While it was a valiant effort against the defending Super Bowl champion, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was unable to overcome a litany of injuries, a blocked punt return for a touchdown, and many other mistakes, as they lost to the Philadelphia Eagles 31-25 Sunday afternoon.
The team went into halftime at Raymond James Stadium down by a significant margin with the Eagles, jumping out to an early 14-3 advantage in the first quarter and building upon the lead to make it 24-6 by halftime.
The game got off to an ugly start in the first quarter when Philadelphia blocked a punt in the first quarter then returned it for a touchdown. The first half spiraled from there as the Bucs gave up a passing touchdown to Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert after a 73-yard drive.
Tampa Bay responded with a field goal, but quickly gave up another touchdown when Philly playcaller Jalen Hurts and Goedert connected again.
On the bright side, Bucs kicker Chase McLaughlin managed to set a new longest field goal record for Tampa Bay, nailing a 65-yarder as the first half came to a close.ย
The Bucs surged back in the second half, only surrendering 21 yards of offense against Philly and managing to put up a couple of big-time receiving touchdowns from Bucky Irving and Emeka Egbuka.
With another seemingly wonderful comeback loading, the Bucs managed to get it to within eight points, and were driving to just outside the Eagles 10 yard line.
Then Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield fell back into his bad habits, scrambling around and throwing an ill-advised pass into a hoard of Philly defenders, including rookie linebacker Jihaad Campbell who hauled in his first career interception.
The defense stepped up and continued its stifling second-half play, forcing a three-and-out, but Myafield & co. failed to capitalize and the game ended with the Eagles punter sprinting into the end zone to let the clock run out.
There were some excellent performances from the Bucs, despite the loss, including Egbukaโs fourth touchdown catch of the season
Irving had 165 yards from scrimmage in addition to that receiving touchdown in the second half, although fans might focus on his fumble in the third quarter that led to Phillyโs only second-half points.
These games happen, and even if the Bucs had played perfectly they still might have lostโPhiladelphia is quite a good team.
This might not be the last of these two teams seeing each other as this game couldโve very well been an NFC Championship Game preview.
How Tampa Bay responds to this loss will be a huge indicator as to whether or not they can secure another NFC South division crown.
Luckily, the Carolina Panthers (1-3) and New Orleans Saints (winless) both took losses Sunday afternoon, but the Atlanta Falcons (2-2) managed to squeak out a one possession victory over the Washington Commanders. Itโs obviously too early to be looking at those types of things but itโs always nice to see that the bottom of the NFC South will hopefully be just as bad as it was last year.
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