Taking a look at which two teams will start the next slate of games in primetime by playing on Thursday Night Football in Week 5 of the 2017 season.
The New England Patriots will try to avoid a second consecutive loss — and a third loss of the season — this Thursday night as they’ll travel to take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with this being a battle of a veteran quarterback in Tom Brady and a young star signal caller in Jameis Winston.
Tampa Bay is coming off a two-point win over the New York Giants as they improved to 2-1 overall following the 25-23 win over the now 0-4 Giants. The Patriots have lost two of their first four games following their Super Bowl championship last season, losing to the Carolina Panthers, 33-30 in Week 4.
Looking at the Buccaneers’ win over the Giants this past Sunday, Winston passed for 332 yards and three touchdowns on a day where he was 22-of-38. It was a game where Winston passed the ball to seven different teammates, including six of them with multiple receptions. For the season, Winston has passed for 864 yards and six touchdowns with three interceptions.
Winston’s five-time Super Bowl champion counterpart Brady also had a game where he passed for over 300 yards in Week 4, finishing 32-of-45 for 307 yards with two touchdowns in the three-point loss to the Panthers. Neither Brady nor Winston threw an interception this week, and both quarterbacks passed the ball over 35 times in their games.
The matchup to watch is Brady against the secondary of the Buccaneers with Tampa Bay allowing 335 yards per game, and Brady passing for 364 yards per game.
Next: NFL Power Rankings 2017: Week 5
What will be interesting in this game is to see just how the Buccaneers use the momentum they gained with their Week 4 win over the Giants against New England. On the other hand, who wants to be the team who faces the Patriots following a loss? The last time the Patriots lost back-to-back games was twice in the 2015 season, most recently in Weeks 16 and 17.
The game will air on CBS on Thursday, Oct. 5 with Jim Nantz and Tony Romo having the call of the game.