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Greg Auman
NFC South Reporter
TAMPA, Fla. – Few expected the Buccaneers to win as easily as they did in Monday’s 32-9 wild-card rout of the Eagles, so it’s fitting that surprise stars on both sides of the ball factored heavily into Tampa Bay’s victory.
It started on offense, where the Eagles made it a priority to cover Bucs receivers Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, limiting them to 38 yards on three catches in the first three quarters. What that did was leave Tampa Bay’s secondary options open, and Baker Mayfield was superb in finding tight end Cade Otton and receivers David Moore and Trey Palmer — a combined 11-for-16 for 210 yards and two touchdowns in targeting that unsung trio.
“They were running a couple coverages where they were double-teaming Mike and Chris at the same time, so those guys had a lot of one-on-ones and took advantage of their opportunities … yeah, they played amazing,” Mayfield said. “Pretty simple plays, they did the rest. That’s always good as a quarterback just to be able to give it to them. An easy throw and they do the rest, so happy for those guys.”
Otton set his career highs with eight catches for 89 yards, and Moore and Palmer had the two biggest plays of the game. Moore, who spent the first half of the season on the practice squad and totaled just 94 receiving yards in the regular season, weaved his way through the Eagles defense for a 44-yard touchdown and a 10-0 lead early.
“Staying ready,” said Moore, who turned 29 on Monday and savored his birthday touchdown. “You never know when the time is going to come and whenever it comes, you better be ready. That’s really what we’ve been preaching and having CG (Godwin) in the room helped us out the whole time; keeping us on the field the whole time, pumping us up, it helped us a lot.”
Palmer, a sixth-round rookie from Nebraska, played more than 700 snaps this season as the Bucs’ third receiver, but no play was bigger than Monday, when he…
Source link : https://www.foxsports.com/stories/nfl/bucs-wild-card-rout-of-eagles-was-fueled-by-surprise-stars-step-into-spotlight
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Publish date : 2024-01-16 17:31:44
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