Over the past five seasons, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Philadelphia Eagles have combined for nine playoff appearances, six division titles and two Super Bowl championships. Now these two established NFC contenders are meeting in Week Four of the 2025 season and it’s an early battle for conference supremacy, as the games is the only meeting of undefeated teams on the league schedule.
The Buccaneers beat the Eagles in Week Four of last season, but Philadelphia has since won 19 of its last 20 games, including Super Bowl LIX. The Bucs have opened their quest for a record fifth straight NFC South title by winning each of their first three games with last-minute scores, an unprecedented feat, but they view the Eagles’ visit as a particularly exciting challenge.
“I mean, they won the Super Bowl,” said Head Coach Todd Bowles. “They’ve got a lot of talent. Last year, I think they had a couple guys out – we did too – but they weren’t at full strength [and] we weren’t at full strength. They play with a lot of confidence, they’re skilled at every position on both sides of the football, and they understand how to win. That’s huge in this league, if you understand how to win and you expect to win. They do a very good job at that. [Head Coach Nick] Sirianni has done a very good job getting those guys prepared every week.”
The Buccaneers’ most recent victory, a 29-27 Week Three thriller against the New York Jets, may have turned on Jamel Dean’s 55-yard pick-six just before halftime. It was Tampa Bay’s first defensive touchdown in almost a calendar year and the team’s first takeaway of the 2025 season. If the Eagles and Buccaneers both bring their “A” games and lock up in a tight battle, turnovers could be the difference again in Week Four. Both teams are tied for fifth in the NFL with a plus-two turnover ratio; the Bucs have two takeaways and no giveaways while the Eagles have three and one.
“It has been huge,” said quarterback Baker Mayfield of the Buccaneers’ turnover avoidance. “Obviously, [in] these tight ball games turnovers really matter. Our defense last week, getting two of them was huge — that was the difference in the game. We have to continue to take care of the ball. A couple fumbles from me, really have to tighten that up, obviously we have been lucky [the defense] has not gotten them. [We have to] continue to take care of the ball in the air and [have] our runners protect the ball as well.”
Of course, that’s not easy to do against an Eagles’ defense that is brimming with talent at every level. In addition to the powerful defensive tackle duo of Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and the all-around playmaker in the middle of the field in linebacker Zack Baun, Philadelphia has a ball-hawking secondary that reloaded in last year’s draft with cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. Second-round rookie safety Andrew Mukuba has already emerged as a playmaker and has been a strong complement to steady veteran Reed Blankenship.
“I think it starts with Reed,” said Mayfield. “He is just able to get those guys lined up. He is a veteran player, [he] recognizes patterns and concepts really quickly. He is able to take advantage of that and play aggressively. Quinyon, a young player — young corner — who is coming into his own and obviously with Cooper in there, versatile guy. [He’s] a guy they can put at corner, safety, nickel, kind of line him up wherever. They have done a really good job picking up great talent and just also how they play together. You can tell they understand their scheme; they are playing on the same wavelength.”
This is the fourth time in the last five seasons that the Eagles have visited Tampa in the first half of the season. The Buccaneers won last year in Week Four and in 2021 in Week Six. The Eagles won in Week Three in 2023. Another opening-month battle this season means another game played in the smothering heat and humidity of a Tampa September. The Buccaneers hope they are better suited to hold up to that sort of environment, but Bowles knows the advantage could swing based on which team can keep its offense on the field the longest.
“I don’t know if it’s an advantage,” said Bowles of the Bucs’ training in the Florida heat. “You get mentally tougher – no different than playing in the cold. If you’re playing in 10-degree weather, you’ve got to mentally prepare yourself for three or four hours. When you’re playing in the heat, you’ve got to mentally prepare yourself for three or four hours. I don’t know if it’s an advantage or disadvantage, and whoever holds the ball longer, the other team is probably going to struggle.”
Whether it’s the heat, the roster talent or how the ball bounces, one team is going to emerge from Sunday’s contest at Raymond James Stadium with an undefeated record and a clear claim to being one of the NFC’s top Super Bowl contenders. Rookie cornerback Benjamin Morrison, who will be playing in just his third NFL game, is looking forward to the challenge.
