Eagles hoping for first home win tonight against Buccaneers

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The Philadelphia Eagles are preparing to take on defending Super Bowl champions Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home Thursday night.

The Birds are expecting the Bucs to be the best team they've seen all year as they try to win their first regular season game at home.

A lot of focus will be on Bucs quarterback Tom Brady, who said he's fully aware of what the Eagles' defense is capable of.

"It's a really tough defense. They give a lot of pressure with those guys up front. They have one of the best d-lines in football," Brady said.

Brady will be playing with an injured throwing hand, but he said his taped-up thumb shouldn't be an issue.

"This is pretty simple, this tape job. The knee is a lot tougher. But it feels like it should be fine. I don't anticipate any problems," Brady said.

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Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts knows there will be a lot comparisons to Brady.

"Obviously, he's been in the league for a very long time. Done a lot of great things, so obviously a lot of respect for him," Hurts said. "We just want to go out there and win regardless of a million people watching or nobody watching. We just want to go out there and win the game."

The Birds are coming off of a win against the Carolina Panthers. They will be shorthanded on offense, missing key players including Lane Johnson, who will be out for his third straight game due to an undisclosed personal issue.

The team is also waiting for tight end Dallas Goedert to be cleared from the reserve COVID-19 list.

Bucs tight end Rob Gronkowski will not play due to a rib injury.

Eagles rookie head coach Nick Sirianni is looking for his first win at home as this will be his third try.

His play-calling has been questioned since that big win on the road at the start of the regular season.

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Sirianni is encouraging players to know their roles and to stick to it.

"You want to play the same way every single time and that's been our message from the beginning and that's been our message this week as well," Sirianni said.

Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox echoed the message of being consistent.

"We know we're going against a really good football team. They won the Super Bowl last year and obviously this year is a new year. I'm looking forward to going against the challenges." Cox said. "I that we have the team to compete against anybody. We just got to go out and play our game and have fun doing it."

The game is set to start at 8:20 p.m. at the Linc.