Eagles End Season With Embarrassing Playoff Loss to Buccaneers
The Philadelphia Eagles stumbled their way into the postseason after losing five of their last six games in the regular season. Considering Philly's abundance of talented veterans, many felt that things would "click" when the lights got the brightest.
That cliche "playoff mode" was never activated.
Philadelphia failed to put together a successful revenge tour back to the Super Bowl, instead bowing out in embarrassing fashion to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday night in a 32-9 Wild Card loss. The loss marked the Eagles sixth loss in their final seven games of the season.
© Nathan Ray Seebeck, USA TODAY
Eagles center Jason Kelce appeared to have tears in his eyes as the final seconds ticked off the clock, as the loss marks a potential end to his career and many other Eagles, players and coaches alike.
Anyone would be crying too after watching the way Philadelphia played.
The Eagles - most notably cornerback James Bradberry - missed multiple tackles throughout the night and were never able to consistently slow down quarterback Baker Mayfield and the Bucs while giving up some big plays after the catch.
But even when they did get stops, Philadelphia's offense was worse than the defense, which at least managed to get some timely sacks before finishing with four total.
The Eagles were 0 of 9 on third down, 0 of 2 on fourth down, had just 42 rushing yards and managed just 276 total yards of offense.
Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts went 25 of 35 passing for 250 yards and one touchdown. He was hardly to blame for the loss, but still had some key errors, most notably taking a safety near the end of the third quarter to extend Tampa's lead to 18-9.
Without A.J. Brown, the Eagles leaned on DeVonta Smith, who was one of the lone bright spots for Philly. He finished with eight catches for a season-high 148 yards and was the only reason the Eagles got any sort of movement on offense.
The Eagles will now head into what should be an interesting offseason where multiple questions will need to answered both on the roster and coaching staff.
