Eagles Postgame Report: Birds Unprepared In Tampa Bay

If you were looking for a Frosty Freeze Out this week, this wasn’t the game for you. In a five-minute, 10-play drive, the defense was clearly unprepared as the one incompletion was the only “negative” play for the Buccaneers. The defense might as well have lined up guys downfield and waited to make a tackle until after the play was made and quickly put their team in a hole.

For his part, Jalen Hurts came out screwing his team over just as much. On the first offensive play of the game, the line did a fantastic job holding the pressure back and providing a clean pocket. Hurts rolled out and with a wide-open Saquon Barkley behind the entire defense for an easy touchdown, Hurts threw the ball about 15 yards short and 20 yards out of bounds on his way to a three and out, but received praise from announcers for a “great” 8-yard pass on 3rd-and-1o to complete the three-and-out.

Avonte Maddox followed that up with what should have been a negative play, but he basically dove making almost no contact with Chris Godwin and allowed 28-yards for the big chunk of another touchdown drive where the entire defense was about as effective as a limp noodle out there.

To continue the ugly play, a really nice floater from Hurts hit Goedert in the hands for what should have been around 20 yards, but he dropped the ball. Following that, it was another uninspired handoff followed by Hurts not feeling the blitz and taking a sack for another three-and-out.

Not to be outdone, Brandon Graham got in on a sack that actually lead to a defensive stop by the Birds. So naturally Isaiah Rodgers, who isn’t good enough to play defense, came in on the punt and pushed his guy into Cooper DeJean trying to make a fair catch, causing a fumble and the ball going right back to the Bucs who promptly ran it in for another touchdown and basically put the game to bed in the beginning of the second quarter.

On the next offensive drive, Hurts threw 10-20 yards over his intended receiver four straight times but luckily Fred Johnson got called for a penalty so only three of those terrible throws went on Hurts’ stat line before the punt. The defense held Tampa Bay to a field goal (a minor miracle), before the offense finally got any traction and moved the chains for the first time in the game and were able to reach pay dirt.

The defense stood up once again with the momentum, forcing a stop on four plays to get the offense the ball back with 1:14 in the half and two timeouts. Hurts could not keep that momentum as he had two incompletions and a five-yard pass for a three and out that gave the Bucs the ball back with one timeout and 55 seconds. The defense was able to force a punt and the Eagles took a timeout so they could get in a punt return, where Kelee Ringo tackled DeJean before he could even catch the ball. They entered the half losing 24-7.

Saquon Barkley did his thing and breathed life into the Eagles with a 59-yard run that setup an easy touchdown on two straight tush pushes to put the Eagles within striking distance. The defense did not come out with the same fire and instead covered absolutely no one for an entire drive where the Bucs burned almost six minutes and put up six. It was Rodgers and Ringo that salvaged any sort of momentum for Philadelphia, with the former blocking the kick and the latter returning the ball for two points to keep the lead at just two scores and 14 points.

With momentum, the Eagles pushed down the field to the Tampa Bay 19, where Hurts actively avoided a sack and then put his hand out to try and complete a pass by putting the ball right in front of the defender he dodged. To the surprise of no one but Hurts, this resulted in a fumble and the Eagles essentially signing their own death warrant on yet another asinine play by the fifth-year supposed MVP-caliber player that can’t even keep himself from handing the ball to the other team every single week.

On 3rd and 14 a Maddox hold allowed Tampa Bay to continue their drive. The Bucs then benefited from Nakobe Dean whiffing on a tackle to allow a 13-yard completion on one that should have lost two and that seemed to put a nail in the coffin for the Birds. The Bucs were nice enough to shoot themselves in the foot enough to settle for a field goal, but a three-score deficit for a team with only two successful drives didn’t leave any real hope.

Hurts moved the team down to the TB 43, where he passed up an easy first down pass to Saquon Barkley to overthrow the ball nowhere near John Ross III before standing around and taking a sack. Then a hold lead to 3rd and 29, where Hurts stood around once again for another sack (and a fumble, recovered by Fred Johnson).

A TB punt, PHI turnover on downs, and then a time-killing drive ended the game with drives that didn’t actually matter to either team since the game was already decided.

