Eagles Go Down

The Eagles played another slopfest, but this time Steve Sarkasian wasn’t there to bail them out. Tampa beat the Eagles 27-21, with Ryan Fitzpatrick playing another amazing game.

I thought the Bucs could win for sure, but there was no way Fitzpatrick was going to light the Eagles up. There was ZERO chance he would throw for 400 yards on this defense and the improved secondary.

Oops.

Fitzpatrick threw for 402 yards and 4 TDs. It is hard for me to comprehend that. Doing it last week against an inconsistent Saints defense was one thing. He caught them off-guard, right? The Eagles were wide awake and knew exactly what they were dealing with. Or did they?

Malcolm Jenkins stupidly bit on a fake on the first play and DeSean Jackson ran right by Jalen Mills. That led to a 75-yard TD and the Eagles seemed to play on their heels the rest of the game. Jenkins is a terrific player, smart veteran and key leader for the Eagles. How he bit up on that play is beyond me. Didn’t we all know the Bucs would go deep to DeSean to put the fear of god into the Eagles DBs? Ugh.

Jim Schwartz wanted to play a bend, but don’t break style against Tampa’s speed receivers. That’s tough, but can be effective. You must tackle well. Ronald Darby made a pathetic attempt on a 10-yard pass to TE O.J. Howard that helped turn that play into a 75-yard TD. Jalen Mills showed his limitations in this game. He is going to struggle when facing top talent (Mike Evans) or a player with elite speed (DeSean).

The Eagles offense was a mess for most of the first half. Penalties and injuries led to some real problems. What do you do on 3rd and 41 when your LT is a backup and you are missing your two best deep threat WRs? Unfortunately, we got the answer to that question today.

Once the penalties stopped and there was some stability with the lineup, the offense picked things up a bit, but it still wasn’t good. The big thing that stands out to me is the lack of rhythm or feel. It seemed like there was a bit of chaos on each play.

We have not seen good Nick Foles this season. His numbers were much better today (35-48-334 with 1 TD), but he was still highly erratic. There was a screen to Zach Ertz that the defense read perfectly. Foles threw the ball into heavy traffic. It was deflected and somehow fell to the ground. That easily could have been picked off. A veteran QB has to know to just throw that ball away. That was beyond dumb.

There were other plays where Foles threw the ball short. Sometimes that was by design, but other times it seemed like he couldn’t make up his mind and just dumped the ball off. Short passes can be a weapon when done right. That wasn’t the case today.

Foles did make some great plays. His TD to Nelson Agholor was amazing. I thought for sure he overthrew the ball, but it turned out to be a perfect throw to the back corner of the end zone.

It did feel like the offense woke up late in the game, Foles included. If there is anything positive to come out of this game, that could be it. Sometimes an offense can come alive when they go into hurry-up mode and that can carry over to the next week.

The Eagles never panicked. They never gave up. That’s important. The team kept battling and gave themselves a chance to win. The Eagles had that mentality last year and it helped them overcome some tough situations.

Doug Pederson and his staff will study the game tape and coach the players up. There are plenty of mistakes to fix.

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