The Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers will meet in Week 10 at Raymond James Stadium for a showdown between two squads that are looking to keep their playoff hopes alive.
While neither team will be eliminated from playoff contention just yet with a loss, the Titans and Bucs haven’t left themselves much room for error after a 3-5 first half of the season.
The Bucs were once 3-1 and appeared to be in great shape, but a four-game losing streak has brought head coach Todd Bowles team crashing back down to earth. Tampa Bay enters this game in third place in the NFC South.
Meanwhile, the Titans have been one of the most inconsistent teams in the NFL and have yet to string together multiple wins this season.
Before both teams take the field on Sunday for what will be their 13th matchup all time, a look at five things to know for the game.
Bucs are favored
According to BetMGM, the Bucs are one-point favorites over the Titans, with the over/under sitting at 38.5. The over/under has gone down by one point since the start of the week, while the spread has tightened from 1.5.
Per Team Rankings, Tennessee is 4-4 against the spread and has hit the over in just two of eight games. Tampa Bay is slightly better at 5-3 against the spread but has also hit the over twice in eight contests.
A rare matchup
The Titans have absolutely dominated the Bucs in the past, with Tennessee winning 10 of the 12 meetings between these franchises. The 12 meetings with the Buccaneers are tied for the second-fewest Tennessee has against any NFL team, with their six versus the Carolina Panthers being the fewest.
The Titans have won three straight and eight of the last nine. These two teams last faced off in 2019, when the Titans beat Tampa Bay, 27-23, in Week 8.
Bad road team vs. bad home team
Much has been made about the Titans’ struggles on the road this season, and for good reason.
Tennessee sports an 0-4 mark on the road in 2023, and the team is 0-5 away from Nissan Stadium when you include the loss in London, where the Titans were considered the home team.
Meanwhile, the Bucs have struggled at Raymond James Stadium, with Tampa Bay sporting a 1-3 mark there.
Elite red zone defense vs. bad red zone offense
The Titans are one of the worst teams in the NFL when it comes to scoring in the red zone. Tennessee has found pay dirt on just 34.62 percent of its red zone trips in 2023, which ranks 31st, per Team Rankings.
Making matters worse for the Titans, Tampa Bay has the exact same success rate when it comes to stopping teams in the red zone, which ranks as the second-best mark in the league.
Six of those games were with Ryan Tannehill under center, but the offense has also struggled in the red area with Will Levis as the signal-caller, with Tennessee going 2-5 (40 percent), including 1-4 last week.
Potential blow-up spot for Will Levis
The Buccaneers have struggled mightily against the pass this season, with the defense ranking 31st in that area. Tampa Bay is also coming off a game in which it gave up a rookie record 470 passing yards to Houston Texans quarterback, C.J. Stroud.
Adding to the idea that Levis could have a big game, the Bucs don’t sport anywhere near the kind of pass-rush the Pittsburgh Steelers threw at the rookie last week, with Tampa Bay totaling 21 sacks in eight games.
Nobody is expecting the Kentucky product to have the type of game Stroud had last week, but Levis is primed to post big numbers in this one, assuming the offensive line can do its job.