“It is cool,” said Morrison. “It is a big game. I think that is why we play football, for the games like this. They are a [very] talented team, so I am just excited to see how we measure up — it is a good test. Coach Bowles keeps talking about how it is not about them, it is about us, and this game will not win or lose a Super Bowl, but it will put us in a good position.”
GAME AND BROADCAST DETAILS
Philadelphia Eagles (3-0) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-0)
Sunday, September 28, 1:00 p.m. ET
Raymond James Stadium (capacity: 65,844)
TV Broadcast Team: Kevin Burkhardt (play-by-play), Tom Brady (analyst), Erin Andrews (reporter), Tom Rinaldi (reporter)
Radio: 98Rock (WXTB, 97.9 FM), Flagship Station
Radio Broadcast Team: Gene Deckerhoff (play-by-play), Dave Moore (analyst), T.J. Rives (reporter)
Spanish Radio: 96.1 Caliente
Spanish Radio Broadcast Team: Carlos Bohorquez (play-by-play), Martin Gramática (analyst), Santiago Gramática (reporter)
Coming to the game or enjoying pregame festivities? Check out our Buccaneers Gameday Page for everything you need to know about getting ready for the game, Tailgate Packages, Bucs Beach and more!
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ALL-TIME HEAD-TO-HEAD SERIES
The Eagles occupy a prominent spot in Buccaneers franchise history. Tampa Bay has met Philadelphia six times in the postseason, double the amount against any other franchise, and that includes the first playoff game in Bucs history and the first conference championship game in team annals, as well.
In the regular season, the Buccaneers and Eagles have played to a 9-9 tie in 18 meetings, with the Bucs evening things up just a year ago with a 33-16 win over the eventual Super Bowl champions in Week Four. The Bucs dominated the game and finished with a total yardage edge of 445-227, as Baker Mayfield threw for 347 yards and two touchdowns. The Bucs’ defense sacked Jalen Hurts six times, two by Lavonte David, and held him to 158 passing yards and 20 rushing yards.
Prior to that, the last Bucs-Eagles get-together was in the postseason. After winning the NFC South for a third consecutive time in 2023, the Buccaneers opened their playoff run with a home game against the Eagles in the Wild Card round. The home team won handily, rushing out to a quick 13-0 lead and cruising to a 32-9 final. Mayfield threw for 337 yards, three touchdowns and a 119.8 passer rating, completing passes to nine different players. The Bucs’ defense limited the Eagles to 276 total yards and didn’t allow a single third-down conversion in nine attempts.
The Bucs are 4-2 against Philadelphia in the playoffs, having also defeated the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs in 2021 by a 31-15 margin. That one wasn’t as close as the score indicates, as the Bucs built a 31-0 lead in that game on the strength of Tom Brady touchdown passes to Mike Evans and Rob Gronkowski. The Bucs’ defense held quarterback Jalen Hurts to 38 rushing yards and one touchdown pass while intercepting him twice.
Philadelphia’s most recent win in the head-to-head series occurred in prime time during the 2023 season. Playing on the Monday Night Football stage, the Buccaneers intercepted Hurts twice but allowed 201 rushing yards, including 130 by D’Andre Swift. Tampa Bay’s offense could muster just 174 yards in a 25-11 defeat. The Bucs had tied up the regular-season series in 2021 with a 28-22 win at Philadelphia in Week Six, as Leonard Fournette ran for two touchdowns in that game, balancing out the two times Hurts ran it in. The Bucs built a 28-7 and then hung on for the victory.
Two weeks into the 2018 season, the Eagles came to Raymond James Stadium after beating Tom Brady’s Patriots, 41-33, in a thrilling Super Bowl LII shootout the previous February. The Buccaneers had finished that same 2017 season with a 5-11 record, though they had looked impressive in a 2018 opening-week, 48-40 win in New Orleans. The Buccaneers beat the Eagles, 27-21, with Ryan Fitzpatrick throwing four touchdown passes, including a 75-yarder to former Eagle DeSean Jackson on the first play of the game. It would be the Eagles that went back to the playoffs that season, though, earning a Wild Card berth while the Bucs slumped to 5-11 and initiated a coaching change.
