Home Teams Are 9-5 On Thursday Night Football
December 11th, 2025
Home cookin’?
Hope for many Bucs fans has been hard to find in recent weeks.
Tonight it comes in multiple forms.
First, there is the return of Mike Evans, the greatest receiver in Tampa Bay history. He’s a difference-maker, an attention-grabber from defenses that can help free up teammates when he’s out of a play.
There’s a reason Baker Mayfield always says the offense runs through Mike. It’s not about throwing Evans a ton of passes. Joe was told Evans will play tonight.
Another big reason for optimism is the struggles of road teams on Thursday Night Football. Home teams, like the Bucs are tonight against the Falcons, have a 9-5 record in the short-week games. The timetable is brutal on road teams and that’s a big reason coaches hate them.
And then there’s the December factor.
Pricky Pete Prisco, the longtime CBS Sports NFL insider, told CBS Sports HQ that he believes the Falcons have checked out as a team following seven losses in eight games. Prisco referenced Cancun and Bermuda vacation-planning in Atlanta and he expects the struggling Bucs to win tonight because they have far fewer struggles than Atlanta.
Let the game begin!
December 11th, 2025 at 8:52 am
If Mike get some snaps tonight I think Godwin may have a good night.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:52 am
But Falcons have Kirk 507 and this current iteration of the Bucs defense will not cause him to lose sleep.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:54 am
Irrelevant…..primetime stinker. Home field doesn’t matter and no way bowles will be prepared again especially on a short week. How bout shock us all, show up for once, dominate and win comfortably.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:54 am
No more hope. Only fear
December 11th, 2025 at 8:56 am
The only reason the Bucs have a chance is to not screw up the Atlanta draft position. The reality is we’re cooked.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:59 am
I’m starting Kyle Pitts on my fake team tonight vs….well…no one. Ahhh the Charmin soft underbelly of Bowles defense.
December 11th, 2025 at 8:59 am
Expect that record to be 9-6 come Friday
December 11th, 2025 at 9:15 am
This team isn’t exactly a lock to win home games
December 11th, 2025 at 9:21 am
Since Bowles has been head coach (2022) the Bucs are 2-6 on Monday Night Football (wins at Houston this year, home over New Orleans 2022), 0-3 on Thursday Night Football, 2-3 on Sunday Night Football (wins at Dallas and Arizona 2022) and in night playoff games: 1-2 (lost to Dallas, Beat Philly, lost to Washington). Overall record 5-14 , sounds like the total record of Coach Williamson back in the creamsicle days……
Of the 5 prime time wins 3 were in 2022 with Brady and the Bucs have never won at home on Thursday Night.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:23 am
Cushy soft defense with zero answers in the passing game…
No home field advantage…
Chronic slow starter…
Underperformer in prime time…
Tendency to fold when adversity strikes…
No ability to play complementary football…
Braindead playing calling and game management…
Not a formula for success. Would love to see the Bucs prove us doubters wrong, but this has the stench of another national embarrassment.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:25 am
What are your thoughts if we come out flat tonight AGAIN and give up a TD on the opening drive and/or the O goes 3 and out?
December 11th, 2025 at 9:26 am
Lt Dan, I tried to get Kyle Pitts for my fantasy team but someone beat me to him on the waiver wire, some other guy added Cousins to replace Daniel Jones (wise move IMHO) but I did get Darnell Mooney off of the scrap and will start him as a flex as he will get lots of opportunities to score with Drake London out. Hope Mooney gets shut out as a Buc fan but if he boatraces Tampa, at least I will get a jump on my opponent in this week’s matchup.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:28 am
“”Expect that record to be 9-6 come Friday”
So we get 2 wins now for beating a division rival? Sounds fair to me. Sorta like a golf handicap.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:33 am
So what? Teams were 9 and 2 against the saints and the bucs said hold my beer.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:34 am
Buc U
I was referencing the Thursday night record for Home Teams
I expect us to be 7-7
December 11th, 2025 at 9:36 am
Yes all that is left is hope!!!. Hopefully in that the Bucs have never won on Thursday night, maybe that streak eventually comes to an end.It can’t go forever right?. That is about all the hope we have. Yes maybe ATL has checked out?, However, they may be playing to keep their coach. I am not so sure the Bucs haven’t already checked out?. How else do you explain last week?. If that wasn’t checked out I don’t know what is.
Maybe Winfield will check in. Yes we can hope, Evans playing, Godwin, J Mac. The defense scores 50 points Atl 49 as the Bucs kick a field goal to win the game. Possible , maybe
December 11th, 2025 at 9:37 am
If we sit back and play four man and zone the Falcons are going to score +30 before it’s all said and done. Do you really think Grizz is capable of dialing up a Seattle redux at this point? I sure don’t. Plus that performance was 100% Baker. It’s nice that Jalen and Mike are back—maybe they’ll bring something we haven’t seen yet, but this feels like it could be the nail in the coffin 31-23 Birds.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:38 am
Sorry lol, that should read the offense scores 50 points. I guess I just got to excited about the offense scoring points I did a typo.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:39 am
BucVoyager, the ATL2026 first round pick belongs to the Rams, they traded it to them to pick James Pearce at the end of the first round, so at least Rah’s replacement does not have a top 10 draft pick waiting for him in April. So if the ATL wins, it will not impact their draft, so the only thing the Bucs have going for them is if Rah can out-underperform/ out-bad-coach Bowles. It could be a battle of ineptitude.
