Eagles finally learn their first-round playoff opponent originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The Eagles will open the 2022 playoffs in Tampa next weekend against Tom Brady and the Super Bowl-champion Buccaneers. The game will take place Sunday, January 16, at 1 p.m. and air on FOX.
The Eagles’ loss to the Cowboys on Saturday combined with the 49ers’ win over the Rams and the Buccaneers’ win over the Panthers Sunday means the Eagles are the No. 7 seed and the Bucs get the No. 2 seed.
Had the Rams held on to beat the 49ers, the Eagles still would have faced the Buccaneers, but it would have been a 3-6 game, which means the Eagles theoretically could have hosted the NFC Championship Game.
READ: Eagles’ opponents for 2022 NFL season set
The Eagles and Bucs will face each other either Saturday, Sunday or Monday in a wild-card game at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
The Eagles clinched a playoff berth last weekend with their win in Washington combined with the Packers’ win over the Vikings.
The Bucs beat the Eagles 28-22 at the Linc on Oct. 14, their third straight win over the Eagles. They also won at the Linc in 2015 and in Tampa in 2018. The Eagles’ last win over the Bucs came in 2013 in Tampa. Overall, the Eagles are 10-10 against the Bucs and 6-6 in Tampa.
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This will be the third time the Eagles have faced Brady in the postseason. He beat them with the Patriots in Super Bowl XXXIX after the 2004 season in Jacksonville, and the Eagles turned the tables 13 years later in Super Bowl LI in Minneapolis with a 41-33 win over the Patriots.
This will be the fifth time the Eagles and Bucs will meet in the postseason but the first since 2002, when the Bucs – four-point underdogs – upset the Eagles 27-10 in the NFC Championship Game in the final game played at Veterans Stadium.
The Bucs beat the Eagles 24-17 in a wild-card game in 1979 at Tampa Stadium – the first postseason win in Bucs history – and the Eagles twice won wild-card games over the Bucs in the early years of the Andy Reid coaching tenure, 21-3 in 2000 and 31-9 in 2001, both at the Vet.
In franchise history, the Eagles are 7-13 in road playoff games, although they did win two road playoff games in 2008 – vs. the Vikings and Giants – and they beat the Bears at Soldier Field in a wild-card game in 2018. From 1950 through 2000, they only won one road playoff game – in New Orleans against the Saints in 1992 in the only postseason game Randall Cunningham won as an Eagle.
