The Falcons are back into NFC South play as they reach the halfway mark of their divisional games in the 2026 season with a trip to Tampa Bay for a date with a Buccaneers team which took control of the incredibly close all time series history behind Tom Brady, before the Falcons swung the pendulum back into their favor in recent years.
Atlanta currently owns a very narrow 33-32 all time series lead as they continue to work to undo the five consecutive Bucs victories from 2020-22. To illustrate just how tightly contested recent years have been, each of the last six consecutive matchups have ended in a one score game.
This has been a history of winning streaks for one side or the other. In addition to the five straight Tampa had at the start of this decade, they also won six matchups in a row from 1997-2003, as well as three separate three-game winning streaks sprinkled in there.
The Falcons, meanwhile, served their counterpunch in the Matt Ryan era, winning six out of seven matchups in the top half of the Ryan era from 2008-2012, and then another six out of seven in the back half between 2016-2019.
The Falcons are currently on a run of five victories in the last seven matchups.
The Falcons were already mathematically eliminated from post season contention at 4-9 but they had a chance to go up to Tampa on Thursday Night Football and play spoiler against a Bucs team now in a two horse race with Carolina for the NFC South.
Tampa, looking for a season sweep of the team they had beaten to open the season, had their hands full with tight end Kyle Pitts, who was embarking on a career performance. Pitts had already found the end zone twice by the time halftime came with his team leading 14-13.
The favored Bucs restored order and dominated the third quarter, however, scoring two touchdowns, forcing two punts and a turnover to take a 28-14 lead into the final frame. From there, Bijan Robinson scored, Kyle Pitts completed the hat trick of touchdowns, Dee Alford secured a big interception of Baker Mayfield and Kirk Cousins led a game winning drive which culminated in a Zane Gonzalez field goal as time expired.
This win put the Panthers in the driver's seat of the division and wound up being the difference in Carolina breaking their playoff drought while the Bucs stayed home for the playoffs.
