In a meeting of two teams seeking to establish an identity, Thursday night’s matchup between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers provides an opportunity for one of these teams to establish itself as a legitimate threat in their respective conferences.
The Patriots, 2-2, find themselves in an unaccustomed position as a loss at Tampa Bay could drop them potentially two games off of the AFC East lead, while the Buccaneers, at 2-1, need a win to keep pace with the Falcons and Panthers in the NFC South.
New England has gotten off to an unusually slow start, and it has been the defense that has let the Patriots down so far.