For the fifth straight year, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers opened their season with a victory, holding off the Atlanta Falcons in Mercedes-Benz Stadium, 23-20, on Sunday afternoon. Now, they will try to make it a 2-0 start for the fifth straight season as well, and they'll resume that quest in front of a prime-time national audience.
The Buccaneers hit the road again in Week Two, traveling to Houston to take on the 0-1 Texans on Monday Night Football on September 15. The Texans opened their 2025 season with a 14-9 loss on the road against the Los Angeles Rams. Kickoff between the Bucs and Texans is set for 7:00 p.m. ET as it is part of a Monday night doubleheader, with the Los Angeles Chargers also visiting the Las Vegas Raiders. The game will be broadcast by ABC.
This will be the first meeting between the Bucs and the Texans since Week Nine of the 2023 season, a wild game that Houston won at NRG Stadium, 39-37, after each team scored a touchdown in the final 46 seconds of the game. The Buccaneers took a 37-33 lead on Baker Mayfield's 14-yard touchdown pass to Cade Otton, but then-rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud countered with a 75-yard drive that took just 40 seconds. The capper was a 15-yard touchdown catch by Tank Dell.
The Buccaneers, who are seeking a record fifth-straight NFC South title, got off to a good start with a road win over a division rival, with Baker Mayfield throwing three touchdown passes and Atlanta kicker Younghoe Koo missing a 44-yard field goal try in the final seconds. Two of Mayfield's scoring passes went to precocious rookie wideout Emeka Egbuka, who became just the second Buccaneer ever with two receiving touchdowns in his NFL debut. Newcomer Haason Reddick, the Bucs' most important offseason free agency addition, recorded the Bucs' only sack and also had seven quarterback pressures on Atlanta's Michael Penix.
Houston lost a defensive struggle in Los Angeles, as neither team topped 300 yards from scrimmage. Stroud was held to 188 passing yards and no touchdowns with one interception and no Texans pass-catcher had more than 32 yards. Kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn accounted for all of Houston's points and the Rams' Matthew Stafford threw the game-winning touchdown pass to tight end Davis Allen in the third quarter. Houston's defense did sack Stafford three times, led by rising star edge rusher Will Anderson, who had a sack, two quarterback hits and three tackles for loss.
