Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season featured a number of shocking upsets. But the team that perhaps relished their upset win the most was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
There is a fair bit of recent history between the Bucs and the Detroit Lions. The two teams faced off against each other in the Divisional Round of the postseason last year, with the Lions coming away with a 31-23 victory.
With this in mind, there weren’t very many who were outright picking the Buccaneers to win Sunday’s matchup. In fact, the entirety of the NFL Media members that offered a prediction on the game earlier this week on the NFL YouTube channel, a group consisting of Cameron Wolfe, Maurice Jones-Drew, Adam Rank, Marcas Grant, Bucky Brooks, Grant Gordon, Daniel Jeremiah, Eric Edholm, Nick Shook, and Kevin Patra, all picked the Lions to defeat the Bucs.
Ultimately, they would all be wrong, as the Buccaneers were able to steal a 20-16 victory on the road to move to 2-0 on the year and avenge their postseason loss last year.
FOURTH STRAIGHT 2-0 START IN TAMPA BAY 🌴 pic.twitter.com/34aeHjntEQ
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 15, 2024
After the win, the Buccaneers social media team kept receipts of those doubting them in this matchup. In a video on X, the Buccaneers trolled the Lions, the NFL media members who picked against them, and anyone else who hasn’t had great things to say about the team.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ pic.twitter.com/cFaRKc8jeS
— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) September 15, 2024
A clip of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith was also included in the Bucs X video, which featured Smith saying that he thought Baker Mayfield was “very good” but not a “top tier” quarterback.
Last season, Tampa Bay largely came out of nowhere to make the playoffs in the NFC. Now, they are clearly trying to prove that was no fluke after a 2-0 start to the year. But clearly, media members have not caught on just yet.
