In the 2020 season, on their way to the second Super Bowl win in franchise history, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers had by far the league’s best injury luck. Regression hit the Bucs like the proverbial ton of bricks in their attempt to run it back — from the receiver corps to the defensive line to the linebackers to the secondary (especially the secondary), head coach Bruce Arians and his guys have had a heck of a time fielding a competitive group at times.
And yet… the Bucs come into the 2021 wild-card round with a 13-4 record (two more games than they won in the 2020 regular season), Tom Brady ripping up the league at age 44, and some key players returning from injuries and COVID concerns. After all kinds of agita, the Bucs are in their best possible shape to climb the ladder once again. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.
In the wild-card round, the Bucs will face an Eagles team that looks radically different than it did in Week 6, when Tampa Bay overcame a furious second-half Philly comeback to emerge victorious, 28-22. The Bucs have won seven of their last eight games, and outside of a Saints team Brady and Co. just can’t seem to figure out, they’ve looked every bit a Super Bowl contender against most opponents — even with all the injuries, and Antonio Brown being, y’know, Antonio Brown.
But before we can crown the Bucs once again, they’ll have to get past these Eagles, who are quite a bit spicier than they were in the first half of the season.
Here’s how they can pull that off.