Baker Mayfield was the star of the show as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers registered a 32-9 victory over reigning NFC champions Philadelphia Eagles; He threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns; The Bucs will now face the Detroit Lions in the NFC divisional round
Tuesday 16 January 2024 08:42, UK
Baker Mayfield threw for 337 yards and three touchdowns to lead the resurgent Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 32-9 wild-card playoff victory over Jalen Hurts and the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
The Bucs (10-8) won for the sixth time in seven games to advance to a NFC divisional round matchup on the road next Sunday against the Detroit Lions (13-5).
"We've fought so hard to get to this point, to get a chance to be in the playoffs," Mayfield said.
"I'm so proud of this team tonight, the way we came out and started fast. I'm so proud. We wanted to give ourselves a chance and now we did just that.
"We can play better than we did tonight. But it's on to the next one and we're on to Detroit."
David Moore scored on a 44-yard reception in the first quarter while rookie Trey Palmer broke the game open with a 56-yard catch-and-run for a TD that put the Bucs up 25-9 late in the third quarter. Both receivers took advantage of a porous, poor-tackling Eagles secondary to make their way to the end zone.
Mayfield, the 2018 No 1 overall draft pick who's playing with his fourth team in less than two years, completed 22 of 36 passes without an interception. He capped his first playoff appearance since the 2020 season with a 23-yard TD pass to Chris Godwin.
Mayfield said the communication by the offense throughout the week made things feel comfortable during the game.
"Everybody was on the same page, knowing what we were going to do offensively, schematically," Mayfield said.
"Came out and attacked. Obviously, got to make a few more plays overall on offense, but we made more than enough to win tonight."
It was a disappointing finish for Philadelphia (11-7), which lost to Kansas City in last year's Super Bowl and then spent spent much of this season resembling a club focused and determined to get back to the title game.
The Eagles played without leading receiver A.J. Brown, who injured a knee in the regular-season finale. Hurts started despite dislocating the middle finger on his throwing hand the previous week, and was 25 of 35 for 250 yards and one TD before being replaced by backup Marcus Mariota in the final minute.
The Bucs, who lost to the Lions 20-6 in Week 6, regrouped following a stretch in which they lost six of seven games to go 5-1 over the last six weeks of the regular season to win their third straight NFC South title and clinch a franchise-record fourth consecutive playoff berth.
The Eagles entered Monday night looking for a solution to what ailed them during a stunning about-face that saw them go 1-5 down the stretch after a 10-1 start to the season that included a dominant 14-point victory over Tampa Bay in Week 3.
Philadelphia Eagles
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Philadelphia outgained the Bucs 472 yards to 174, running 78 plays to Tampa Bay's 44 in the first meeting. With Mayfield getting off to a quick start against a porous, poor-tackling Eagles secondary, the Bucs offense gained 178 yards in the first quarter alone Monday night.
Chase McLaughlin kicked field goals of 28, 54 and 48 yards, the latter extending Tampa Bay's lead to 16-3 late in the second quarter. The Eagles cut into their deficit with Hurts using a 55-yard completion to DeVonta Smith to set up a 5-yard scoring pass to Dallas Goedert.
The score remained 16-9, though. Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni took Jake Elliott's conversion kick off the board after the Bucs were penalized for offsides. The Eagles lined up to go for 2 points from the 1-yard line, but Tampa Bay stopped Hurts for no gain.
Smith finished with eight receptions for 148 yards for the Eagles.
The Buccaneers will now face the Lions on January 21 in the NFC Divisional Round while the Packers are up against the 49ers.
Watch every game from the 2023 NFL playoffs live on Sky Sports as we continue on the road to Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas.
