Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Strong second half, but still take first loss
The Bucs were down 24-6 at halftime and fought back into the Eagles’ lead with a dominant second-half performance, even sans Mike Evans. In the end, a Saquon Barkley touchdown toward the end of the third quarter provided enough of a lead for the Eagles to leave with a 31-25 win over Tampa Bay in this battle of the unbeatens.
But Todd Bowles’ crew didn’t allow Jalen Hurts to complete a pass in the second half (on eight attempts). The Barkley touchdown drive came off a Bucs fumble, putting them deep in Tampa Bay territory. But due to two sacks, the Bucs allowed a total net negative one-yard in the second half.
“The fight, we’re going to have that every week,” said Bucs head coach Todd Bowles. “But you can’t fight and get behind the eight ball against good teams and expect to win. We’re always going to have fight; we just have to clean up mistakes now. It’s getting to that point where we have to cut them down.”
The Bucs had to play without Mike Evans on Sunday; he was sidelined with a hamstring strain that could keep him out for several weeks, although the Bucs haven’t shared an exact timeline. Tampa Bay has now lost six in a row when Evans is not on the field. In his place, running back Bucky Irving was used as a receiving option, pulling in five receptions for 102 yards and a touchdown. And rookie receiver Emeka Egbuka brought in four receptions for 101 yards and a touchdown on a long pass of 77 yards. The performance eked Egbuka just past Tetairoa McMillan for most yards by a rookie through four games, with 282 yards total (McMillan has 278 yards through four games).