Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

The host Atlanta Falcons and rival Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be battling for first place in the NFC South on Thursday in an important early-season matchup.

The winner between Atlanta (2-2) and Tampa Bay (3-1) will own the division’s top spot after the franchises meet for the 62nd time. The Bucs lead 31-30.

Tampa Bay, which has won six of the past eight meetings, vies to strengthen its NFC South lead in pursuit of its fourth consecutive division crown. The Buccaneers rebounded from a poor showing in Week 3, a 26-7 home loss to the Denver Broncos, with a convincing 33-16 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. Baker Mayfield threw for 347 yards and a pair of touchdowns, while Mike Evans turned in his best showing of the season, hauling in eight catches for 94 yards and a score.

Ahead of a short week, Tampa Bay coach Todd Bowles is preparing for a new-look Atlanta team.

“They’re different offensively and defensively,” Bowles said of the Falcons. “They’re playing faster and they’re playing with a lot more confidence. They’ve added quite a few new guys and they’ve got a lot of talent over there. They can beat you a bunch of different ways, so we’ve got to be on our P’s and Q’s.”

One of the aforementioned “new guys” is Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins, who threw for 344 yards and two touchdowns in a loss to Bowles and Tampa Bay last year as a member of the Minnesota Vikings.

“(Kirk) is a good football player,” Bowles said. “We played him last year in Minnesota, but he’s in a different offense this time. He’s got a lot more weapons now than he had with just Justin Jefferson and a couple of guys there. He knows how to play the game; he runs the offense well. He knows where to go with the ball and how to get rid of the ball, so he presents a great challenge.”

It’s also a new-look sideline in Atlanta, as first-year coach Raheem Morris has taken over. However, Bowles is no stranger to what a Morris-led team will look like.

“(Raheem) grew up in the next town over from me in New Jersey, so I know him very well,” Bowles said. “He’s a heck of a coach and an outstanding guy. He’s going to bring a lot of fire to those guys, and they’ll be ready to play. … It’ll be a tough battle.”

Aside from reuniting with his New Jersey counterpart, Morris will have many ties to his opponent on Thursday.

Morris served as a defensive assistant in Tampa Bay from 2002 to 2005 and then again in 2007 and 2008, before compiling a 17-31 record as the Buccaneers’ coach from 2009 to 2011.

Before his hiring in Atlanta, Morris was the defensive coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams, where Mayfield rejuvenated his career in 2022.

“I’ve got so much respect for Baker from when we had him in L.A., and he got a chance to revitalize what he had lost a little bit,” Morris said. “I think Baker is going to do whatever it takes to try to win that football game. Right now, he’s found a nice formula of getting the ball out of his hands, keeping the completions up. He’s got some really good wideouts that he can get the ball to who can catch and run. If you can find a way to take away some of those things, and kind of force the issues or bad habits, I think that’s the way you have to defend Baker.”

Atlanta is coming off a 26-24 win over the New Orleans Saints, in which Younghoe Koo blasted a 58-yard game-winning field goal with two seconds left. The Falcons are in the middle of a stretch of facing a division opponent in three straight games. They travel to Carolina next week.

In a lengthy injury report, Tampa Bay’s SirVocea Dennis, William Gholston, Calijah Kancey, Jalen McMillan, Trey Palmer, Antoine Winfield Jr. and Mike Evans were all sidelined for Monday’s practice.

For Atlanta, linebacker Troy Andersen was a no-show at practice with a knee injury. Andersen led Atlanta with 10 tackles and had a pick-six Sunday vs. New Orleans.

–Field Level Media