Roob’s Observations: Eagles Embarrassed in Tampa vs. Bucs originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
I looked at my laptop midway through the second quarter and the Bucs had 255 yards and the Eagles had 0 yards.
You really don’t need to be a great football expert to understand that this is not good.
In fact, it’s impossible, incredibly, staggeringly bad.
The Eagles not only lost a football game Sunday in Tampa 33-16, they embarrassed themselves. They were so completely outmatched on both sides of the field that it seemed like they hadn’t practiced or prepared all week.
And if that score seems even remotely competitive, it was 21-0 just a few plays into the second quarter and it was already over.
Yes, the Eagles were missing a lot of really good players, but that’s no excuse for the failure we saw on Sunday, especially in the first half.
They just seemed out of place. Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was their third road trip in four weeks, including a trip to Brazil and a Monday night.
But there are no excuses.
This was horrible.
Let’s go to the 10 Observations.
1. Just when you were starting to feel good about the Eagles defense… this happens. Just a complete breakdown on each phase of the game. Everything the Eagles did right a week earlier in New Orleans, they did wrong Sunday in Tampa. His approach was horrible. Just incredibly bad. Missed tackles everywhere. Maybe 20 of them? Is there a record of that? Guys were out of position all over the field. Once again they got nothing to take away. They allowed one big play after another. They finally got a sack from the rim for the first time in eight games, and immediately gave the ball back to the Bucs on a special teams turnover. They were down 24-0 midway through the first half and that’s the game. The rest was just a matter of determining the final score. The Bucs had 219 yards 3 1/2 minutes into the second quarter. Last week the Saints had 219 yards in the entire game. This seemed like something out of Matt Patricia’s playbook. They seemed unprepared, unmotivated and incompetent. You never want to question the effort, but for most of the first half it was like the Bucs were playing against the air. Nine of his first 28 plays went for 13 yards or more. It got a little better. But not much. I don’t care who you play against, if you’re not prepared physically and mentally, this is what happens.
2. And then there’s the offense, and as miserable as the defense was in the first half, the offense actually could have been worse. Their first three drives generated -5 yards from scrimmage – or negative -10 if you want to include penalty yards. I think Kellen Moore did a good job as play-caller the first few weeks, but this was an offensive catastrophe. And losing a bunch of starters, including perhaps their three best offensive players, doesn’t excuse this level of, I don’t know, lethargy? There is no excuse for having a negative yardage total while the other team has already scored four times. The offense did some really good things the first few weeks, and when they’re at full strength they should be nearly unstoppable. But even without AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson, they should be better than this. Far better. They had 226 yards, 16 first downs and 113 net passing yards and allowed six sacks against the NFL’s 28th-ranked defense. Unacceptable.
3. What does it mean when a team is outscored 24-0 and 255-0 in the first 23 minutes? It means he just wasn’t ready to play football at 1 pm EST in Tampa, Florida. And that’s entirely up to Nick Sirianni. When you’re a CEO coach and you’re not calling plays, a big part of your job is getting the team mentally and physically ready to play and that includes the way you practice, the way you run walkthroughs, the way you watch film. . , the way you warm up before the game, and the reality is that this football team just wasn’t ready for the game to start. And it wasn’t just this game. The Eagles trailed the Packers 6-0 after the first quarter, did not score a point in the first quarter against the Falcons and were scoreless until the fourth quarter in New Orleans last week. They’ve gone six straight games without scoring a point in the first quarter, and their last touchdown in the first quarter was scored by Julio Jones, for crying out loud. But this was worse than all of those.
4. You really want to cut Jalen Hurts some slack without DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown and Britain Covey, not to mention Lane Johnson. But he was just offside for a lot of this game, and I don’t care who your receivers are, you go out and execute the offense with crispness, clarity and energy. But the Eagles didn’t even get a first down until they were down 24-0 with 6 ½ minutes left in the second quarter, and I’m not sure Jalen was the worst of the offense’s problems during that stretch when they were outscored 24-0. 0, but if you’re an MVP candidate, you should be able to help get your team out of that kind of morass, but all we saw were balls flying 10 feet over Jahan Dotson’s head or five yards out of bounds. Hurts was 1 of 7 for seven yards on those first three drives. He just seemed out of sync, out of character, whatever you want to call it. He calmed down a bit briefly, threw a touchdown to Parris Campbell and then drove the Eagles inside the Tampa 20-yard line. But then another turnover. He fumbled on a Lavonte David sack with the Eagles inside the Bucs’ 20-yard line. That’s seven losses this year for Hurts. He finished with just 158 passing yards, took six sacks and looked bad. I’m still waiting for Jalen Hurts 2022 to show up. He will eventually. Good? Good?
5. One thing to keep in mind is that after the break the schedule becomes much easier. Their first four opponents currently have a combined record of 9-6, and three of them have winning records. Their first nine opponents after the break are 10-23 and only the Commanders have a winning record of 2-1 with a game later Sunday at Arizona. That’s a winning team in the first nine games. Notably, their next four opponents (the Browns, Giants, Bengals and Jaguars) have a combined record of 3-12. So as ugly as this loss was, 2-2 isn’t the worst place to be with four games coming up that look pretty winnable. Of course, if they play like they played Sunday in Tampa, it won’t really matter who they play.
6. The Eagles’ turnover issues are just a true epidemic right now. They were -2 on Sunday – no interceptions but two fumbles, one by Hurts and one by Cooper DeJean on a punt return that wasn’t actually his fault – and have now gone an astonishing 12 straight games without finishing in territory. positive in proportion of gift and takeaway. That’s impossible. It’s the second-longest streak in franchise history, the longest since a 15-game streak in the 1967 and 1968 seasons. And they’re -15 during those 12 games. They have two takeaways all year – both interceptions by Reed Blankenship – and that’s the fewest after two games since they had one four games into the 1998 season. And get this: This is the first time the Eagles they have been minus-1 or worse in turnover margin in each of their first four games. What does all this mean? Pretty simple. There aren’t enough playmakers on defense and Jalen has to stop giving the ball away, especially in the red zone. The Eagles are 22-1 under Sirianni, with 22 straight wins, when they win the turnover battle. It’s been 22-1 for a long, long time.
More to come…
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