Eagles Outlast Bucs

Baker Mayfield threw touchdown passes of 77 yards to Emeka Egbuka and 72 yards to Bucky Irving and Chase McLaughlin stunningly made field goals of 65 and 58 yards, but the Tampa Bay Buccaneers couldn’t quite climb out of a 21-3 hole against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in a 31-25 loss on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium.

“It’s tough to come back from that against a good team,” said Head Coach Todd Bowles. “The winner of these games when we play [the Eagles] usually starts out fast. We’ve started out fast in the past, they started out fast today and you’re not going to catch a team like that when you start out like that. Credit to them.”

The game was only matchup of unbeaten teams on the NFL’s Week Four schedule and a good early test for both teams in terms of the NFC title hunt. Philadelphia, which has won 20 of 21 games since a Week Four loss in Tampa last season, is now 4-0 as it looks to defend its Super Bowl LIX title, while the Bucs fall to 3-1. Tampa Bay remains in first place in the NFC South over the 2-2 Atlanta Falcons, who beat Washington at home on Sunday.

The game started very badly for the home team, as the Bucs had the game’s first possession but were forced to punt after gaining one first down. The Eagles’ punt-rush team broke through the line and TE Cameron Latu blocked Riley Dixon’s punt sending the ball bouncing out to the left. S Sydney Brown scooped it up on a bounced and ran untouched 36 yards to the end zone for a 7-0 lead two minutes into the first quarter. Through four games, the Bucs have already had three kicks blocked – two punts and one field goal – and two of them returned for scores.

“That’s something we’ll figure out in the meetings,” said Bowles. “We’ll look at the total operation, how we’re doing it, why we’re doing it and if we’re doing it with the right people and if we’re doing it with the right scheme. Three weeks in a row something went wrong, and we’ll get that fixed.”

The Eagles then followed with 73 and 67-yard touchdown drives, both ending in shovel-pass touchdowns from Jalen Hurts to TE Dallas Goedert. The Eagles scored on three of their four first-half possessions while the Bucs managed just two field goals on six possessions. The Bucs’ offense was much improved in the second half and the defense forced six punts on eight possessions, but a pair of turnovers – the only two of the game – eventually doomed the home team’s comeback attempts.

McLaughlin’s 65-yard field goal just before halftime seemed to cause a momentum shift in the game, as the Bucs’ defense forced three consecutive three-and-outs to start the second half and Mayfield hit Egbuka on the first long score for one-play drive that cut the Eagles’ lead down to 11 points with eight minutes still to play in the third quarter. Unfortunately, a Bucky Irving fumble in Bucs territory ended that run, leading to an Eagles touchdown. The Bucs also failed to capitalize on a 46-yard punt return by Kameron Johnson into Eagles territory, turning the ball over on downs.

“The fight, we’re going to have that every week,” said Bowles. “But you can’t fight and get behind the eight ball against good teams and expect to win. We’re always going to have fight; we just have to clean up mistakes now. It’s getting to that point where we have to cut them down.”

However, the loss of momentum was only temporary. Mayfield hit another huge play, a scrambling improvisational throw down the sideline to Irving, who caught on the run and then raced untouched to the end zone for a 72-yard score, and McLaughlin hit from deep again, a 58-yarder that pulled the Bucs to within eight points with a little over 12 minutes left in regulation. Another three-and-out forced by the Bucs’ defense and a 27-yard return by Johnson had the Bucs in Philadelphia territory needing one score to tie with 11:48 left.

That drive, however, ended in the Bucs’ second giveaway, as Mayfield threw short under heavy pressure in an attempt to get the ball to Chris Godwin in the end zone and it was intercepted at the goal line by LB Jihaad Campbell. Tampa Bay got the ball back one more time with six minutes left and was able to get into Eagles territory, but a key nine-yard sack by DT Moro Ojomo created a third-and-23 situation the Bucs couldn’t convert.

“Obviously, situationally, in the red zone, you’ve got to be careful with the ball,” said Mayfield. “It just kind of slipped out of my hand; I don’t know if it got tipped or what but [we need] extra precaution down there. We were driving down, it was a one-score game. We fight. I’ve talked about it. The standard is fight back, we won’t stop fighting until the game’s over, and that’s the positive take out of it. But the negative is directly related to [the slow start]. We talked about starting fast and we did the opposite today. We’ve got to fix that. You can’t expect to beat teams of that caliber when you start slow like that.”

There were other special teams concerns for the Bucs during the game. Dixon mis-hit another punt in the second quarter that went only 18 yards and the Bucs had an average drive start of their own 22-yard line on kickoffs. A holding call erased a long kickoff return by Kameron Johnson that would have put the Bucs well into Eagles territory in the second quarter.

Mayfield finished the game with 289 yards on 22-of-40 passing, with the two long touchdowns and one interception, his first of the season. Both Egbuka and Irving topped 100 receiving yards, with Egbuka continuing the red-hot start to his rookie season with four catches for 101 yards and a score. However, he was targeted 10 times, as was Godwin, as the Eagles got strong coverage efforts from second-year cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean, who combined for seven passes defensed, five by Mitchell. Irving also ran for 63 yards to finish with 165 yards from scrimmage.