have emerged as a collective force, most recently accounting for 226 yards from scrimmage and three touchdowns against the Ravens.

The Falcons also come into the showdown in Tampa coming off a loss at home in Week Eight. Seattle intercepted Kirk Cousins twice and Geno Smith threw a pair of touchdown passes for the Seahawks, who pulled away in the second half for a 34-14 decision. This came despite good output from the Falcons trio of top-10 picks at the skill positions, as running back Bijan Robinson ran for 103 yards and a score, wide receiver Drake London caught six passes for 63 yards and his fifth touchdown of the season and tight end Kyle Pitts snared seven passes for 65 yards.

The Buccaneers are just 2-2 in home games this season and would like to get one more mark in the win column before going on a stretch that features just two games at Raymond James Stadium in eight weeks. The NFC South won’t necessarily be decided this coming Sunday, but there’s a good chance both teams will look back at this one at the end of the season as a major reason why the final standings are what they are. Here are four major storylines and four head-to-head player battles to keep an eye on as the Bucs dive back into divisional play.

Plans C and D – Chris Godwin is the NFL’s leader in receptions, with 50, while Mike Evans is tied for the NFL lead with six touchdown receptions. The pair has accounted for 911 of the Buccaneers’ 1,859 passing yards, or nearly 50%, and have been on the receiving end of 11 of Baker Mayfield’s league-leading 18 touchdown passes. Godwin is also the NFL leader in yards after catch, and he brings an element to the Buccaneers’ offense that will be difficult to replicate with him sidelined by his major ankle injury. Evans, who suffered an apparently significant hamstring injury nearly making a second touchdown catch on Monday night, is one of the NFL’s best deep ball threats and Mayfield’s favorite target around the goal line. If both are out for any significant amount of time, the Buccaneers will need second-year man Trey Palmer and rookie Jalen McMillan to step up in a big way. Palmer, who would likely step in for Evans at the X position, has five catches in five games played, while McMillan has six in five games. They have each hauled in one touchdown pass. Veteran Sterling Shepard also figures to play a lot and could take over in the slot and try to be Mayfield’s go-to target on short, quick passes. With rookie Kameron Johnson also going on injured reserve earlier this week, the Buccaneers essentially have to make some additions to the receiving corps, perhaps from the practice squad (Ryan Miller, Tanner Knue) or from outside source.

Southern Supremacy – As noted above, the winner of Sunday’s game in Tampa will walk away with a one-game lead in the NFC South race near the midpoint of the regular season. Atlanta is already 3-0 against division opponents, having already logged one win against each of the other three teams. The Buccaneers are 1-1. Last year, Tampa Bay won the division with a 9-8 record thanks to a tiebreaker edge over New Orleans against common opponents. In 2022, the Bucs also won the division with just a one-game lead in the overall standings, and in 2020, the Saints won the South with a one-game edge over the Buccaneers after sweeping Tampa Bay during the regular season. It is difficult to overstate the importance of games within the division, and the Bucs only have four of them left. In addition, the winner of the game may control the season narrative going forward. Despite Tampa Bay winning the last three division titles and retaining virtually all of their key players from last year, the Falcons were considered the favorites to take the South crown this season after the addition of quarterback Kirk Cousins. Notably, Cousins had perhaps his best game yet for the Falcons after…

Containing Cousins – …he threw for 509 yards and four touchdowns in the aforementioned 36-30 overtime win over the Buccaneers. Cousins reputation as a Bucs slayer may be a bit overhyped, thanks largely to the “You Like That?” game in Washington in 2015, in which he led the home team on a massive comeback to secure a 31-30 victory. Overall, Cousins is just 2-2 in four starts against Tampa Bay, including a loss in last year’s season opener in Minnesota. Still, it’s hard to argue with 500 yards and four touchdowns, as Cousins seemed to find open targets with great ease throughout the game against the Bucs in Week Five. Since that game, starting cornerback Jamel Dean has been placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury and rookie slot corner Tykee Smith sustained a concussion on Monday night that may render him unavailable this coming Sunday. Cousins seems to be getting more and more comfortable with his array of weapons in Atlanta, which includes those first-round picks mentioned earlier as well as Darnell Mooney and Tyler Allgeier. The veteran quarterback has thrown for 1,830 yards and 10 touchdowns, with a passer rating of 91.1, though he has been intercepted seven times. Rookie first-rounder Michael Penix got a brief cameo at the end of Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks, but he threw just one pass and this offense clearly belongs to Cousins this season as long as he remains healthy.

Monster Dash – Halloween is approaching and the Buccaneers may have a monster in their house. Specifically, a “three-headed monster” is developing in their backfield, as a one-game absence by starter Rachaad White allowed second-year man Sean Tucker to show off his skills in Week Six at New Orleans. After Tucker produced 192 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns against the Saints to win NFC Offensive Player of the Week it seemed unlikely that the Bucs would put him back on the shelf when White returned. Sure enough, the Bucs were able to follow through with their plans to get all three backs involved against Baltimore, and they combined to put up big numbers. In this particular case, it was White leading the way with 111 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns, 71 of which came on six catches. It was Tucker with a big assist from Irving in Week Six, and it’s Irving who currently leads the trio in rushing yards (351), yards from scrimmage (475) and total touchdowns (three). The Bucs plan to ride the hot hand with this talented group of backs, and it’s difficult to predict who that will be on a week-to-week basis. More importantly, the Bucs want to strike the right kind of balance that has allowed them to rack up 562 rushing yards over the past three games, tied for the fourth-most prolific three-game stretch at any point in franchise history.