By Ed Greene
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Once again, it was a battle of teams with identical records. Tampa Bay (5-5) was fresh off a key win at home last week against the Cowboys, while the Philadelphia Eagles (4-6) were looking to bounce back from a narrow defeat at the hands of the Dolphins. While the Eagles are still in the thick of the NFC East race, they had to go without starting QB Sam Bradford. Despite a couple of good scores, Philly fell short to another Florida foe as the Bucs dominated at Lincoln Financial Field, 45-17. Lead by both Jameis Winston and Doug Martin, the Buccaneers played a superb game, arguably their best effort on the year. The score is the third most in Buccaneers team history.
For Winston, he played like a veteran today, throwing 19 for 29, 246 yards, and five touchdown passes, to five different receivers. He also managed to throw zero picks on the day, once again proving to be quite the game manager and the unquestioned leader of the team. Winston was heavily assisted by Martin, who was in full “Dougernaut” mode, rushing for 235 yards on 27 carries, particularly on key plays of 84 and 58 yards that turned into Tampa Bay scores. The receiving corp did its part, especially Mike Evans, Adam Humphries, and the returning Vincent Jackson who each had a score. Evans led the team with 63 yards receiving.
