Is there any hope for the Eagles?
Photo by Julio Aguilar/Getty Images
The Eagles are going into their Wild Card matchup Monday night without A.J. Brown. Jalen Hurts has a bad finger on his throwing hand. They have lost five of their last six. They are on the road. The game starts after 8:00 on a Monday (which may be the worst part). Things are falling apart.
There has to be some sort of positive, right?
Well, the Eagles are getting away with facing maybe the worst playoff team in the NFC, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Buccaneers are not great. They beat the 2-15 Carolina Panthers Sunday without scoring a touchdown to finish 9-8 and win the putrid NFC South. They finished 2-7 vs. winning teams and finished 23rd in the league in offense and 25th in defense.
The Buccaneers were 4-4 at home while the Eagles were 5-3 on the road.
Tampa head coach Todd Bowles has coached for six years and has never won a playoff game.
The Eagles already beat Tampa by two touchdowns back in Week 3. In that game, Hurts threw for 277 yards and a touchdown but was picked off twice. D’Andre Swift also rushed for 130 yards and has not reached 100 in any game since then. Brown also went off that night, but he is not playing. The Eagles’ defense only allowed 11 points to Baker Mayfield and the Tampa defense.
The problem is, however, this Eagles team is much different since then.
I still highly doubt the Eagles will come out with a win next Monday night, but this is probably the only team in the playoffs that the Eagles have a chance to beat.
