The Tampa Bay Buccaneers live to see another day in the playoffs. Facing the favored Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Wild Card game, the Bucs delivered a dominant performance that saw them grab a 9-32 win.
The Buccaneers advance to the Divisional Round, where they’ll face NFC North champions Detroit Lions.
The Bucs were the lone underdogs hosting a postseason game in the 2023 NFL Playoffs. The weakness of their division and 9-8 record didn’t project much confidence against the talented 11-6 Eagles. On top of that, Tampa Bay’s quarterback Baker Mayfield was questionable for the game while dealing with a rib injury.
Despite all of this, the Bucs and Mayfield rushed to a 0-10 lead in the first half and didn’t take the foot off the gas until late in the fourth quarter. Mayfield finished the game with 337 passing yards and three touchdowns while being careful with the football.
The Bucs’ defense also showed up ready to play, limiting the Eagles to 276 total yards while not allowing a single third-down conversion.
“We worked extremely hard to get a chance to be in the playoffs, and we just wanted an opportunity. Our guys came out and played really really well. … Once again, the defense played lights out. We’re happy, but we’ve still got more to go,” Mayfield said after the game.
The Bucs will once again be the underdogs when they travel to Detroit to face the Lions, but it appears that this team isn’t too concerned about that.
“We were underdogs, we’re going to be underdogs next week, too,” Tampa’s head coach Todd Bowles said. “We understand that. We embrace it. We like it.”
