Owing to the recaps being posted on Tuesday, I chose to wait until today to get the series history against the Buccaneers posted.
Here is the series history against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. More after the jump.
Currently, the Packers lead the series against the Buccaneers 29-21-1. This series started in 1977, with the Packers winning the first three (the 1977 game and a series sweep in 1978).
Over the next few years, though, the Buccaneers took charge in this series, winning five of six games between 1979 and 1981. The other game was a 14-14 tie. Both games were canceled in this series during the 1982 season.
From 1983-1986, the Packers responded by winning seven of eight games. This includes a 1983 game which the Packers won 55-14. This game prompted Buccaneers coach John McKay to tell a reporter in a postgame interview, "Get the [heck] away from me or I'll punch you in the mouth."
The 1985 game in Green Bay (one of several football games known as the "Snow Bowl") is also notable for its being held in a raging snowstorm. A foot of snow fell before the game, and more snow fell during the game. Fewer than 20,000 fans showed up, and this was the first Packers home game blacked out in Wisconsin since 1973. The coaches and the announcers in the booth had trouble seeing the action on the field, and the Buccaneers' white uniforms made them difficult to locate, too. The Packers won, 21-0.
The Buccaneers won the next four games, sweeping the Packers in 1988. Curiously, the Packers' lone cancellation in 1987 was the game in Tampa Bay between the two teams. The Packers lost in Green Bay to open the 1989 season, only to win 17-16 in Tampa towards the end of the season.
From 1990 to early 1998, the Packers were utterly dominant in this series, losing only three games while sweeping the Buccaneers in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, and 1997. Sterling Sharpe's last game as a Packer was the 1994 game in Tampa, a 34-19 Packers win.
With the late 1990s bringing a renewed strength to the Buccaneers, the series became one where the home team won virtually every game. The road team has won only twice in this series since 1998. These would be the 2003 game in Tampa, which the Packers won 20-13 thanks in part to a 98-yard drive which resulted in a touchdown and essentially ended any doubt about the game's outcome. The other game was in early 2005, when Ryan Longwell missed a field goal and extra point and the Buccaneers won by the score of 17-16, winning in Lambeau Field for the first time since 1989.
Since the latter part of 1998, the Buccaneers have won 8 of 12 games, but the Packers still lead the overall series by the 29-21-1 mark I listed earlier.
In the playoffs, the two teams have played only once, in the NFC Divisional round following the 1997 season. The Packers won 21-7, and eventually went to the Super Bowl, which they lost to Denver.
What are your memories of the Packers playing the Buccaneers?