Eagles vs. Buccaneers: Live score updates, highlights, injury news

For the second year in a row, the Philadelphia Eagles are taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a Week 4 matchup at Raymond James Stadium.

Much has been made about the Birds’ previous struggles against Todd Bowles’ Bucs. Can Jalen Hurts and company emerge victorious as they also try to combat the Florida heat? If so, they’ll be off to a 4-0 start for the third time in the last four seasons while remaining alone atop the NFC East.

Follow along here for live score updates, highlights, injury news, analysis, and more before this article ultimately turns into our game recap. The best place to actually discuss the game as it happens is still in our open threads for each quarter, the first of which you can find here.

FIRST QUARTER

• The Eagles won the coin toss and elected to defer to put the Bucs up on offense first. Jake Elliott’s opening kickoff bounced in the landing zone and out of the end zone to put Tampa at their own 20-yard line instead of the normal touchback at the 35-yard line. Stealing a page out of Joshua Karty’s book from last week. Smart! Facing 3rd-and-5 after picking up one first down, Baker Mayfield’s pass to Emeka Egbuka was incomplete with Quinyon Mitchell playing sticky coverage. Quality start from Vic Fangio’s unit. And then Sydney Brown recovered a punt blocked by special teams stud Cameron Latu for a touchdown! Latu almost blocked two punts in Kansas City in Week 2; he finally got home this time around. EAGLES 7, BUCCANEERS 0.

• The Bucs took over at their own 25-yard line. Mitchell had good coverage on a drop by Egbuka. Facing 3rd-and-3, Mayfield’s completion only gained one yard. Three-and-out! Certainly a better start to this game than the Eagles had in Tampa last year.

• The Eagles’ offense took over for the first time at their own 27-yard line. Todd Bowles immediately brought the blitz but Jalen Hurts dumped it off to Saquon Barkley for an easy first down catch-and-run. Wow, a blitz beater! Facing 3rd-and-8 on their next set of downs, it looked like the play clock hit zero but there was no flag and Hurts hit DeVonta Smith at the marker on a slant for another first down. A.J. Dillon took his first carry since Week 2 for 11 yards and another first down. Hurts took off scrambling against a blitz (with Vita Vea unsuccessfully spying him) for a 28-yard gain. Facing goal-to-go, Hurts tossed the ball forward to Dallas Goedert on a nifty little play for what turned out to be a pretty easy touchdown! Strong start for the offense to match strong starts from defense and special teams.

• The Bucs took over at their own 28-yard line. Kelee Ringo missed a chance to make an open field tackle on Bucky Irving by getting stiff-armed to allow a first down. Ringo failed to make another tackle on Irving but slowed the running back down enough to allow his teammates to tackle the Bucs RB for a loss. Cooper DeJean was flagged for taunting by stepping over the player he tackled and looking down at him. So dumb that that’s a penalty now but that’s how the refs are calling it this year, so, just can’t do it. One play later, DeJean picked Mayfield off on a flea flicker! But replay showed the ball hit the ground and there were penalty flags on the ground. After the play, a scrum broke out with Mayfield talking trash to Mitchell and Jalyx Hunt got flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. Pretty dumb to give the Bucs 30 yards in penalties on back-to-back plays. Facing 3rd-and-1, Irving picked up a first down on the ground. Facing 3rd-and-10, a blitzing Zack Baun pressured Mayfield into a fumble that he recovered. Baun was credited with the sack. The Bucs settled for a 42-yard field goal on a 12-play, 48-yard drive that was majorly assisted by 30 yards of Eagles penalties.

SECOND QUARTER

• A slipping Tank Bigsby took the Bucs’ first kickoff to the 30-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-5 after Barkley slipped on a run for a loss, old friend Haason Reddick was involved in Barkley being tackled on a screen short of the marker. Assist to Dallas Goedert, who accidentally tackled Barkley as well.
• The Bucs took over at their own 16-yard line after a 52-yard Braden Mann punt. Facing 3rd-and-7, Mayfield took a deep shot to Chris Godwin Jr. but Mitchell — who else — once again had tight coverage to help force an incompletion, though the ball was still catchable. Bucs punter Riley Dixon totally shanked a punt that traveled just 18 yards but a questionable holding penalty on Parry Nickerson effectively made it 28 yards. Still pretty bad, but some damage mitigated.

• The Eagles took over at their own 43-yard line. Hurts made a great throw up the seam to Goedert in a tight window for a first down into Bucs territory. Goedert got banged up on the play. Hurts then hit a wide open crossing Grant Calcaterra for another first down. QB in total control. Facing 3rd-and-6, Hurts scrambled to his left and hit DeVonta for a first down with the WR taking a big shot after the catch (but no penalty). Hurts then hit Goedert, who re-entered the game, with a shovel pass for another touchdown! Simple but effective for the three-possession lead. EAGLES 21, BUCCANEERS 3.

• A long kick return by the Bucs was negated by a holding penalty to put the offense back at their own 20-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-4 after DeJean broke up a pass (to loud COOOOOOP chants from Eagles fans in the Bucs’ stadium), Mayfield’s pass was deflected by Moro Ojomo and knocked down by the QB to prevent a pick. Nearly a turnover other. Instead, a three-and-out.
• The Eagles took over at their own 25-yard line. They slowly but surely moved into Bucs territory to bring up the two-minute warning. A.J. Brown’s first catch of the day went for a loss on a play where Tyler Steen got hurt to force the Eagles to burn their first timeout. Matt Pryor entered the game at right guard. Facing 3rd-and-5, the Bucs brought the blitz but Hurts to Brown was complete even though the ball was slightly behind the wide receiver. Big first down. Hurts throwing to Barkley in the quick game allowed the running back to force Lavonte David (!) to miss a tackle and pick up a first down. Then Hurts completed a pass to Barkley for a five-yard loss. Reddick tackled Hurts from behind for a short Eagles gain and the Bucs called their second timeout with 1:04 left. Facing 3rd-and-13, the Eagles went coward’s draw (booooooo) to pick up two yards and make the Bucs take their final timeout. Jake Elliott hit the 39-yard field goal attempt. EAGLES 24, BUCCANEERS 3.

• Cameron Latu made the special teams tackle to force the Bucs to take over at their own 23-yard line with 0:53 on the clock and zero timeouts to work with. Jihaad Campbell blew up a swing pass to Bucky Irving but the loss was negated by Jalen Carter being flagged for making contact with Mayfield’s head. Irving got banged up on the play. Facing 3rd-and-4 after a spike with 0:08 on the clock, Mayfield’s pass went out of bounds. The Bucs attempted a 65-yard field goal (!) … and the kick was good. Wow. Shades of Matt Bryant’s 62-yard game winner back in 2006, though obviously less crushing in this moment. EAGLES 24, BUCCANEERS 6.

THIRD QUARTER

• Updates to come …

FOURTH QUARTER

• Updates to come …

EAGLES LINEUP NOTES

• Kelee Ringo started at cornerback with both Adoree’ Jackson and Jakorian Bennett out, as expected. Za’Darius Smith started in place of Nolan Smith.
• Matt Pryor played right guard after Tyler Steen got hurt.

EAGLES INJURY NEWS

• Dallas Goedert got banged up in the second quarter. Seemed to be his injured knee that previously prompted him to miss Week 2. He later returned on the same drive.
• Ogbo Okoronkwo (triceps) was ruled out later in the second quarter. His injury left the Eagles with four active edge rushers.
• Tyler Steen went down holding his knee late in the second quarter. He was eventually able to walk off the field on his own power. He was evaluated in the medical tent before limping to the locker room.