On the final play for the exhausted defense, as a show of what it means to be a full team – every single player on the 53-man roster and the practice squad understood what it meant: Get a stop. Anyway. Anyhow.
Cornerback Parry Nickerson, signed from the practice squad to the active roster only days earlier to shore up an injury-depleted unit, was the one in coverage on Tampa Bay tight end Cade Otten. It was Nickerson, in the NFL since 2018 and with his sixth team, in his first regular-season game since 2023, who decked Otton after a 2-yard gain on a fourth-and-9 play from the Philadelphia 37-yard line, the Eagles holding an eight-point lead.
Threat over. Win preserved – OK, technically the offense had a three-and-out series and then punter Braden Mann ran out of the back of the end zone to eat the final six seconds off the clock to make it official, but the big stop was Nickerson’s.
Everyone could breathe, just a little bit.
The Eagles rode a fantastic first half and two huge takeaways and that fourth-down stop in the second half to beat the Bucs, 31-25, to move to 4-0 in this wild and crazy and thrilling 2025 regular season.
Here are some observations from a huge road win at Raymond James Stadium, a venue that had not been so kind to the Eagles in the very recent past …
1. Eagles open the game in spectacular fashion and special teams lead the way
It was a roller coaster all the way around on Sunday, special teams included. But the Eagles certainly set the tempo early, thanks to a picture-perfect punt block executed by Cameron Latu, who busted through the “A” gap and blocked Riley Dixon’s punt that bounced into the hands of Sydney Brown, who raced 35 yards untouched for the touchdown. Jake Elliott, who had another perfect day, added the PAT, and the Eagles jumped out to a 7-0 lead. That’s exactly what they needed, and remember this: The Eagles had scored just 10 points total in the previous five first quarters against Tampa Bay, while the Bucs scored 52. Tampa Bay, not coincidentally, won four of those games.