The Tampa Bay Buccaneers took care of business at home against the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. Did anybody really expect this to go any other way? The Buccaneers came into this with a far better roster and that was on full display early on in this 31-15 showing. At halftime, the score of this game was 17-0 and most fans knew it was already over. All 15 of those Eagles points came late in the fourth quarter, they just had nothing going the whole game. Plus, right when it felt like they could turn it around, a muffed punt turned into seven Buccaneers points. Tampa Bay advances to play the winner of the Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals game. The Eagles look forward to having three draft picks in the top-24 selections in this upcoming draft.
Buccaneers Had a Balanced Attack
Tom Brady led this squad but didn’t have to do anything incredible. He threw for 271 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions on the day. Without Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones, Giovani Bernard and Ke’Shawn Vaughn took over. They combined for over 90 yards on the ground on 30 total attempts, with each scoring a touchdown. Through the air, Mike Evand has nine receptions for 117 yards and a touchdown himself.
Tampa Bay also took advantage of the inexperienced Jalen Hurts. They only sacked him twice but had two interceptions and forced a fumble. They also completely shut down the Eagles ground attack, something that got them into the postseason to begin with.
What Didn’t Go Wrong for the Eagles?
In terms of this specific game, there isn’t much positive takeaways for the Eagles. Hurts had 258 passing yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. However, we have seen other great quarterbacks struggle in their first playoff game as well so it shouldn’t be too much to worry about. Hurts also led the team in rushing with eight carries for 39 yards. Boston Scott had one rush for a 34-yard touchdown and Miles Sanders had just seven for 16 yards. It was confusing that they didn’t even attempt to get a run game going.
It seems to be the case with every playoff game, but the Eagles didn’t do anything in terms of takeaways. They had no interceptions or fumbles forced. Luckily, they got four sacks on Brady, which was a plus. Philadelphia has a lot of roster questions to figure out before the start of next season.
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