Bad Day by the Bay

I mentioned in my preview that the Bucs were the more desperate team going into Sunday’s game. They lost badly to Denver last week. I knew that would get their attention and have them focused. I just thought the Eagles righting the ship last week would boost their confidence and help them to deliver another good performance.

Oops.

The Bucs came out and played like a team on a mission. The Eagles came out and laid down to take a nice Sunday nap. It was 14-0 in the blink of an eye. It was 24-0 in the second quarter. The Eagles woke up after that, but never could cut the game to a one-score deficit. They got it to 24-14 before eventually losing 33-16.

This was a team failure. The defense that played so well last week had no answers for Tampa until the game was out of hand. Baker Mayfield repeatedly shredded the Eagles defense. Tackling was a major issue. Defenders dove at runners/receivers and missed badly. Sometimes they took bad angles. The failure to wrap up was especially frustrating. That’s Tackling 101.

The offense was missing AJ, DeVonta and Lane. We knew there would be some challenges. We didn’t know things would be this bad. There were multiple drops. Hurts was sacked 6 times. He lost a fumble in the red zone.

If you want to understand this game in a nutshell, here you go. The Bucs elevated WR Sterling Shepard from their practice squad for the game. He had 3 catches for 51 yards, including an impressive 30-yard grab. Eagles WRs combined to go 7-34. Parris Campbell and John Ross were PS elevations, but Jahan Dotson is someone the Eagles traded for and really wanted. The WRs didn’t play well, but some of that is also on Hurts. He didn’t get them the ball.

This was a bad game to have before the bye week. There are a lot of bad vibes around this football team right now. The defense has only played one good game this year. The offense keeps making key mistakes. STs was sloppy today, with one muffed punt and another that came close to being a turnover. Nick Sirianni talks about how he wants a smart, physical, explosive football team. The Eagles aren’t smart, physical or explosive.

Sirianni said the coaches would take a look at everything. He said everything is on the table, in terms of changes. The Eagles are 2-2, but the those wins weren’t clean or easy. Sirianni has himself said that winning like that isn’t sustainable. The Eagles must be better.

The good news is that they will have an extra week to get healthy. In order for that to matter, Sirianni and the coaches have to figure out how to fix the mistakes this team has made for the first month of the season.

Aside from playing so inconsistently, the Eagles haven’t been much fun this year. Watching Saquon Barkley is great. He’s been the real deal. Seeing Zack Baun emerge has also been cool, but overall this has been a disappointing team on a lot of levels.

Let’s hope the players and coaches are able to figure some things out.

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