NFL: Tampa Bay Bucs Fall to Philadelphia Eagles, 31-25

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By Jaxsportsday.com

TAMPA - Tampa Bay fell to the Philadelphia Eagles, 31-25, to suffer their first defeat on the season. 

Bucs' QB Baker Mayfield completed 22-of-40 passes for 289 yards and two passing touchdowns compared to one interception. With his 289 passing yards, Mayfield surpassed Steve DeBerg (9,439) for the eighth-most passing yards in franchise history.

Mayfield’s two passing touchdowns on the day came on a 77-yard completion to WR Emeka Egbuka and a 72-yard completion to RB Bucky Irving, marking the first time in Mayfield’s career that he’s thrown multiple TD passes of 70-or-more yards in a single game.

Despite the loss, Tampa Bay remains in first place in the NFC South and has held at least a share of first place in 62 of the last 76 weeks. The loss marks just the second in Tampa Bay’s last eight games against the Eagles, dating back to 2015 season.

Tampa Bay's Chase McLaughlin went 3-for-3 on field goal tries on the day, converting from 42, 58, and 65 yards out. 

Tykee Smith led the Buccaneers with nine tackles and also recorded two passes defensed.

In the second half (not including the 34-yard loss on the final play of the game), Tampa Bay outgained the Eagles 277-33 and averaged 7.7 yards per play. During the second half, the Buccaneers also outscored Philadelphia 17-7 (not including the safety on the final play of the game) while out-possessing them 16:08-13:52. Tampa Bay forced a Philadelphia punt on six of the team’s final seven possessions of the game.

The Buccaneers generated a season-high 376 net yards of offense against Philadelphia and limited the Eagles to 200 net yards of offense. The +176 net yardage differential marked Tampa Bay’s largest since Week 17 of the 2024 season when they outgained the Carolina Panthers 551-204 (+347). Tampa Bay ran for 104 yards on the ground on Sunday, extending their NFL-best streak of consecutive 100-yard rushing performances to 12 such games.

Irving finished with a team-high 165 yards from scrimmage by way of a team-high 102 receiving yards on five catches with one score and 63 rushing yards on 15 attempts.

Game notes:  Chris Godwin Jr. made his 2025 debut, appearing in his first game since Week 7 of the 2024 season. He finished with three catches for 26 yards...Tez Johnson recorded his first career reception, bringing in one pass for eight yards. He also recorded his first career rushing attempt, which went for five yards....Vita Vea recorded three tackles (two for loss), 2.0 sacks and two quarterback hits on the day. It marked Vea’s fifth career game with at least 2.0 sacks, and his first since Week 9 of the 2024 season at Kansas City. With his two sacks on the day, he increased his career total to 32.5, with 29.5 coming since the start of the 2019 season – most among all nose tackles in the NFL over that span.

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