Tampa Bay (1-0) at Detroit (1-0)
Sunday, 1 p.m. EDT, FOX
BetMGM NFL Odds: Lions by 7 1/2.
Series record: Lions lead 33-29
Against the spread: Bucs 1-0, Lions 1-0
Last meeting: Lions beat Bucs 31-23 on Jan. 21 at Detroit in the divisional round.
Last week: Bucs beat Commanders 37-20; Lions beat Rams 26-20 in OT.
Bucs offense: overall (7), rush (17), pass (4), scoring (2)
Bucs defense: overall (16), rush (21), pass (14), scoring (12t)
Lions offense: overall (10), rush (7t), pass (13), scoring (13t)
Lions defense: overall (16), rush (21), pass (14), scoring (12t)
Turnover differential: Bucs: even; Lions: even.
QB Baker Mayfield. His passer rating of 146.4 was the highest in the league in Week 1, leaving him and his teammates brimming with confidence about the direction of the offense under first-year offensive coordinator Liam Coen.
WR Amon-Ra. St. Brown. The All-Pro was limited three catches on six targets for 13 yards, his lowest total since Oct. 23, 2022, against Dallas. He had career highs last year with 119 receptions, 1,515 yards receiving and 10 TDs.
Mayfield against Detroit's D. The 29-year-old Mayfield was 24 of 30 for 289 yards with four TDs and no INTs in Week 1. If he can put up those kinds of numbers again, the Bucs can pull off an upset. Lions rookie CB Terrion Arnold was called for pass interference twice in the second half last week.
Tampa Bay All-Pro safety Antoine Winfield Jr. (foot), RT Luke Goedeke (concussion), DL Calijah Kancey (calf) and reserve CB Josh Hayes (ankle) are out. Starting CB Zyon McCollum, who exited last week's opener, practiced this week but remains in concussion protocol. He will have to pass tests by Saturday to be cleared to play. DL Logan Hall (foot), who sat out Week 1, also practiced and is listed as questionable. ... Detroit OT Penei Sewell (ankle), DE Marcus Davenport (groin), DBs Kerby Joseph (hamstring) and Ifeatu Melifonwu (ankle) were held out of practice. ... DT DJ Reader is expected to make his Lions debut after missing Week 1 with a leg injury.
Jared Goff finished 30 of 43 for 287 yards and threw a second TD with 6:22 left in the most recent meeting, lifting the Lions to a win over the Bucs and into the NFC championship game for the first time in 32 years. ... The visiting team has won the past four regular-season meetings between the one-time NFC Central rivals, including Detroit's 20-6 win last October when Goff threw for a season-high 353 yards and two TDs.
The Bucs are the NFC's only team that has made the playoffs each of the past four seasons. ... Tampa Bay earned points on seven of nine possessions in the opener, trailing just two teams in the highest percentage of scoring drives. .... Bucs WR Mike Evans is the only player in NFL history to begin a career with 10 consecutive seasons with at least 1,000 yards receiving. Tampa Bay scored on seven of nine offensive possessions against Washington. … Since the start of last season, RB Rachaad White ranks second among NFL running backs in receiving (624), third in receptions (70) and fourth in scrimmage yards (1,645). … Six rookies made their NFL debuts for Tampa Bay in Week 1, including WR Jalen McMillan, a third-round draft pick, who scored. First-round center Graham Barton also started against Washington. Fourth-round RB Bucky Irving came off the bench to average 6.9 yards per carry and finish with a team-high 62 on nine attempts. … The Lions are the fourth NFL team to open a season with two straight playoff rematches. The other three teams — 2007 Patriots, 1984 49ers and 1966 Packers — went on to win NFL titles. ... Detroit is coming off its first OT win since 2016, and its first at home since 2015. ... The Lions averaged 5.3 yards a carry, rotating RBs David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. ... Since the start of last season, they have scored rushing and passing in a league-high 16 games. ... Lions WR Jameson Williams had five catches for a career-high 121 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown last week. ... Detroit was the only team in Week 1 with three players gaining 70 scrimmage yards: Gibbs, Montgomery and Williams. ... Since 2022, Kerby Joseph has nine INTs and Jessie Bates is the only NFL safety ahead of him with 10 INTs. ... The Lions acquired CB Carlton Davis from Tampa Bay for a third-round draft pick last March, adding a player who started 75 games over six seasons for the Bucs.
Evans has 22 receptions for 377 yards and three TDs in his past three outings against the Lions, including eight catches for 147 yards and a TD in the previous meeting. The previous time the Bucs visited Ford Field in the regular season four years ago, Evans had 10 receptions for 181 yards and two TDs.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Detroit Lions running back David Montgomery (5) celebrates his one-yard touchdown run against the Los Angeles Rams during overtime in an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/David Dermer)
Detroit Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs (26) runs as Los Angeles Rams cornerback Tre'Davious White (27) moves in for the tackle during overtime in an NFL football game in Detroit, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Duane Burleson)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans (13) acknowledges fans as he leaves the field after an NFL football game against the Washington Commanders Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) scrambles past Washington Commanders defensive tackle Daron Payne (94) for yardage during the second half of an NFL football game Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Jason Behnken)
BEIRUT (AP) — Pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded near-simultaneously Tuesday in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least nine people, including an 8-year-old girl, and wounding several thousand, officials said. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack.
An American official said Israel briefed the United States on Tuesday after the conclusion of the operation, in which small amounts of explosive secreted in the pagers were detonated. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.
The Israeli military declined to comment.
