January 10, 2024
Kim Klement/USA TODAY Sports
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles were an upstart wild card the last time they met Antoine Winfield Jr. and the Bucs in the playoffs back in 2022, with Tampa Bay still in its Tom Brady era.
The Eagles are in the playoffs – spiraling, but in the playoffs – yet they're an air guitar away from a total implosion.
If they're going to stave it off, however, and actually show Philadelphia that there's still a pulse, they're going to have to beat the Buccaneers in the Wild Card round down in Tampa Bay on Monday night to do it.
The Eagles and Bucs have a pretty unique playoff history, one that's been evenly matched since the turn of the century, and also carries pivotal turning points for both franchises – including to the Eagles, specifically, one of its most devastating defeats.
So take a trip down memory lane – or avert your eyes because you know exactly which game I'm talking about above – and run through the archives of Eagles-Bucs in the NFL's postseason...
The 2021 Eagles, who at the time figured to be facing a rebuild with a very green Jalen Hurts and rookie head coach Nick Sirianni, instead found stability in their core veterans and went on a run.
The offense relied on the strength of its line and established itself as a top rushing unit after coordinator Shane Steichen course-corrected on a far too RPO-happy approach, the defense put up a front seven that needed to be respected, and drafting DeVonta Smith out of Alabama finally gave the team the high-end playmaking receiver that general manager Howie Roseman repeatedly tricked himself out of in previous years.
They were good, better than expected, and went on to win six of seven in the home stretch of the season to nab a Wild Card spot by the end of Week 17 – rendering the Week 18 finally against Dallas meaningless and a rest day for the starters.
The Eagles were back, but weren't there quite yet, and Tom Brady and the defending champion Bucs were the ones to show them just how far they still had to go.
It was never close.
Brady diced up the Eagles' defense and had Tampa up 17-0 at the half – and 31-0 by the end of the third quarter. On the other side of the ball, Hurts was never given a second to breathe from the Tampa pressure, and even though the Eagles did finally get on the board with two touchdowns in garbage time, Hurts had already been sacked twice and thrown two picks by then.
Also, Jalen Reagor was returning punts for the Eagles.
No fair catch by Reagor????? Bucs ball pic.twitter.com/rnD8ms7T7U
— Roto Street Journal (@RotoStJournal) January 16, 2022
Yeah...
In the grand scheme of things though, the Eagles were on the right path. They had their staff, they had their personnel, and they had enough belief that they had their quarterback.
So coming back with a full year of experience, and a couple of major upgrades like A.J. Brown and Haason Reddick, they showed up to 2022 all set for a serious run.
*Side note: Defensive end Josh Sweat also needed an emergency procedure for what the Eagles said was a "life-threatening situation" in the days leading up to this game and couldn't play. Sweat explained what exactly happened at training camp a few months later – you can read about it HERE – and, amazingly, said that had the Eagles advanced, he probably would've played the week after and nearly did against the Bucs anyway.
Uh...skip over this one if you need to.
This was supposed to be the team. This was supposed to be the year. The final game at the Vet for the right to go to the Super Bowl? The setup was just too perfect.
An opening kick return taken all the way down to the 25 by Brian Mitchell, followed by a cut right through to the end zone from Duce Staley to send the Philadelphia crowd into a frenzy? No way they were losing this game.
They lost this game.
Tampa's fearsome defense held Donovan McNabb and the Eagles to only a field goal after, while the Bucs' offense managed to find cracks in Jim Johnson's unit and swing back with 20 points.
Ronde Barber's pick six late with the Eagles down in the red zone and still with a chance was the final, devastating nail in the coffin.
That was it for the Eagles. That was it for the Vet. And that was it for a second straight run to the NFC Championship stopped short, which was becoming a heartbreaking trend with this era of the team.
The #Bucs will celebrate Ronde Barber's induction into the Hall of Fame in Week 3 when they host the Philadelphia Eagles on MNF.
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) June 22, 2023
Barber's 92-yard pick-6 vs. the Eagles in the 2002 NFC Championship game is one of the most iconic moments in team history.pic.twitter.com/ds4vAAC5nW
And what made the heartbreak hurt that much more was that the Eagles had already seen the Bucs twice in the playoffs the previous two seasons, and whooped them both times.
In this one, the Andy Reid-Donovan McNabb era of the Eagles had been established. They won the NFC East, then charged into a frozen Vet for the Wild Card round and just pummeled Tampa Bay.
McNabb threw for two scores, Correll Buckhalter – when he wasn't occupying injured reserve – barreled through everyone on a 25-yard touchdown run, and the Eagles' defense just continually punished the Bucs, holding them to just 258 yards of offense while forcing quarterback Brad Johnson into four interceptions – including two from Damon Moore, who grabbed the game-ending pick six.
The Eagles were rolling, which took them on the road to Chicago for the divisional round and then to St. Louis to face "The Greatest Show on Turf" in the NFC title game, where it all fell just short.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the cold did not mix. And in the bitter chill of South Philadelphia on New Year's Eve, playing on a Veteran's Stadium turf that may as well have been concrete painted green, Tampa couldn't get out of the place fast enough.
The upstart 11-5 Eagles, with a young Donovan McNabb having been handed the reins at quarterback, trucked straight through the Bucs in a dominant showing that officially marked the Reid-McNabb era's leap into contention and the start of one of the franchise's most successful stretches.
The Eagles were coming together and progressing under Dick Vermeil with an 11-5 record and the first playoff win of his tenure in the Wild Card round over Chicago.
Up next was an expansion team in Tampa Bay that hadn't known any success at all, but wasn't going to be denied it any longer as running back Ricky Bell took off for 142 rushing yards and two touchdowns to lead the Bucs to their first-ever playoff win in their first-ever playoff game.
The loss wouldn't set the Eagles back, however, as they returned the next year and took a run straight to the Super Bowl before falling to the Raiders.
(Click the "Watch on YouTube" link in the box below to watch the highlights if you want. The NFL's content policy is dumb.)
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