Offensive MVP: Saquon Barkley

It was Barkley who made every single successful drive by land or air. He recorded 84 yards on just 10 carries and 32 yards on two receptions. Unfortunately, he also could have had a 70-yard touchdown pass on the first offensive play by the Eagles, but Jalen Hurts’ throw was so poor that Barkley never got a chance to haul in the ball and make this a close game at the half. Barkley needs to be more of a focus for this offense, because his touches in this game were the only reason the Eagles offense doesn’t look like a complete crap show.

Defensive MVP: Brandon Graham

This is tough to pick because no one played well. It really comes down to most likely Baun, Mitchell or Graham. Graham was the only player on the defense with an impact play in the first quarter, however. He had a huge sack that changed the momentum and got the defense their first stop of the game. Unfortunately, Isaiah Rodgers sucks at football and handed the punt back to the Bucs just outside the red zone, handing all the momentum back, giving up points and wasting an incredible play by the 15-year veteran.

Game Notes

• Maybe the defense could practice doing literally anything at all during the week. They came out about as useful as a pop warner defense playing against an NFL offense and were an absolute embarrassment.
• Jalen Hurts is still showing up to games like he’s not a veteran signal caller. It’s unacceptable that every week he has chances on the first and second drive of the game but can’t make the throws or turns the ball over to keep the Eagles at 0 points through the first caller. He did get screwed by Goedert on drive two, but missing the easiest touchdown pass you can find on the first play from scrimmage is a rookie mistake that he continues to make in year five.
• Remember that the Eagles signed Isaiah Rodgers and gave him a chance after the gambling issue? Perhaps he’s at the gambling thing again, because it sure seemed like he had money on the Bucs considering his only impact play on the entire season was to turn the ball over and screw the entire Eagles franchise.
• This terrible play and decision making by Hurts is the same thing that happens EVERY WEEK and then if they win the game or make it close, most of the fanbase sits around and glazes him for his “hero ball” that was only necessary in the first place because he sucked for the first half of the game.
• Cooper DeJean may just retire at this point. They put him back there for three punts, one he fair caught, one where his own teammate pushed someone into him and caused him to fall away from the ball and fumble it away, and one where his own teammate tackled him before the ball arrived. Michael Clay, get your players under control it’s an embarrassment.
• Quinyon Mitchell had some solid play in this one and was some of the only positives to come out of the first half, unfortunately everyone knew that even when he broke up a touchdown pass to Mike Evans on third down, Tampa Bay would just run another play and the defense would do nothing to stop them.
• On the defense, it’s important to keep in mind a botched snap and then a dropped touchdown pass (Darius Slay was just trailing by five yards) is what lead to the the Eagles “standing up” and forcing a field goal, so really it had nothing to do with them.
• 11 missed tackles through three quarters? Might as well bring in 25 new players for the defense if the leadership in place is willing to accept that level of play for so long, especially from players that have been with the team for years.
• Avonte Maddox has made no splash plays except for the ones where he could and he whiffs or the ones where he’s trailing his guy by about 7 yards and watches someone else clean up his botched coverage. Hard to believe no one else can play better than him and hard to believe there’s a reason why someone like DeJean isn’t getting those reps when there isn’t much room to play any worse.
• Kenny Gainwell was brought in a few times to handle a carry for 0 yards and in order to get trucked and allow a pressure when he failed to pickup the blitz. It was only once the game was over that he had any productive plays at all. It’s really questionable why the team continues to bring him into the game and not give the opportunity to the rookie Will Shipley, who they drafted to fill a similar role.
• Jahan Dotson didn’t get a real target from Hurts until 6 minutes left in the game, when the game was already over. Once again, the Eagles will never have a successful WR3 unless Jalen Hurts completes real reads instead of locking onto two guys he likes and only looking at them.
• What is it that Nick Sirianni does for this team? Will he discuss flowers this week to tell them they played like fertilizer? Maybe schedule a walkthrough where they can be unprepared for any future games?

Injury Notes

• Reed Blankenship left with heat-related issues and was replaced by Tristian McCollum.
• Darius Slay also left with what appeared to be a heat-related issue and was replaced by Isaiah Rodgers. They were both garbage the entire game, so that really didn’t matter at all – they couldn’t get any worse. Slay did return.
• Jalen Carter headed off the filed with what was assumed to be cramps.
• Cam Jurgens left in the fourth quarter with heat issues and was replaced by Dickerson, who was replaced by Tyler Steen at guard.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers – September 22, 2024