January 15, 2024
Kim Klement Neitzel/USA TODAY Sports
Will Jalen Hurts and the Eagles finally get it together?
UPDATE [12:10 a.m.] – And that's it. The Eagles' spiral continued. The Bucs pummeled them, 32-9, and a season with such high expectations and ambitions, instead crashed and burned.
The Eagles dropped six of their last seven with Monday night's playoff defeat to complete a monumental collapse, and now some tough decisions loom because of it.
On where it all goes and how we even got here to begin with, check out our postgame coverage...
• Final observations: Buccaneers 32, Eagles 9 (Shamus Clancy)
• Eagles implode, Super Bowl hopes crash and burn, and now major decisions loom (Nick Tricome)
• Philadelphia is a city of big time sports collapses (Evan Macy)
EARLIER...
The 2023 Philadelphia Eagles got out to a strong 10-1 start with a firm grasp of the 1 seed in the NFC before completely falling apart down the stretch, losing five of their last six games, including two embarrassing losses to the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants. They are now the 5 seed, and on Monday night they'll face the Buccaneers on the road in Tampa.
If the Eagles win they will advance to the divisional round and face the Detroit Lions next Sunday. If they lose, they will be eliminated from the postseason and heads will surely roll.
The Eagles listed eight players on their initial injury report. Star WR A.J. Brown will miss this game with a knee injury. The Bucs are a healthy team. They listed just five players on their initial injury report, and they only have two notable players on injured reserve. You can find the Eagles' and Buccaneers' inactives here.
The Eagles and Bucs played way back in Week 3 this season. The Eagles won 25-11 in a game that wasn't even that close. It was one of the Birds' best performances of 2023, as they owned the trenches on both sides of the ball. However, they have not looked at all like the same team the last two months, while the Buccaneers have won five of their last six games.
Offensively, the Eagles have struggled to find answers against the blitz, which has to be a major concern against the Bucs, who have the third-highest blitz rate in the NFL. Defensively, the Eagles have been a disorganized mess since Nick Sirianni replaced Sean Desai as the team's defensive coordinator with Matt Patricia, and the Bucs have playmakers in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin who can make big plays. Be sure to check out our five matchups to when when the Eagles are on offense, and when they're on defense.
The Eagles are favored in this game by 2.5 points. Here are our staff writer picks. Feel free to discuss the game in the comments section below.
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