Philadelphia went 1-5 down the stretch, but Nick Sirianni’s team advanced to the postseason for the third year in a row, finishing with an 11-6 record.
They face a familiar foe on the road when they travel to Tampa to face the 9-8 Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium without an injured A.J. Brown.
The Bucs and Eagles have met five previous times, including Tampa Bay’s NFC Championship Game in Philadelphia in 2002 to close out Veteran’s Stadium. The most recent postseason meeting came just two years ago in 2021 in Jalen Hurts’ first road playoff start, Tampa won, 31-15.
With kickoff a little over 48 hours away, we’re looking at who the NFL experts are picking in this intriguing matchup to close out wild card weekend.
USA Today --Eagles
Four of the seven writers at USA Today are picking Philadelphia.
ESPN--Eagles
Seven of ten experts at ESPN are picking the Eagles.
Back on Sept. 25, long before the Eagles went off a cliff and lost five of their last six games, they dominated the Bucs 25-11 by outrushing them 201 to 41 en route to 472 yards of total offense to 174. Even though the Bucs won five of their last six, it came against teams that weren’t very good or playing very poorly. I’ll take Hurts over a hobbling Baker Mayfield. Score: Eagles 24, Bucs 17
The Ringer--Bucs
The Ringer is picking Tampa Bay to cover the three point spread.