PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Tom Brady threw two touchdown passes, Leonard Fournette ran for two touchdowns and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 28-22 Thursday night.
Defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers (5-1) lost another cornerback when three-time All-Pro Richard Sherman left in the first quarter with a hamstring injury, but his exhausted defense held up after that Jalen Hurts rallied the Eagles from a 28-7 deficit. .
Playing with an injured thumb, Brady took off shooting. The seven-time Super Bowl champion, 44, threw touchdown passes in Tampa Bay’s first two series while accelerating 11 of 12 for 121 yards.
His best play came after Hurts’ second TD run and a 2-point conversion put Philadelphia within six points with 3:05 left in the fourth quarter.
Facing a third-and-7 of Philadelphia’s 45, Brady stepped away from the pressure and threw a perfect pass to Antonio Brown for a 27-yard gain to extend the series and the Bucs ran out of time.
Brady was 34 of 42 for 297 yards and an interception.
The Eagles (2-4) haven’t won in three home games with rookie coach Nick Sirianni. They heard boos at halftime, but fought back to get closer.
Brady’s 2-yard touchdown pass to OJ Howard gave the Buccaneers a 7-0 lead. The Eagles responded with a 5-yard touchdown pass from Hurts to Zach Ertz. Brady then hit Brown for a 23-yard touchdown pass to make the score 14-7.
After two straight 3-and-out series, Brady led the Bucs in another scoring series with Fournette running from 2 to extend the lead to 21-7. Tampa increased its lead to 28-7 when Fournette came in from 1 in the third quarter.
Brady was 19 of 22 before missing three straight passes late in the second quarter, including a deep ball intercepted by Anthony Harris that ended his streak of 227 passes without a pick.
The Buccaneers were already losing cornerbacks Carlton Davis and Sean Murphy-Bunting before Sherman fell on Philadelphia’s first series.
Still, the injured had a hard time throwing the ball. He completed 12 of 26 passes for 155 yards, a TD and an interception. Hurts rushed for 44 yards and two touchdowns.
HONORED
The Eagles inducted left tackle Tra Thomas and right tackle Jon Runyan into the team’s Hall of Fame during a halftime ceremony. The duo started 134 regular season games together from 2000-08. During that span, the Eagles made the playoffs seven times, won five NFC East titles, reached five conference championship games and a Super Bowl.
WOUNDS
Buccaneers: TE Rob Gronkowski (ribs), S Antoine Winfield (concussion) and LB Lavonte David (ankle) were inactive.
Eagles: TE Dallas Goedert (COVID protocol) and RT Lane Johnson (staff) were inactive.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
Buccaneers: Chicago host (2-3) on Oct. 4. 24.
Eagles: In Las Vegas (3-2) on October 4. 24.