2023 NFL season: Four things to watch for in Buccaneers-Bills on Prime Video

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  • WHERE: Highmark Stadium (Orchard Park, N.Y.)
  • WHEN: 8:15 p.m. ET | Prime Video, NFL+

After the first month of the season, the Buccaneers and Bills were both sitting at 3-1, atop their respective divisions. Since then, both teams have hit the skids a bit.

Following their Week 5 bye, the Bucs have dropped back-to-back games at home, to the Lions and Falcons. Although Tampa Bay’s defense came to play both games, the offense combined to score only 19 points.

The Bills were riding a high following their 48-20 thrashing of the Dolphins in Week 4, but things have been far tougher since. They lost in London to the Jaguars, struggled to beat the one-win Giants and then lost at Foxborough to a struggling Patriots team they’d dominated in recent meetings.

Now the Bucs are a half-game out of first in the NFC South, and the Bills are a game back of the Dolphins in the AFC East. Which team is set to break out of its slump?

The Bucs have never won in Buffalo. In a strange scheduling quirk, the non-conference opponents have met just 12 times, but the first eight meetings between 1976 and 2005 all happened in Tampa. They last made the trip to Buffalo in 2017 — Sean McDermott’s first year as Bills head coach — and lost, 30-27.

The Bills are 3-0 at Highmark Stadium this season, with their one “home” loss happening in London. The Bucs are 2-0 away from home, but their road mettle will be tested. Thursday’s game kicks off a wicked stretch of six away games in eight weeks, with most of those teams still thickly in contention.

This game pits two quarterbacks who were selected in the first seven picks of the 2018 NFL Draft, Baker Mayfield and Josh Allen. The well-traveled Mayfield started out this season well but has leveled off in recent games. Allen also has been alternately hot and cold this season, accounting for 19 touchdowns but also throwing interceptions in three straight games.

Both Mayfield (knee) and Allen (right shoulder) are dealing with injuries, Mayfield having drawn a questionable designation.

Here are four things to watch for when the Buccaneers visit the Bills on Thursday night on Prime Video:

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