TODAY

Tampa Bay (11-6) at Green Bay (13-3

The facts: 9:30 a.m., Lambeau Field, Channel 11.

Head to head: The Packers won both meetings against the Buccaneers this season, 21-16 at Green Bay and 17-6 at Tampa.

Storyline: Enough with the weather angle already.

Yes, the Buccaneers are 0-16 in games in which the temperature at kickoff is below 40 degrees.

And yes, Packer quarterback Brett Favre is 22-0 when the temperature is below 35 degrees at Lambeau Field.

But it’s not as if these are two evenly matched teams whose fate will be decided by some outside factor like the elements. The outcome wouldn’t be any different if the Packers and Buccaneers played in Death Valley.

Under Coach Tony Dungy, finishing his second year at Tampa Bay’s helm, the Buccaneers are enjoying their best season since 1979, when the club got as far as the NFC championship game.

But the Packers, coming off a year in which they solidly defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, have returned with yet another Super Bowl-quality team.

It wasn’t easy.

Green Bay lost Edgar Bennett just over eight minutes into its first exhibition game because of a torn Achilles’ tendon. But Dorsey Levens stepped in and rushed for 1,435 yards, only 39 short of Jim Taylor’s team record, and scored seven touchdowns.

The Packer offensive line gave Favre better protection than ever--as if opposing defenses didn’t have enough to worry about--and he responded by throwing for enough yardage to give Green Bay its first single-season tandem of 1,000-yard receivers (Antonio Freeman, 1,243 yards; Robert Brooks, 1,010).

The Buccaneers are led by their defense, which is ranked third in the league, sixth against the rush and ninth against the pass. In the regular season, Tampa Bay gave up only 263 points, the lowest total in the NFC and second in the league behind the Kansas City Chiefs.

It’s a good thing for the Buccaneers that they have such a powerful defense, because their offense is led by quarterback Trent Dilfer, who doesn’t remind anybody of Favre.

Keys to the game: Last week, Tampa Bay shut down the Detroit Lions’ Barry Sanders, holding the NFL’s newest 2,000-yard man to 65 yards rushing in the first round of the playoffs, that being the key reason Tampa Bay wound up a 20-10 winner.

If the Buccaneers’ defense can do the same to the league’s other dominating star, Favre, they then will equal their playoff run of ’79.

But that’s not going to happen. Unlike Sanders, Favre has extensive playoff experience and a confidence buoyed by previous postseason success. He won’t wind up the way Sanders did.

The key for Green Bay is for Favre, who has been known to let his excitement and enthusiasm overwhelm him, to simply be patient if Tampa Bay’s defense makes it a closer game than the odds indicate.

Now you know: The Packers haven’t given up a touchdown through the air in 23 quarters and have permitted only one in the last 34. Don’t look for Dilfer to break that streak.

They said it: Dungy, explaining why he was wary about taking his team into the Packers’ neighborhood to prepare for today’s game: “When somebody offers you a practice field [in Wisconsin], you never know what that means.”

The line: Green Bay by 14.