Among those wounded was Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon. The mysterious explosions came amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah, which have exchanged fire across the Israel-Lebanon border since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the war in Gaza.
The pagers that blew up were apparently acquired by Hezbollah after the group’s leader ordered members in February to stop using cellphones, warning they could be tracked by Israeli intelligence. A Hezbollah official told The Associated Press the pagers were a new brand, but declined to say how long they had been in use.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said Wednesday that it authorized its brand on the AR-924 pagers used by the Hezbollah militant group, but the devices were produced and sold by a company called BAC.
At about 3:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday, as people shopped for groceries, sat in cafes or drove cars and motorcycles in the afternoon traffic, the pagers in their hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding — leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders.
It appeared that many of those hit were members of Hezbollah, but it was not immediately clear if non-Hezbollah members also carried any of the exploding pagers.
The blasts were mainly in areas where the group has a strong presence, particularly a southern Beirut suburb and in the Beqaa region of eastern Lebanon, as well as in Damascus, according to Lebanese security officials and a Hezbollah official. The Hezbollah official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press.
The explosions came hours after Israel’s internal security agency said it had foiled an attempt by Hezbollah to kill a former senior Israeli security official using a planted explosive device that could be remotely detonated.
The United States “was not aware of this incident in advance” and was not involved, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said. “At this point, we’re gathering information."
Experts said the pager explosions pointed to a long-planned operation, possibly carried out by infiltrating the supply chain and rigging the devices with explosives before they were delivered to Lebanon.
Whatever the means, it targeted an extraordinary breadth of people with hundreds of small explosions — wherever the pager carrier happened to be — that left some maimed.
One online video showed a man picking through produce at a grocery store when the bag he was carrying at his hip explodes, sending him sprawling to the ground and bystanders running.
At overwhelmed hospitals, wounded were rushed in on stretchers, some with missing hands, faces partly blown away or gaping holes at their hips and legs, according to AP photographers. On a main road in central Beirut, a car door was splattered with blood and the windshield cracked.
Lebanon Health Minister Firas Abiad told Qatar's Al Jazeera network at least nine people were killed, including an 8-year-old girl, and some 2,750 were wounded — 200 of them critically — by the explosions. Most had injuries in the face, hand, or around the abdomen.
It appeared eight of the dead belonged to Hezbollah. The group issued a statement confirming at least two members were killed in the pager bombings. One of them was the son of a Hezbollah member in Parliament, according to the Hezbollah official who spoke anonymously. The group later issued announcements that six other members were killed Tuesday, though it did not specify how.
“We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression that also targeted civilians,” Hezbollah said, adding that Israel will “for sure get its just punishment.”
Iranian state-run IRNA news agency said that the country’s ambassador, Mojtaba Amani, was superficially wounded by an exploding pager and was being treated at a hospital.
Previously, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had warned the group’s members not to carry cellphones, saying they could be used by Israel to track and target them.
Sean Moorhouse, a former British Army officer and explosive ordnance disposal expert, said videos of the blasts suggested a small explosive charge — as small as a pencil eraser — had been placed into the devices. They would have had to have been rigged prior to delivery, very likely by Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, he said.
Elijah J. Magnier, a Brussels-based senior political risk analyst, said he spoke with Hezbollah members who had examined pagers that failed to explode. What triggered the blasts, he said, appeared to be an error message sent to all the devices that caused them to vibrate, forcing the user to click on the buttons to stop the vibration. The combination detonated a small amount of explosives hidden inside and ensured that the user was present when the blast went off, he said.
Israel has a long history of carrying out deadly operations well beyond its borders. This year, separate Israeli airstrikes in Beirut killed senior Hamas official Saleh Arouri and a top Hezbollah commander. A mysterious explosion in Iran, also blamed on Israel, killed Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ supreme leader.
Israel has killed Hamas militants in the past with booby-trapped cellphones and it’s widely believed to have been behind the Stuxnet computer virus attack on Iran’s nuclear program in 2010.
The pager bombings are likely to stoke Hezbollah's worries about vulnerabilities in security and communications as Israeli officials are threaten to escalate their monthslong conflict. The near-daily exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah have killed hundreds in Lebanon and several dozen in Israel, and have displaced tens of thousands on both sides of the border.
Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, deplored the attack and warned that it marks “an extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context.”
On Tuesday, Israel said that halting Hezbollah’s attacks in the north to allow residents to return to their homes is now an official war goal. Israeli Defense Minister Gallant said the focus of the conflict is shifting from Gaza to Israel’s north and that time is running out for a diplomatic solution with Hezbollah.
This story has been updated to correct the name of the Hezbollah lawmaker’s son killed by a pager blast.
Associated Press writers Hussein Malla, Hassan Ammar, Fadi Tawil and Sarah El Deeb in Beirut; Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran; Michael Biesecker in Washington; Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Zeke Miller in Washington; and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.
A Lebanese Red Cross volunteer collects blood donations for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024, at a Red Cross center in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
People donate blood for those who were injured by their exploded handheld pagers, at a Red Cross center, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)
Lebanese soldiers stand guard at a street that leads to the American University hospital where they bring wounded people whose handheld pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
An ambulance carrying wounded people whose handheld pager exploded arrives outside at the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)
A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
An ambulance carries wounded people whose handheld pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Police officers inspect a car inside of which a hand-held pager exploded, Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
A Civil Defense first-responder carries a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Civil Defense first-responders carry a wounded man whose handheld pager exploded at al-Zahraa hospital in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
