Breaking down the turning point in Eagles Wild Card loss to Bucs

The Philadelphia Eagles' 2023 season came to a close when they were eliminated in the playoffs by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Over the past month and a half, the wheels came off for the Eagles and they'll be watching the rest of the postseason from home.

The Eagles ended up losing this game by a score of 32-9 and they were shut out in the second half. The Bucs simply outplayed them in nearly every aspect and it showed big time.

There was one particular moment in the game where it truly felt over for the Eagles and the Bucs grabbed the momentum and never let it go.

When was the turning point in Eagles loss?

With a little over three minutes to go in the first half, the Eagles scored a touchdown to make it a 16-9 game in favor of the Bucs. Philly opted to go for two to try and make it a five-point game and they went with their famous "tush push" play because why not? It's been gold dating back to last season so why not use the best play there?

The problem was that the Bucs were able to stop the famous "brotherly shove" and keep it as a seven-point game. When the Eagles' most iconic and most effective play was stopped, it truly did feel like it wasn't their night.

Philadelphia failed to score again for the rest of the game while the Bucs put up 16 unanswered points and ran away with the victory. Some might point to the safety the Eagles had late in the third quarter as the official turning poin but this game truthfully felt over as soon as that two-point conversion failed.

What's even more unfortunate about this particular play is that the officials missed an obvious face mask on Jalen Hurts, whose helmet was clearly being grabbed and twisted. This definitely impacted the play but a flag was not thrown and the Eagles missed on a chance to make the score a five-point game.

It might have only been a seven-point deficit at that point but this team looked lost in the final few games of the season and that ulitmately carried over into this one.