The playoffs did nothing to change the Philadelphia Eagles' late-season woes.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers eliminated the NFC champions with a 32-9 win in Monday's NFC Wild Card Round game at Raymond James Stadium. Baker Mayfield threw for 337 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions, while Philadelphia's offense struggled without top receiver AJ Brown.
Philadelphia averaged just 2.8 yards per carry, while safety Jalen Hurts was given a terrible safety when his team was still within one score and did not lead a single scoring drive in the second half.
Hertz, coach Nick Sirianni and the Eagles as a whole sparked a lot of anger on social media:
The Eagles weren't supposed to be on the road in the Wild Card Round.
After all, they were in the Super Bowl last season and return several key contributors. They appear to be on their way to another Super Bowl appearance with a 10-1 start that includes wins over the Los Angeles Rams, Miami Dolphins, Dallas Cowboys, Kansas City Chiefs, and Buffalo Bills.
But then the bottom folded with losses in five of their final six games in the regular season.
With a chance to erase everything, the sentiment remained the same in the playoffs.
The running game was important with Brown out with a knee injury, but she never found her footing. DeVonta Smith did what he could with 148 yards receiving, but the other pass catchers struggled to create separation as no one else had more than 32 receiving yards.
Philadelphia's defense kept the visitors within striking distance by keeping the Buccaneers out of the end zone on three field goals in the first half alone, but the offense failed to rise to the moment. Even when the Eagles scored on a deep ball to Smith to set up Dallas Goedert's touchdown, their usually unstoppable play was stopped on the two-point conversion.
The biggest sequence came in the third quarter when Hurts earned a safety for an intentional groundout in the end zone to push the deficit to nine.
This defense could only hold on for so long after that, and Trey Palmer took a short pass, broke the tackle and raced into the end zone for a 56-yard touchdown. Just like that, the Buccaneers were in complete control as they put the finishing touches on the win with another Chris Godwin touchdown.
Tampa Bay advances and will face the Detroit Lions in the divisional round, while Philadelphia will be left wondering what went wrong this season.
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