PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Eagles are a better team than the one that lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 6.

Still, there are plenty of reasons why the defending Super Bowl champions are 8 1/2-point favorites in Sunday’s NFC wild-card game. High among them is the fact the Bucs easily handled the Eagles in the team’s first matchup.

The Buccaneers (13-4) built a 28-7 third-quarter lead against Philadelphia (9-8) and held on for a 28-22 victory on the road in a Thursday night game on Oct. 14.

The loss led to a shift in offensive strategy for the Eagles. They lost again at Las Vegas the following week to fall to 2-5, but went 7-2 afterward to secure a playoff berth before resting starters last Saturday night in a 51-26 loss to Dallas.

“Looking at that last (Tampa) game, I feel like it’s not really the same team that we’ve got now. Players-wise, it’s pretty similar, but the way we attack teams is completely different,” tight end Dallas Goedert said Wednesday.

Goedert and right tackle Lane Johnson both missed the game in October; the Bucs were without tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Coach Nick Sirianni said he and his staff used the extra days after the Tampa game to rethink their approach, building around a dominant offensive line and committing to the run. The Eagles ended up with the No. 1 rushing attack in the NFL, at 159.7 yards per game.

Against the Bucs, quarterback Jalen Hurts made plays with his legs (10 carries, 44 yards), but Miles Sanders was the only Eagles running back who saw the ball. He ran nine times for 56 yards. Just one of Sanders’ carries came in the first half.

Hurts, who at 23 will become the youngest quarterback to start a playoff game for the Eagles, showed signs of maturing as a passer down the stretch of his second season. He threw for only 115 yards against the Bucs, compiling a 55.8 passer rating that was his second-lowest of the season. Hurts’ last three appearances of the season featured passer ratings of 110.4, 102.5 and 90.9.

Meanwhile, for all the talk about the Tampa Bay Buccaneers defying the odds of keeping last year’s Super Bowl roster together, there’s been one constant in the team’s recipe for getting back to the playoffs — Tom Brady.

The 44-year-old, seven-time NFL champion had one of his best seasons statistically, leading the Bucs to a franchise-record 13 regular-season wins, the club’s first division title in 14 years and the No. 2 seed in the NFC.

Brady led the league in completions, attempts, passing yards and touchdown passes, helping Tampa Bay withstand a slew of injuries that have tested the team’s depth on both offense and defense while joining Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks in NFL history with multiple 5,000-yard seasons.

As far as coach Bruce Arians is concerned, there’s no question Brady is the league’s most valuable player.

“I think if he doesn’t get it, it’s a travesty,” Arians said Monday. “Most completions ever, 5,000 yards, touchdowns, the whole nine yards. To me, it’s not even a close race.”

Brady enters the playoffs this weekend, coming off the 66th game of his career with three TD passes and no interceptions — most in league history.

His 485 completions this season surpassed Brees’ record of 471 in 2016. And with a career-best 5,316 yards passing, 43 TDs and 102.1 passer rating, he became one of just five players in league history to finish with 5,000-plus yards, at least 40 TDs and a passer rating of more than 100.0 in the same year.

And, he’s done it while playing at times without tight end Rob Gronkowski, running back Leonard Fournette and receivers Chris Godwin, Mike Evans, Antonio Brown and Scotty Miller due to injuries. 

Fournette has returned to practice and the team has signed former Buffalo wide receiverJohn Brown to its practice squad.

Defensively, linebackers Lavonte David, Shaquil Barrett and Jason Pierre-Paul; cornerbacks Carlton Davis, Sean Murphy-Bunting, Jamel Dean and Richard Sherman; and safeties Jordan Whitehead and Antoine Winfield Jr. have all missed games due to injury. All are likely to play except Sherman.

“It’s been a next-man-up mentality all year, really,” Evans said. “We haven’t had our full team the whole season, and that’s how it’s had to be. We’ve had to adjust. It helps that we have a surplus of talent on this team for guys to step up.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.