With their 9-0 win over the Panthers on Sunday, the Bucs locked up the NFC South crown for the third year in a row. And as the No. 4 seed, they knew they’d be hosting a game at Raymond James Stadium next weekend as part of Super Wild Card Weekend.

The Bucs also knew that, as a result of the Cowboys winning the NFC East on Sunday, they’d be hosting the No. 5 seed Eagles in that game first-round game.

And now that the playoff field is set, the NFL has set the full schedule for Super Wild Card Weekend. The Bucs will host the Eagles on Monday, Jan. 15 with kickoff set for 8:00 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN and ABC.

Time to raise the flags. The playoffs return to Tampa Bay for MNF. pic.twitter.com/F44PUQW07Q

— Tampa Bay Buccaneers (@Buccaneers) January 8, 2024

This is the second consecutive year that the Bucs will play at home on Monday night to wrap up Super Wild Card Weekend. Last January, they hosted the Cowboys and lost 31-14 in what turned out to be the final game of Tom Brady’s storied career.

Bucs, Eagles Ended The Season On Different Trajectories

Bucs FS Antoine Winfield Jr. – Photo by: USA Today

The Eagles were, at one time, 10-1 and in possession of the top seed in the NFC. But down the stretch, they fell apart. They lost 42-19 to the 49ers at home, then lost road games to Dallas (33-13) and Seattle (20-17). They then stopped the bleeding for one week, beating the Giants at home 33-25 on Christmas, but followed that up by losing 35-31 to the Cardinals on New Year’s Eve.

Philadelphia needed a win over New York and a Dallas loss to Washington in Week 18 to win the division, but neither came to fruition. The Cowboys won by 28 anyway, but the Eagles even failed to do their part.

They lost to the Giants, 27-10, in a game that saw them fall behind 24-0 and lose quarterback Jalen Hurts, wide receiver A.J. Brown, guard Cam Jurgens, safety Reed Blankenship and safety Sydney Brown to injuries. Their statuses will be worth monitoring as the week goes on.

While the Eagles were trending down in December, the Bucs were trending up. They won four games in a row to start the final month of the 2023 calendar year, beating the Panthers, Falcons, Packers and Jaguars to set up a scenario where they needed just one win over the final two weeks to wrap up the NFC South title.

Bucs WR Mike Evans – Photo by: USA Today

An embarrassing setback on New Year’s Eve — a 23-13 home loss to New Orleans — put extra pressure on Tampa Bay in Week 18. But the team handled that pressure, beating the Panthers 9-0 in Carolina. The Bucs went from 4-7 at the end of November to 9-8 six weeks later, winning five of six games to capture a third straight division title and a fourth consecutive playoff appearance.

It still isn’t a surprise to see a talented Eagles team open as 2.5-point road favorites over the Bucs next weekend, but the two teams did end the season by going in opposite directions. And the visitors will come to town much more banged-up than the hosts will be. It’ll help the Eagles that they have an extra day to heal up, and it should benefit Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield as he deals with his own rib and ankle injuries as well.

The playoffs are all about getting hot at the right time. The Bucs experienced that themselves in 2020, winning the last four regular season games to finish 11-5 before winning four straight games in the postseason for the franchise’s second-ever Lombardi Trophy.

Whether the Bucs’ hot streak and Eagles’ cold streak is enough to close the perceived gap between the two teams on Super Wild Card Weekend, we’ll find out next Monday night.