In a game in which the Eagles were favored by three on the road, the Buccaneers showed everyone what they are about. In the final game of the Wild Card round, we saw the Eagles, who were just in the Super Bowl last year, get bounced out of the playoffs.
Eagles: It starts on defense. It was no secret that their secondary is one of the worst in the league. Monday Night Football didn’t make them look any better. They had poor tackling all night long. The offense wasn’t doing the team any favors either. They failed to convert on any of their third or fourth downs. Jalen Hurts who averaged a little over nine rushes a game, only had one attempt on the night. He had one or two others, but they were called back due to penalties, or they failed to cross the line of scrimmage. Even against a strong Buccaneers’ rush defense, I expected him to run more due to his hand injury. The Buccaneers were also blitzing Hurts early and often. Some lanes were open after he avoided the blitz, but didn’t tuck it and run, which we've seen him do plenty of times. With just three minutes left in the first half, Hurts connected with DeVonta Smith deep for 55 yards. The very next play, Dallas Goedert finds the end zone on a wide open play. This is when it got interesting. Not only did it become a one-score game, but a penalty on the Buccaneers during the point after attempt, meant that the Eagles could take it from the one yard line. Being the team that perfected the “Tush Push”, the Eagles went for it. They failed to convert, but it seems that a Buccaneer defender grabbed Hurts’ helmet and facemask to keep him from progressing forward. This blatant penalty wasn’t called on the field. Given how the rest of the game went, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Smith, who was questionable with an ankle injury, stepped up in A.J. Brown’s absence with eight catches for 148 yards. D’Andre Swift had a career season, but didn’t show much in this game to help his case for the Eagles to re-sign him. It’ll be interesting how they handle that situation. For a team that lost five of their last six games in the regular season, the sideline arguments and frustration carried over to the postseason. The best thing the Eagles did all night was having third down sacks on multiple drives to push the Buccaneers out of field goal range.
Buccaneers: In the first half, Mike Evans and Chris Godwin were held to just one reception each for a total of 30 yards against a poor Eagles secondary. Nevertheless, Baker Mayfield, who passed for 337 yards and 3 touchdowns with no turnovers, had himself a night. Mayfield was making some nice throws that were unfortunately dropped. I believe they had six drops at the half. It could have been so much worse for the Eagles if the Buccaneers converted on those dropped passes. Evans had a huge drop on a 40 yard pass that would have likely ended up as a touchdown. If he catches that, he puts the Buccaneers up 17-0 and has himself a game, but instead it was a quiet night for the future Hall of Fame receiver. Rachaad White and Cade Otton both contributed to the drops, but both had solid games. Otton had a career game with eight receptions for 89 yards on 11 targets. He was the focal point of the offense. While Mayfield didn’t connect on those big play drops, he did connect short with David Moore and Trey Palmer who both took it to the house from 44 and 56 yards respectively. The speedster Palmer is someone I would be stashing, as Evans may be leaving in the off-season. Fun game next week when the Buccaneers travel to Detroit.
—Colt Williams
Williams is working towards a degree in economics and statistics at Sonoma State. A United States Air Force veteran, he’s been playing fantasy football since 2012. Follow him on Twitter @_ColtWilliams