Bucs QB Jameis Winston ties National Football League rookie record with 5 TD passes

They were projected to be one of the most prolific offenses in the National Football League, but have fallen far short from that target with drops and miscues being a constant issue. The Buccaneers and the Eagles have met on 17 occasions and the Eagles are now leading this series 10-7. And if fans weren’t embarrassed after their team’s 45-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home on Sunday, then the one’s who aren’t should be.

To be fair, the offense wasn’t any better either. Sanchez has thrown an interception in six straight games.

The Eagles have now lost to the Dolphins and Buccaneers at home in consecutive weeks.

Thomas Rawls rushed for 209 yards – the second-best rushing day in Seahawks history – and had two total touchdowns starting in place of Marshawn Lynch in a 29-13 win over San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay rookie quarterback Jameis Winston, who had thrown two interceptions and no touchdowns in his previous two outings, torched the Eagles for five TD passes (his previous high had been two), no interceptions and a QB rating of 131.6. The Redskins looked like they were ready to go toe-to-toe with Carolina as the score was tied 14-14, but quarterback Cam Newton threw five touchdown passes en route to the blowout.

At the end of the day, the Eagles are still only a game out of first place in the atrocious NFC East, which is really kind of worse in a way. Frequently, the truth lies somewhere in between: the team improves, but only gradually and often not enough to win championships. The Bucs had 521 yards Sunday. He has certainly tried by bringing in players like Bradford and DeMarco Murray, while drafting guys like Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews, but the fact of the matter is, it hasn’t worked and his team is hurting because of it. It was not just the score that sent most of the crowd of 69,596 back out to their beanbag-toss parking-lot games by the fourth quarter.

Then things went down hill.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers won’t surrender without a fighting, though. He became the second rookie to ever throw four touchdowns against the Eagles in a game. The other was Robert Griffin III in 2012. Plus Martin set up two of the Bucs’ touchdowns with runs of 58 and 84 yards.

Eagles linebacker Brandon Graham said Winston did a great job of making audibles at the line of scrimmage and keeping the Eagles defense off- balance. They registered one sack and made no interceptions.

While that first half was rough, there wasn’t a lower moment for the defense than the opening drive of the third quarter. On scoring drives, that included conversions on third-and-8, -10 and -16. The Eagles were 7 for 15. The Eagles’ one-game lead on the Cowboys doesn’t seem particularly wide, considering their recent losses and the lift Romo will continue to give his team. Once that happens, who knows what Chip Kelly will have in store for us in the offseason.

Down: Run defense – A team with a rookie quarterback like the Buccaneers will try to run the ball on the road.

NOTES: Eagles TE Zach Ertz suffered a concussion…. The run game isn’t good.

Mark Sanchez is expected to make his first start of the season because Sam Bradford is recovering from a concussion and left shoulder injury.

Down: Thanksgiving – The game at Detroit on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. never looked like a pushover on the slate, as the Lions normally play well on the holiday.