Many of Tampa Bay’s best moments in their head-to-head history with the Eagles have occurred in Philadelphia. There’s the 2002 NFC Championship Game, of course, but the 2003 Monday Night Football season opener was a particularly satisfying win, as well. The Buccaneers were there in Philadelphia in 1999 when Donovan McNabb made his NFL debut, and they didn’t exactly treat him well. Tampa Bay started its 1995 campaign by sacking Randall Cunningham five times and winning handily at Philadelphia; that was Warren Sapp’s NFL debut and he had one of those five sacks. Even the Bucs’ most recent trip to Philly, in 2015, was notable: At the time, the Bucs’ 45-17 win over the Eagles was their highest-scoring road game ever.
The Bucs’ biggest highlight in their series with the Eagles is unquestionably that aforementioned 2002 NFCC Game. The Buccaneers had seen their playoff dreams die at Veterans Stadium each of the previous two winters and had even lost in their personal house of horrors earlier in that ’02 campaign. But the Bucs showed up ready to battle and overcome a long game-opening kickoff and a Philly touchdown just a minute into the game. Joe Jurevicius’s unforgettable 71-yard catch-and-run began the turnaround, and the Bucs stymied McNabb for most of the night with two sacks, two forced fumbles and an interception off the prolific quarterback. Down 20-10, the Eagles mounted a late rally behind McNabb’s improvisational big plays and were closing in on the end zone with five minutes left. That’s when Ronde Barber made perhaps the single greatest play in team annals, intercepting a short pass and returning it 92 yards for the game-sealing touchdown.
Four seasons later, Barber terrorized McNabb again with a pair of pick-sixes in a 23-21 win at Raymond James Stadium in 2006, the game that famously ended on Matt Bryant’s 62-yard field goal. Until Mike Edwards pulled off the feat in Week Two of this season against Atlanta, Barber had been the only player in team history to have two interception-return touchdowns in the same game.
Tampa Bay’s very first playoff game also featured the Eagles. After winning the NFC Central in 1979, just the franchise’s fourth season of existence, the Bucs got a home game to start the playoffs and beat Philadelphia, 24-17. Ricky Bell set still-standing team records for carries (38) and rushing yards (142) in a playoff game.
Tampa Bay General Manager Jason Licht had a five-year run in the Eagles’ personnel department from 2003-07. He started out as the team’s assistant director of player personnel but was promoted to vice president of player personnel for his final two seasons with the team.
Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles had a short stint as the defensive coordinator in Philadelphia. After finishing the 2011 season as the Miami Dolphins’ interim head coach following the in-season dismissal of Tony Sparano, Bowles joined the Eagles’ staff in 2012 as the team’s secondary coach. Another dismissal, this time of Defensive Coordinator Juan Castillo in October, once again bumped Bowles’ title up as he took over that job for the remainder of the season.
Thaddeus Lewis, who is in his third year as the Buccaneers’ quarterbacks coach spent parts of eight seasons in the NFL as a quarterback with eight different teams, appearing in seven games with six starts. One of his stops was in Philadelphia, where he spent the entire 2015 season without appearing in a game.
Buccaneers’ outside linebacker Haason Reddick played two seasons in Philadelphia after signing as an unrestricted free agent in 2022. He recorded 27.0 sacks and 49 QB hits over those two seasons, earning second-team Associated Press All-Pro honors in 202 after a 16.0-sack season in which he also led the NFL with five forced fumbles.
Philadelphia offensive tackle Fred Johnson spent half of the 2022 season with the Buccaneers. He signed in Tampa in April of 2022 and saw action in five games as a reserve before being waived at the beginning of November.
Guard Sua Opeta, who is on Tampa Bay’s practice squad, played for the Eagles from 2020-23, getting into 38 games with 10 starts.
Center/guard Jake Majors, who is currently on the Eagles’ practice squad, went to training camp with the Buccaneers this summer after a signing with team as an undrafted free agent out of Texas.