TAMPA, Fla. — As the sport clock expired, Tom Brady raised his arms in triumph alongside the sideline, whirled and tossed a soccer into the stands.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their jubilant 44-year-old quarterback took step one on what they hope might be a journey again to the Tremendous Bowl, dominating the Philadelphia Eagles 31-15 in a NFC wild-card playoff victory Sunday.
“It solely will get more durable from right here,” stated the seven-time Tremendous Bowl winner, who’s attempting to assist the Bucs grow to be the primary staff to repeat as NFL champions because the Brady-led New England Patriots received back-to-back titles within the 2003 and 2004 seasons.
Tampa Bay (14-4) set the tempo from the beginning, with Brady main a pair of lengthy TD drives within the opening quarter and constructing the result in 17-0 by halftime.
The three-time league MVP completed off the Eagles with TD passes of two yards to Rob Gronkowski and 36 yards to Mike Evans, enhancing his dazzling playoff file to 35-11 in a file 46 postseason begins.
The Bucs protection did its half, too, intercepting Jalen Hurts twice within the Philadelphia quarterback’s playoff debut.
“We did some good issues,” Brady stated. “I believe we’re simply going to must preserve doing what we did right this moment. Everybody’s acquired to the touch it, make some explosive performs. Did a superb job possessing it, the protection performed nice, so it was an incredible staff win. Particular groups performed superior — probably the greatest days we had on particular groups all yr.”
Brady accomplished 29 of 37 makes an attempt with out an interception whereas extending his postseason file for TD passes to 85.
However the Bucs had issues nicely in hand earlier than the reigning Tremendous Bowl MVP discovered Gronkowski huge open in the course of the tip zone to make it 24-0 halfway by way of the third quarter. The 6-foot-5 Evans punctuated his TD catch for a 31-0 lead with a entrance flip over the objective line.
Brady focused Evans 10 occasions, finishing 9 of the throws for 117 yards. He’s 5-0 in postseason video games since becoming a member of the Bucs in 2020 after 20 seasons with the Patriots.
“I don’t ever take it without any consideration,” Evans stated of Brady’s management. “When he got here to this staff I knew he was going to vary the franchise. He’s carried out that after which some. He makes certain we’re all the time able to play. He makes certain that we all know what we’re doing and he makes certain that we give it our all. That’s all you possibly can ask for from a pacesetter.”
The Eagles (9-9) scored on Boston Scott’s 34-yard run and Hurts’ 16-yard TD move to Kenneth Gainwell each within the fourth quarter. A 2-point conversion trimmed Philadelphia’s deficit to 16 with 4:45 remaining, however that was as shut as it will get.
“We didn’t play adequate right this moment, I didn’t play adequate right this moment,” stated Hurts, who was sporting a protecting boot on his left foot after the sport.
“This sport doesn't outline us, doesn't outline who we're. We all know all of the various things that we’ve overcome. I do know as a soccer staff we’ll be again,” added Hurts, who at 23 is the youngest QB to start out a playoff sport for the Eagles. “We’ll be again. It is a feeling that may form of simmer in our hearts, simmer for us all.”
Giovani Bernard scored on a 2-yard run and Ke’Shawn Vaughn, a second-year professional filling in for injured working backs Leonard Fournette and Ronald Jones, coated the ultimate yard of a 70-yard drive that put the Bucs up 14-0.
Brady led the NFL in passing yards, touchdowns, makes an attempt and completions this season, however Tampa Bay gained the higher hand on this one by working the ball and maintaining it away from Hurts and the league’s main speeding assault.
The Bucs ran 25 performs to Philadelphia’s eight within the first quarter, outgaining the Eagles 137 yards to 17 and compiling an 11-1 edge in first downs.
It didn’t get significantly better after that, with a Tampa Bay protection fortified by the return of injured linebackers Lavonte David, Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul turning away Hurts’ most promising drive of the opening half with Mike Edwards’ finish zone interception.
The Eagles received 4 of their final 5 video games to earn the No. 7 playoff seeding within the NFC, nevertheless the turning level of their season got here when working the ball turned a focus of the offense through the second half of a 28-22 dwelling loss to the Bucs.
The Eagles ran for not less than 130 yards of their subsequent 9 video games, together with seven in a row with greater than 175. Harm led the staff with 784 yards and 10 yards speeding, changing into the eighth quarterback in NFL historical past to throw for greater than 3,000 yards and run for greater than 750.
Hurts completed his playoff debut 23 of 43 passing for 258 yards. He ran for a team-high 39 yards on eight makes an attempt, with the Eagles ending with 95 yards speeding general — nicely beneath their season common of 159.7 per sport.
“I didn’t sense for a second that the second was too massive for them. I simply suppose we made some errors,” first-year Eagles coach Nick Sirianni stated. “We simply didn’t make some performs. We didn’t coach adequate on the finish of the day.”
Post a Comment