Revenge.

It’s said to be the "best medicine," and if so, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (9-5) will be trying to dish out spoonfuls of it this week when they host the defending Super Bowl-champion St. Louis Rams (9-5) on Monday Night Football.

Although playoff implications are high, Tampa Bay will no doubt be thinking of its 11-6 heartbreaking loss to St. Louis in last season’s NFC Championship Game. The Rams led the NFL in scoring in 1999 and posted 49 points against the Minnesota Vikings the previous week in the Divisional Playoffs, but on Championship Sunday, the Buccaneers’ stifling defense stymied St. Louis.

Tampa Bay held a 6-5 lead with less than five minutes left to play, but that’s when the league MVP, St. Louis quarterback KURT WARNER, made perhaps his most valuable pass of the season by connecting with wide receiver RICKY PROEHL, who was blanketed by Bucs cornerback BRIAN KELLY, for a 30-yard touchdown with 4:44 left.

The memories still sting for many Buccaneers.

"It's something we thought about all offseason," says Buccaneers quarterback SHAUN King. "Once the season started, we sort of put it out of our minds. But it stayed with us all offseason because we were always thinking, ‘That should've been us playing in Super Bowl.'"

Buccaneers safety JOHN LYNCH concurs.

"You're that close, (four) minutes away and you have it taken from you," says Lynch. "You have to go to the Pro Bowl three weeks later, and seeing the Rams’ guys come back as Super Bowl-champions, you think if a couple of things had changed, that could have been us. There's redemption on our mind. The fact that it has playoff ramifications makes it even bigger. That's really ultimately the most important thing for us right now."

The playoffs implications are high. Both the Bucs and Rams can clinch a postseason berth with a victory.

"This is a big game," says Rams head coach MIKE Martz about the playoff possibilities. "Yeah, it's a huge game. This is it. It's fish or cut bait."

Buccaneers head coach TONY DUNGY is happy with his team’s position considering the four-game losing streak it suffered earlier this year.

"Any time you've got your fate in your own hands, you're happy with that," says Dungy. "We're disappointed about getting into that spot (losing four in a row), but it’s about as well as we could expect right now. We've got a home game that we really need to win, but you wouldn't want it any other way."

Both clubs face tough road tests in their season finale, making Monday night’s game that much more important. Tampa Bay travels to frigid Lambeau Field to face the Packers, and St. Louis goes to New Orleans to play the Saints in a game that could determine the NFC West title.

"We still have a lot of work to do down the stretch," says Rams cornerback Dexter Mc Cleon. "We've got to find a way to win these last two weeks."

In order to win Monday night’s game, Martz is planning on being more aggressive than last year’s offensive philosophy in the Championship Game that produced only 11 points.

"What happened in that game was that we had that initial drive on which we got three points, but we just couldn't get on track," says Martz. "When that happens, you have a tendency to back off a little bit. We felt it would be a low-scoring game and whenever the opportunity came up, we'd try to take advantage of it. That's how we played the game. I'm not sure we couldn't just do our regular mix and do relatively well.''