Bucs Nation
The Buccaneers’ second home game of the season saw the Philadelphia Eagles come to Tampa— 3-0 versus 3-0. One team fated to suffer their first loss of 2025, will it be the Eagles or the Bucs?
Sunday kicked off ugly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. A first drive that stalled followed by the team’s second blocked punt allowed in three weeks. Tampa’s offense, still unable to generate much of anything, lined up to punt again. A successful punt did not do much to change the result. The Eagles’ offense took the ball down the field, crossed the goal line, and put the Bucs down double digits. Tampa Bay, on the back of desperation and yellow flags, found their way into field goal range as the quarter concluded. 14-3, Eagles.
Scoring ceased until Philadelphia went back to well with another short-yardage shovel pass to Dallas Goedert. 21-3, Eagles. With 5:57 left in the first half, Tampa kept their same offensive energy— A punt. Consistency remained Tampa’s theme, as the Eagles got the ball back and got their offense moving once again. Missed tackles, poor containment, and bad football by the Buccaneers’ defense— A truly hard to watch performance— led to yet another three points. 24-3, Philadelphia.
While FOX was having clock and graphic issues, Baker Mayfield was successfully engineering yet another two-minute-drill. Mayfield’s ability to execute in end-of-half/end-of-game moments has been most of, if not nearly all of, the reason the Buccaneers have made it to 3-0. No timeouts were needed, as Baker Mayfield managed to take his otherwise disjointed offense a small distance. That small distance proved to be enough as Chase McLaughlin, who has not been immune to Tampa’s treacherous 2025 special teams play, gave Bucs’ fans their only highlight of the first half. McLaughlin swung his leg and booted through a 65-yard kick— The longest in Buccaneers’ history, one of the longest in NFL history, and by far the longest of McLaughlin’s professional career. The Buccaneers leave half number one with a small gasping breath of hope— 24-6, Eagles.
Tampa’s defense played the opening possession of half number two like they were reamed during the intermission. Creating negative plays and forcing a three-and-out. The ensuing Eagles’ punt served as a highlight for Kameron Johnson— Slicing through Philadelphia’s coverage unit to hand Tampa premium starting field position. What would Josh Grizzard’s group do with it? Nothing. A failed fourth-down conversion. More quality Tampa Bay defense, however, and the ball would find itself back into the hands of Baker Mayfield. With the ball, Mayfield cranked a deep shot and found his star rookie Emeka Egbuka for a 77-yard, needle-threading touchdown strike.
Momentum had finally found its way to the Bucs’ side of things with another defensive stop, but momentum is a fickle fiend. A seemingly mundane Bucky Irving carry up the middle turned into a deflating fumble and the subsequent swing of that momentum. Philadelphia, with a newly debuted edition of...
