Eagles Fail to Capitalize Against Buccaneers
[ad_1]
The App is Back! Don’t forget to download the NBC Sports EDGE app to receive real-time player news, mobile alerts and track your favorite players. Plus, now you can check out articles and player cards. Get it here!
The Eagles and Tom Brady certainly are no strangers. Although the superstar quarterback is playing for the Buccaneers, the looming memory of the Eagles’ Super Bowl LII victory over Brady was hard to ignore heading into this matchup. Philadelphia was looking for its first win at home in 2021 and Tampa Bay looked to extend their record to 5-1 with a banged-up secondary and a quarterback with a bum thumb.
Both teams were without key players in Thursday’s game. The Eagles were missing Lane Johnson and Dallas Goedert, while the Buccaneers played without Lavonte David and Rob Gronkowski.
Despite a valiant effort to get back into the fray late, the Eagles fell to 2-4, and some key issues may cause problems for Philadelphia in 2021.
Pivotal Taunting Call Buried the Eagles
The taunting rule is a twist this year. Still, there have been a full five weeks of play to figure out how not to taunt an opposing player and the repercussions if you do. That didn’t seem to matter in a crucial defensive play for Philadelphia.
The Eagles had come to life in the third quarter and cut the Buccaneers lead to only six points after a rushing touchdown by QB Jalen Hurts and a two-point conversion courtesy of Hurts to WR Quez Watkins.
Tom Brady had 5:54 left to play to put points on the board. The Eagles’ defense had forced a punt and a turnover on downs on the previous two Tampa Bay drives. The defense only had to step up one more time and contain Brady for another shot at the end zone.
On first down with ten to go, defensive end Gerard Avery got into RB Leonard Fournette’s face after pushing him out of bounds. Did Fournette “help” the situation along? Perhaps. But, that is not how it works. The Buccaneers got 15 yards and an automatic first down and…
[ad_2]
Source : yahoo