December 11th, 2025 at 9:40 am
We all know what’s going to happen tonight. Don’t fool yourselves
December 11th, 2025 at 9:57 am
Bwahahahahaa
and what is it when they are wearing Creampukesicle uniforms?
December 11th, 2025 at 10:13 am
Bucs prime time home/away game on Thursday Night? Creamsicle unis? Short week for mastermind Bowles? Advantage- Dirty Birds
December 11th, 2025 at 10:25 am
Uh, this team stinks at home. We don’t win at RayJay and if the Falcons beat us tonight, which is likely, the season is over anyway. Sorry guy’s, invest in dynamite, this thing called a Todd Bowles team needs to be blown up.
December 11th, 2025 at 11:25 am
nothing is easy with this team…
im expecting a dog fight in every game from here on out
GO BUCS!!!!
December 11th, 2025 at 11:49 am
“”I was referencing the Thursday night record for Home Teams
I expect us to be 7-7″”
Ahhh gotcha brother.
December 11th, 2025 at 11:51 am
• No Confidence
December 11th, 2025 at 12:25 pm
Let’s see if Bowles “complex” defense can slow Cousins down a little bit this season.
December 11th, 2025 at 12:51 pm
Atlanta 38 Yucs 24
December 11th, 2025 at 12:57 pm
another advantage is facing raheem the dream
December 11th, 2025 at 1:48 pm
No worries FOLKS !!!! we have the most COMPETENT coach in the whole NFL…. !!!!
December 11th, 2025 at 1:57 pm
Shut up you drama queens.
The Bucs, all year, have lost one game where they were the better team. Every other loss was to a team that was better than they were.
Eagles – better
Lions – better
Patriots – better
Bills – better
Rams – better
Saints – not better
You morons are acting like the team is 2-9 instead of still in 1st place with its playoff destiny under its own control.
Tonight is make or break time, Baker needs to finally show up for the first time in 2 months and have a great game, and catch fire. If he does that, the Bucs win. If the headlines after the game are about how the defense let us down because it couldn’t keep the Falcons under 20 points, then be mad – but at the right side of the ball.
December 11th, 2025 at 2:30 pm
Now do Bowles’ and Mayfields’ records on Thursday night games, or any night games, or any prime time games…
December 11th, 2025 at 2:35 pm
@Rod
Last week was make or break. The 3 weeks for that were ‘where are we’ games, and where we are, is not where I wanna stay.
The offense is stale, and the defense is lost. I don’t care if we’re sitting in 1st right now, It’s a pitty 1st because of our division.
I tried unimaginably hard to reverse my opinions on Bowles before the season, and after Baker pulled a few games out of his bottom, I wrongly gave credit to Bowles and was saying he’s changed, he’s better now, look forward not backwards. I just set myself up for a bigger crashout than we followed in Ann Arbor last night.
The product on the field is not good. I agree that Baker needs to show up. Our shining start of the early season have massively regressed during this slump. When that happens it leads me to 2 trains of thought: confidence is shot (I think this to be true of Egbuka due to him stepping into a WR1 role so early and unexpectedly, not for Baker) -or- they just don’t want to fight hard enough (this is what I honestly believe).
SVD ‘finally getting the hang of things’ in year 4 early in the season
Zyon getting ‘bored’
Bowles constant lack of substance in his answers and sideline presence
It seems to me some of the vets aren’t playing for Bowles anymore. Maybe I’m overreacting here, maybe vets are vets and we swung and missed on guys who got paid. I don’t know, I’m not in the building. But what I thought this roster SHOULD have been capable of is no where near what I’m seeing on the field.
I also don’t want to hear it about injuries. Yeah, we’re beat up, everyone is. Maybe not to the extent that we are but it’s not an excuse at this level. Herbert got sacked 8 times while his 2 tackles were out hurt, the Chargers beat the Eagles on that day. Good teams find a way to win and when you can’t even do that against a 2-10 division rival, when you’re in a close division race, pack it up.
If Baker and the boys can figure it out tonight, of course I’m going to get excited about the playoffs. But it’s most likely gonna be because of the players on the field winning DESPITE their playcallers on both sides, not because of them.
Big changes need to be made across the board, and yes, I do think that Baker’s new deal now comes a little harder for him. In my eyes, these next 4 games are essentially him playing on a 1-year prove it deal (for the big bucks, if we can get him for similar money as now, I would jump on that).
The problem is, I don’t know if these big changes are made with another division win.
December 11th, 2025 at 2:36 pm
Fire Bowles Now!!!
December 11th, 2025 at 2:49 pm
Man @Joe, I even controlled myself and said bottom instead of some way nastier language, why am I silenced 🙁
December 11th, 2025 at 3:56 pm
Opening day I was optimistic we would win. Tonight I just hope we can score at least 100 points. Even if we do it will still barely be enough. JPP will be covering Drake London all night.