Free Press sports writers share their Detroit Lions vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers game predictions for Sunday afternoon (1 p.m., Fox) in Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season.

Dave Birkett

The Lions are just the fourth team in NFL history to open a season against two teams they played in the previous year’s playoffs, according to ESPN, and all three of their predecessors went on to reach the Super Bowl. There’s a lot of season left before that happens, but there’s no denying the Bucs will be out to avenge their two losses to the Lions in the past 11 months.

Tampa is a good team with a dangerous offense, and Todd Bowles is one of the best defensive coaches in the NFL. But he’ll have his work cut out for him Sunday given Tampa’s injury-derived shortcomings in the secondary. I don’t think this game turns into a blowout, like the oddsmakers project. If Tampa has any success running the ball, this game won’t be decided until late in the fourth quarter. But as long as Jared Goff avoids turnovers, the Lions will walk away with the tiebreaker edge over another NFC playoff contender. The pick: Lions 28, Bucs 24.

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Carlos Monarrez

If the Bucs weren’t decimated by injuries to their secondary, I would be tempted to pick them based off last week’s dominant 37-20 win over Washington. But that was in Tampa, Florida, and Ford Field ain’t Tampa. The Lions’ defense needs to clean up its tackling and will be challenged by the Bucs’ potent pass game, which will get its points. But Ben Johnson’s offense will be too much for a shorthanded Tampa secondary. The pick: Lions 36, Bucs 30.

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Jeff Seidel

My ears were still ringing on Monday morning after the Lions’ season-opening win. Why point that out? Because Ford Field has turned into an amazing home-field advantage. It’s wildly loud and crazy and this team feeds on it. Perhaps, you recognize the score in my prediction — the final score against the Buccaneers in the divisional round of the playoffs last January. One thing to remember: That game was tied entering the fourth quarter, 17-17. This game will be close again, but Lions pull away late. The pick: Lions 31, Buccaneers 24.

Watch Lions vs. Bucs live on Fox

Shawn Windsor

For the second week in a row, the Lions have to play a team they just beat. Baker Mayfield and Co. return looking for revenge just as Matthew Stafford did Sunday. The Bucs are missing folks in the defensive backfield, but their offense looked primed and pumped in Week 1. This will be a good test for the Lions revamped defense. Meanwhile, the offense starts to work out some of the kinks. The pick: Lions 27, Bucs 23.

MILWAUKEE — It may look like someone took a video of their pocket, but that little dot in the middle of the surrounding black void is actually the International Space Station (ISS) flying over Milwaukee Saturday.

The ISS orbit around Earth has taken it above the Milwaukee skyline many times in the past, and it will “swing” by us many times in the future, but it is always cool to see just how far humans can go — about 248 miles above the surface.

It may have, arguably, one of the best views out of any job but it is no easy commute to get there and back.

Stranded astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — recently came into the public eye after the spacecraft carrying them to the station ran into several problems during the flight, and what was supposed to be an eight-day mission became several months.

The pair is now waiting for transport from the SpaceX Dragon capsule after the Boeing Starliner was remotely flown back without the astronauts.

Wilmore and Williams are expected back to Earth in February, but in the meantime, they are making the most of their time above ground and plan to vote in the upcoming November election.

If you want up-to-date coverage on the election, check out TMJ4’s America Votes, here, and vote like astronauts.

How the ISS came to be:

1984 — Ronald Reagan ordered NASA to build the ISS within the following 10 years. In his State of the Union Address, he said “Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today.”

1998 — The Zarya Control Module and the first section of the station in space was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket in November. The First US built section, Unity Node 1 was launched in December and was connected with Zarya. This was the first step in building the orbiting laboratory.

2000 — The first crew stayed in the station. NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergi Krikalev spent four months and according to the ISS National Laboratory, “began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space.”

2001 — US Lab Module was added which added a little over 40 percent of living space and this section is still the main area for US research.

2008 — Columbus Laboratory, the European lab, was added to the station in February. Kibo laboratory module, a Japanese lab, was added to the station.

If anyone would like to keep an eye on the sky for the ISS in the future, a sighting schedule is available for stargazers.

It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.

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The family of a 16-year-old Fridley girl killed in a hit-and-run in downtown Minneapolis early Saturday morning identified her as De’Miaya Broome.

“They took my baby away from me,” said Andrea Mitchell-Broome, her mother. “She loved people, she loved animals, she loved disabled people, she loved the people that stand on the corner. Anyone that was helpless – she wanted to help them.”

Broome, a student at MNIC High School in Minneapolis, aspired to become a nurse, her mother said. She also enjoyed drawing and painting, especially cartoon characters.

READ MORE: Minneapolis fatal hit-and-run arrest: Teen girl dead after woman drives into crowd

Someone captured the incident on video and posted it online, which upset the already grief-stricken family.

“It’s all on the media how they ran over her, and how they killed my grandbaby and then recorded it, even the friends she was with,” said Larenda Faulkner, her grandmother.

De’Miaya’s father, Juan Broome, wanted everyone to remember a few things about his daughter.

“She came from somewhere,” he said. “She wasn’t a throwaway. She had a mother and a father.”

Broome’s mother said she doesn’t know why her daughter was downtown. She told her mother she was at a friend’s house.

What happened? 

Officers responded to a reported hit-and-run crash at the intersection of 5th Street North and Hennepin Avenue at about 12:23 a.m. Saturday that left one person dead and several others injured.

Broome died from her injuries sustained in the crash after she was taken to the hospital. 

A 22-year-old woman was accused of driving into the crowd, and was arrested. 

Five others were also injured in the crash, including two 14-year-old girls, a 24-year-old man, and a 28-year-old man, all of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries. A 29-year-old woman remains in critical condition in the hospital.