Bucs OLB Anthony Nelson and DT Will Gholston – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR It started with Jake Camarda’s 35-yard punt to the Eagles’ 10-yard line. That was the second-year punter’s third kick of the night downed inside the Philly 20. That was the special teams contribution. From there, the Bucs defense did its part. First, it was a tackle for loss by Lavonte David, who dropped Kenneth Gainwell six yards behind the line of scrimmage. One play later, the Eagles were back out to the 14. But on third down, Anthony Nelson stuck with his rush and got to Jalen Hurts in the end zone. Hurts desperately got rid of the ball, but it was an intentional grounding penalty inside the end zone, giving the Bucs a safety and making it an 18-9 game. “Yeah, a little cushion is always good, especially in football. It allows you to play more aggressive, play more free,” Nelson said after the game. “It was just a big play. It was a great rush by Calijah [Kancey], flushed him out and we were just able to capitalize on it.” Deven Thompkins returned the ensuing kick 27 yards to the 38-yard line (another special teams contribution) before the Tampa Bay offense put the finishing touches on the game-changing sequence with a 56-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to rookie Trey Palmer. “We scored two plays later,” Nelson said. “It’s definitely not as big if we don’t get the ball back and put some more points on the board right away. So that really put icing on the cake for us.” 
Bucs WR Trey Palmer Photo by: USA Today If Camarda’s punt to the 1-yard line was one jab and the safety forced by Anthony Nelson was another, the big knockout punch came when Palmer caught a pass from Mayfield, slipped a tackle and raced 56 yards for a touchdown. “Any time a safety like that happens, it’s a big momentum change, right?” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said. “They were up 16-9, I thought our defense was going a good job at the end of the first half, beginning of the second half, it kind of swung the momentum there — they made a good play and we didn’t.” In the span of a few minutes and with contributions from all three phases, the Bucs went from a 16-9 lead to a 25-9 advantage. From there, they scored another touchdown to make it a 32-9 final score. “That was huge because at that point I think it was a one-score game. I think it was 16-9,” Bucs head coach Todd Bowles said after the game. “We had them backed up. Relentless pass rush kept going and going for Nelson. He just comes up with play after play after play at the right time, and then we get a score after that. That kind of opened it up a little bit and gave us a little bit of cushion. And, you know, that was outstanding.” It was the type of sequence that winning football teams create. There were perhaps points in this season when the Bucs wouldn’t have been able to make the necessary plays down the stretch to close out games. But this is a team that has experienced considerable growth and on Monday night, they proved to be closers. The post Bucs Used All 3 Phases To Close Out Eagles appeared first on Pewter Report. https://www.pewterreport.com/bucs-all-3 ... ut-eagles/
