The Bucs’ matchup with the Steelers on Sunday carries more baggage than your standard early-season game.
Tampa Bay enters at 1-4, Pittsburgh at 3-2, and yes, the Bucs need a win at Raymond James Stadium if they want to build on the momentum from their Week 5 primetime victory. But the larger issue is the one that’s haunted this franchise for decades: they almost never beat Pittsburgh.
In 12 all-time regular season meetings, the Bucs are 2-10 against the Steelers. That .167 winning percentage is Tampa Bay’s worst against any opponent, and it traces all the way back to the beginning of the franchise. Pittsburgh beat the Bucs 42-0 in 1976, Tampa Bay’s inaugural season and its 13th loss in that infamous 0-14 year.
The pattern kept going from there. The Steelers won in Tampa in 1980, won again in Pittsburgh in 1983, and then rolled into Tampa for a fourth straight victory in 1989. The teams didn’t meet again until 1998, when the Bucs finally broke through for their first win in the series.
That didn’t exactly change the balance of power. Pittsburgh answered with four straight wins in 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2010.
Tampa Bay’s second win over the Steelers didn’t arrive until 2014, and that one came during a 2-14 season in Lovie Smith’s first year as head coach. The Steelers have also taken the last two meetings, in 2018 and 2022, and are favored to make Sunday an 11-2 edge all-time.
The Bucs’ first win over Pittsburgh was a classic Tony Dungy-era performance. Dungy, who had spent time with the Steelers as both a player and a coach, saw his team beat them 16-3 at Raymond James Stadium four months after a Hall of Fame Game win over Pittsburgh.
After falling behind 3-0 in the first quarter, Tampa Bay answered with two Michael Husted field goals to go into halftime ahead 6-3. A 3-yard Mike Alstott touchdown in the third quarter pushed the lead to 13-3, and Husted added another field goal to finish it off.
That day belonged to the defense. The Bucs held Pittsburgh to 166 total yards, limited the Steelers to 2-of-10 on third down and 0-for-2 on fourth down, and forced five turnovers.
John Lynch grabbed two interceptions, Donnie Abraham and Brian Kelly added one each, and Steve White produced a sack-fumble that Warren Sapp recovered. Trent Dilfer finished 9-of-18 for 111 yards, while Alstott carried 24 times for 78 yards and the lone touchdown.
The second and most recent Tampa Bay win over Pittsburgh came 16 years later, in Week 4 of the 2014 season. The Bucs were 0-3 and had just been blown out 56-14 by Atlanta on Thursday night 10 days earlier, but they went into Pittsburgh as 7.5-point underdogs and walked out with one of the franchise’s biggest upsets.
That game started fast. Michael Johnson forced a Ben Roethlisberger sack-fumble on the third play, Jacquies Smith recovered at the Pittsburgh 9-yard line, and two plays later Mike Glennon hit rookie Mike Evans for a 7-yard touchdown - the first scoring catch of Evans’ career. Tampa Bay forced another three-and-out, added a field goal, and jumped ahead 10-0 before the Steelers punched back with 17 straight points to take the lead into halftime.
The Bucs answered in the third quarter with a 3-yard Doug Martin touchdown run to finish an eight-play, 80-yard drive, but Pittsburgh came right back with its own 10-play, 80-yard march to move ahead 24-17. Tampa Bay got within 24-20 early in the fourth, then appeared finished when Glennon and the offense failed on 4th & 10 at the Pittsburgh 14 with 1:44 left.
But the Steelers handed the Bucs one more chance. A three-and-out and a 29-yard punt opened the door, Glennon found Louis Murphy for 41 yards, and that set up a 5-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Vincent Jackson. Tampa Bay won 27-24, then didn’t win again for seven weeks before finishing 2-14.
By the time Sunday rolls around, that 2014 win will have been 4,403 days ago. It will also have been 10,171 days since Tampa Bay last beat Pittsburgh at Raymond James Stadium. The Bucs have carried a Steelers problem for a long time, and they’ll need to solve it if they want any real shot at turning their 2026 season around.
In Other News...
Bucs Face A Troubling Week 6 Health Question At The Worst Time
The Buccaneers are entering Week 6 with the sort of injury report nobody wants to see this late in the week, especially with a Steelers matchup looming. Both teams are dealing with a cluster of key health concerns, but Tampa Bays issues are the ones that stand out most because they touch both sides of the ball and come at a time when every practice rep matters.
Baker Mayfield did not practice while still recovering from the dislocated thumb he suffered in Week 3, leaving the offense with an obvious question at quarterback as preparations continue. On the other side of the defense, Antoine Winfield Jr. is expected to miss 2-4 weeks with a rib injury, a setback that further complicates the secondary just as the Buccaneers try to steady themselves for a difficult stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Bucs Miss Keeps Getting Harder To Ignore As Former Pick Slips Again
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The latest step is a tough one for a former premium pick trying to stick in the league. Braswell was waived by Houston, leaving him back in free-agent territory and searching for his next chance after already bouncing once from Tampa Bay to the Texans. For the Buccaneers, it is another reminder that some draft misses linger long after the original decision is made. [Read more 🡒]
Tomlin Just Twisted The Knife On Dallas After Bucs Exposed Them
The Cowboys defense has been searching for answers through the first five weeks, and the frustration spilled into a players-only meeting as the group tried to sort out what has gone wrong. For Tampa Bay, which helped expose those issues on the field, it only added another layer to a growing NFC storyline: Dallas is still trying to steady a unit that has not looked like itself, and the pressure is mounting fast.
Mike Tomlin then added to the noise with a blunt take on players-only meetings during a podcast appearance, casting doubt on whether they ever fix much at all. It was the kind of comment that lands harder when a defense is already on edge, and Dallas now heads into its Week 6 matchup with Green Bay needing more than just another conversation to show real progress. [Read more 🡒]