For the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Eagles are taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Week 4 matchup at Raymond James Stadium. Much has been made about the Birds’ previous struggles against Todd Bowles’ Bucs. Can Jalen Hurts and company emerge victorious as they also try to combat the Florida heat? […]
For the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Eagles are taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Week 4 matchup at Raymond James Stadium.
Much has been made about the Birds’ previous struggles against Todd Bowles’ Bucs. Can Jalen Hurts and company emerge victorious as they also try to combat the Florida heat? If so, they’ll be off to a 4-0 start for the third time in the last four seasons while remaining alone atop the NFC East.
Follow along here for live score updates, highlights, injury news, analysis, and more before this article ultimately turns into our game recap. The best place to actually discuss the game as it happens is still in our open threads for each quarter, the first of which you can find here.
FIRST QUARTER
- The Eagles won the coin toss and elected to defer to put the Bucs up on offense first. Jake Elliott’s opening kickoff bounced in the landing zone and out of the end zone to put Tampa at their own 20-yard line instead of the normal touchback at the 35-yard line. Stealing a page out of Joshua Karty’s book from last week. Smart! Facing 3rd-and-5 after picking up one first down, Baker Mayfield’s pass to Emeka Egbuka was incomplete with Quinyon Mitchell playing sticky coverage. Quality start from Vic Fangio’s unit. And then Sydney Brown recovered a punt blocked by special teams stud Cameron Latu for a touchdown! Latu almost blocked two punts in Kansas City in Week 2; he finally got home this time around. EAGLES 7, BUCCANEERS 0.
- The Bucs took over at their own 25-yard line. Mitchell had good coverage on a drop by Egbuka. Facing 3rd-and-3, Mayfield’s completion only gained one yard. Three-and-out! Certainly a better start to this game than the Eagles had in Tampa last year.
- The Eagles’ offense took over for the first time at their own 27-yard line. Todd Bowles immediately brought the blitz but Jalen Hurts dumped it off to Saquon Barkley for an easy first down catch-and-run. Wow, a blitz beater! Facing 3rd-and-8 on their next set of downs, it looked like the play clock hit zero but there was no flag and Hurts hit DeVonta Smith at the marker on a slant for another first down. A.J. Dillon took his first carry since Week 2 for 11 yards and another first down. Hurts took off scrambling against a blitz (with Vita Vea unsuccessfully spying him) for a 28-yard gain. Facing goal-to-go, Hurts tossed the ball forward to Dallas Goedert on a nifty little play for what turned out to be a pretty easy touchdown! Strong start for the offense to match strong starts from defense and special teams.
- The Bucs took over at their own 28-yard line. Kelee Ringo missed a chance to make an open field tackle on Bucky Irving by getting stiff-armed to allow a first down. Ringo failed to make another tackle on Irving but slowed the running back down enough to allow his teammates to tackle the Bucs RB for a loss. Cooper DeJean was flagged for taunting by stepping over the player he tackled and looking down at him. So dumb that that’s a penalty now but that’s how the refs are calling it this year, so, just can’t do it. One play later, DeJean picked Mayfield off on a flea flicker! But replay showed the ball hit the ground and there were penalty flags on the ground. After the play, a scrum broke out with Mayfield talking trash to Mitchell and Jalyx Hunt got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. Pretty dumb to give the Bucs 30 yards in penalties on back-to-back plays. Facing 3rd-and-1, Irving picked up a first down on the ground. Facing 3rd-and-10, a blitzing Zack Baun pressured Mayfield into a fumble that he recovered. Baun was credited with the sack. The Bucs settled for a 42-yard field goal on a 12-play, 48-yard drive that was majorly assisted by 30 yards of Eagles penalties.
SECOND QUARTER
- A slipping Tank Bigsby took the Bucs’ first kickoff to the 30-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-5 after Barkley slipped on a run for a loss, old friend Haason Reddick was involved in Barkley being tackled on a screen short of the marker. Assist to Dallas Goedert, who accidentally tackled Barkley as well.
- The Bucs took over at their own 16-yard line after a 52-yard Braden Mann punt. Facing 3rd-and-7, Mayfield took a deep shot to Chris Godwin Jr. but Mitchell — who else — once again had tight coverage to help force an incompletion, though the ball was still catchable. Bucs punter Riley Dixon totally shanked a punt that traveled just 18 yards but a questionable holding penalty on Parry Nickerson effectively made it 28 yards. Still pretty bad, but some damage mitigated.
- The Eagles took over at their own 43-yard line.
THIRD QUARTER
- Updates to come …
FOURTH QUARTER
- Updates to come …
EAGLES LINEUP NOTES
- Kelee Ringo started at cornerback with both Adoree’ Jackson and Jakorian Bennett out, as expected. Za’Darius Smith started in place of Nolan Smith.
EAGLES INJURY NEWS
- Updates to come …
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