Injury Ravaged Buccaneers Fall To The Defending NFC Champions In The Rain

Mike Carlson. Getty Images.

This game sucked. No two ways about it. The Bucs showed some good fight early holding the Eagles on a 4th down and keeping them out of the end zone on an early red zone trip. But things started to fall apart at the end of the 1st half due to a series of turnovers and missed calls.

Tie game (3-3) with three and half minutes left in the 1st half, on a critical 3rd down there was a blatant missed holding call on a play that went for a touchdown.

Not sure how this was missed considering this headlock was right next to the Quarterback.

But that didn't make the difference in the game. The Bucs turnovers and inability to stop the run cost them dearly. Tampa Bay lost the time of possession game 21 minutes to 39. You're not going to win a football game that way. 

The worst part of the game was seeing the secondary dropping like flies. Starting CB Carlton Davis missed his second straight game. The other starter, Jamel Dean went down several times. We're already fairly thin at that position and by the end we've got our 5th CB, Derrek Pitts, who was previously exclusively a gunner (and a damn good one at that) guarding AJ Brown 1-on-1 with 10 yards of cushion on 3rd down. 

Proof he's a beast on special teams

But with all due respect, I don't want to see him on an island vs. AJ Brown. But that's what it came down to. The Eagles bled the clock in the 2nd half and got the lead to where it was out of reach before the whistle blew. A loss for sure, but if this team can bounce back this weekend vs. the Saints, they'll have a stranglehold on the division going into their early bye. Going into the season, this was a game you circled and figured it'd be a tough one. It was. Now we move on and hopefully can beat a Jameis Winston-led Saints team and go into the bye 3-1. The Bucs lost, but after starting 2-0, we were playing with house money. Let's get a win next week and win this damn division!