The Eagles were handed a huge loss by the rebounding Buccaneers.
Quarterback Mark Sanchez came onto the field, warmly welcomed by a faithful Philadelphia crowd, but those cheers and applause would soon be transformed into silence.
Mark Sanchez did not Butt fumble, instead, he tossed a pair of touchdowns, subsequently, that would be the extent of the offensive display.
The Eagles Demarco Murray would fumble on the first drive and would have been recovered by Tampa, but was re-fumbled by Tampa giving the Eagles its first lucky break of the game. The Eagles offense, seemingly firing on all cylinders, puts together a textbook drive and walked away with a touchdown.
Jameis Winston received boos and sneers as he walked onto the field, despite the fact, he grew up an Eagles fan.
The Buccaneers started off slowly, yet moved the ball rather well, they just could not get into scoring range and had to punt the ball away, and thus painting an all too familiar picture for Bucs fans.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers defense stepped-all-the-way-up and put a stop to the Eagles offensive tries, forcing them to punt.
This is when the Buccaneers magic began.
Doug Martin ripped off a 58-yard run on 3rd down setting up a game-tying touchdown pass to Mike Evans.
Eagles could not get anything to click for them and once again had to give the ball back to an awakening Tampa offense. Jameis Winston and the Buccaneers continued their onslaught by putting together a solid 5-play-60-yard drive ending with a Vincent Jackson touchdown.
The scoring would not end there.
After another failed Eagles attempt, the Buccaneers running back Doug Martin dug deep into the eagles secondary with an 84-yard run that ended with Jameis Winston finding Russell Shepard in the back of the end zone, for another score.
Philadelphia did make it into the end zone with a decent drive put together by Mark Sanchez and company, finding Darren Sproles on a screen toss for a 35-yard catch and run for their final touchdown.
Uncharacteristically, the Buccaneers offense were once again too much to handle. The Eagles defense seemed like it was going to stop the Buccaneers invasion, but that was deemed impossible as Jameis’ near interception would be followed by another touchdown. This time to Charles Sims.
Mark Sanchez and the Eagles ended the first half finding the end zone twice. It would be the only times it was found.
The second half continued the way the first half ended, The Eagles could not stop Tampa as they marched 80 yards and ate up 9 mins of the clock. This resulted in a Jameis Winston strike to Cameron Brate for his fifth touchdown pass of the game.
Connor Barth got in on the action as well, hitting a field goal and extending the Buccaneers lead.
The Eagles made a 47-yard field goal which did little to uplift morale.
The Buccaneers defense reminiscent of the “Days of old” bent a little but did not break. They sat in a comfortable zone and allowed little in the way of opportunity for the Eagles.
Mark Sanchez, looking to get some kind of positive yardage, tossed up a pick six to Lavonte David that did more than putting the nail in the coffin.
The entire Buccaneers team earned this win and played like a well-oiled machine. They fired on every cylinder and everyone played their positions with aggressiveness and a finesse that can, again, only be compared to the “Days of old”.
In short.
Jameis Winston and Doug Martin could not be stopped. Jameis ties a rookie touchdown record with five. Doug Martin came up 2-yards shy of Barry Sanders record of most yards without a TD, in a single game and rips a franchise long 84-yard run. The defense played exceptionally well. G-Mac erases Mark Sanchez from his sack list and Lavonte David nabbed a pick six. Buccaneers win back-to-back games for the first time in two years and the Buccaneers are .500 for the first time in what seems like forever. What an exciting sneak peek into the Buccaneers future.
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