Posted September 28th, 2024 | 1 Comment »The Bucs ended the Eagles season back in January. Normally that set this up as a revenge game, but I don’t get that vibe. I think we were all so ready for 2023 to end that losing to Tampa just wasn’t that big of a deal.
Thankfully, 2024 is different. The Eagles are 2-1 and look like they could be a good team. The Bucs are also 2-1, but they are a lot harder to figure out. They had an impressive win over the Lions in Week 2 and then got dominated by the Broncos last week, losing 26-7. They were out-gained 352 to 223 so the score wasn’t deceiving. Denver controlled that game from start to finish.
Tampa is 25th in yards on offense. They are 15th in points, mostly based on winning 37-20 in the opener over Washington. They are 23rd in offensive DVOA. The Bucs are struggling up front and that has affected the whole offense. Baker Mayfield has been sacked 13 times. RT Luke Goedeke is likely to return this week so that will help a lot.
Mayfield has mostly played well, but the protection issues have limited the passing game. Mike Evans only has 10 catches for 120 yards after three games. Remember that Dallas Goedert went 10-170 last week alone. Chris Godwin is the leading receiver, with 21 catches. The run game has been inconsistent. Rachaad White is struggling, at 2.1 yards per carry. That’s not good. Rookie Bucky Irving is averaging 6.2 ypc. That is good. Expect him to get more touches. Irving is a quick, shifty runner so he doesn’t need great blocking. He’s able to create on his own.
The Tampa defense has been up and down. They are a disappointing 28th in yards allowed, but are 15th in points. They are 12th in defensive DVOA. The Bucs only have 2 sacks. They struggle with missed tackles. They allow 4.9 ypc, which is 28th in the league. This looks like a Todd Bowles defense in terms of style (blitzing), but the results aren’t what he wants, aside from being tough to score on.
CB Jamel Dean is the leading tackler. That’s never a good sign. No player has more than 2 TFLs. They only have 9 as a team. Guys just aren’t making plays.
Injuries are going to be a big factor for both teams.
Winfield is a major loss. Vea and Irving could be huge as well. We’ll find out more about them on Sunday. The Eagles will be missing DeVonta Smith. Lane Johnson and AJ Brown are both questionable. They have a chance to play, but I wouldn’t be much on either of them.
The Eagles are the more talented team on paper, but this is a challenging matchup. Facing the blitz was a major issue last year. Jalen Hurts is better this year, but he hasn’t faced Todd Bowles blitzes yet. The Bucs are very creative and aggressive. They will really test just how much better Hurts is.
Hurts won’t have all of his weapons. He will have Saquon Barkley, Dallas Goedert and Jahan Dotson. This is one of those games where the Eagles need Hurts to play like a star QB. He needs to get the most out of the guys he does have and will also need to make some plays himself. Hurts did that last week so he should be confident that he can get the job done again.
It will be interesting to see what Tampa does on offense. They saw the Eagles play big fronts and shut down the Saints. Tampa loves to use 11 personnel and spread teams out. Expect them to do that. Will Vic Fangio have some wrinkles for this week? He used 3 DTs vs spread looks last week and that was effective. The Bucs have now seen that and might have ideas on how to attack it.
The real key to this game will be the line of scrimmage. It looks like Mekhi Becton will be back at RG. There is a good chance Fred Johnson will start at RT. Johnson played well last week, but he was a mid-game change. The Bucs have had a week to figure out how to attack him. This will be a tougher test for Johnson if he is the RT.
Jalen Carter played at a special level last week. If he wants to show that he’s a special player, he has to do that consistently. Tampa has a rookie center and I’m betting Carter will test him a time or two. Bucs RG Cody Mauch has struggled at times this year. Carter could eat him up. Tampa will double Carter as much as possible, which means other DL will have 1-on-1 matchups. They must win those. The entire Eagles defensive front played better last week. They need a repeat performance.
Special Teams can always be an X-factor. The Eagles will have a rookie PR in Cooper DeJean. That is something to watch.
Intangibles sometimes favor the more desperate team. That would be Tampa, coming off last week’s beatdown by the Broncos. The Eagles had to grind out a tough win over a tough team. That could have them focused and ready to play. We’ll see which team plays with more urgency.
Feed the ball to Barkley, play good defense and go win the game. Don’t over-complicate this.
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Posted September 26th, 2024 | 2 Comments »Week 3 is very early in the NFL season so you never want to make too much of a game, but that was a huge win for the Eagles. It is too early to truly put the win into context. This could turn out to be a turning point game when we look back at the season a few months from now.
The 2023 Eagles did not handle adversity well at all. The 2024 team feels different. They played on the road against the hottest team in the league and had to deal with multiple injuries. The Eagles overcame all of that. They out-played the Saints and came through in clutch moments to win the game.
Huge.
COACHING
Nick Sirianni did a good job of preparing his team during the week. The Eagles came out ready to play. There could have been a hangover from the brutal loss to the Falcons on Monday night. Didn’t happen. The Eagles were focused and ready to go.
This wasn’t Sirianni’s best job of game management. It felt like he brought the baggage of the Falcons loss with him when it came to making decisions. Sirianni wasn’t aggressive enough vs Atlanta, but was too aggressive vs the Saints. He went for it on fourth down late in the first half. Even if the Eagles convert, there were just a few seconds left. The chances of scoring a TD were not good. The score was 3-0 in the favor of the Saints. Don’t overthink that. Just take the points.
The Eagles finished the game 1 for 3 on fourth downs.
Kellen Moore did a fantastic job with the Eagles offense. He didn’t have all his weapons or a healthy OL, but still got the team to put up 460 yards. They would have scored more than 15 points if Sirianni managed the game better. Moore’s play-call late in the game on the crossing route to Dallas Goedert was great. He took advantage of the Saints tendency to play man coverage. That got DG open and helped deliver a win.
Vic Fangio did a masterful coaching job. He mixed in more 5-2 and 6-1 fronts. When he did go 4-2-5, he used an extra DT to help with run defense. The Saints ran 29 times for only 89 yards (3.1 ypc). The Saints struggled to get big plays. They only had two plays go for more than 16 yards. They couldn’t sustain drives and couldn’t get chunk plays. That’s good defense. The Eagles got a key fourth down stop, held them to 1 for 3 in the red zone and sealed the game with a takeaway.
Darn good day for Fangio and the defense.
OFFENSE
This was the kind of game where you needed the star QB to step up and Jalen Hurts did just that. He went 29-38-311. He ran 8 times for 25 yards. Hurts threw an INT and fumbled the ball away. The INT was complicated. The fumble is something he’s got to clean up. The Eagles had a lot of RAC yards. You don’t get those without Hurts making good decisions and accurate throws.
It felt like Hurts made a real effort to stay in the pocket and not roll to his right. He got flushed to the left a couple of times and actually had some completions when doing that. DG and DeVonta got most of the targets for the game, but Hurts did spread it around to other receivers as well.
Saquon Barkley played like a star RB. He went 17-147-2. Beyond the numbers, his 65-yard TD run came at a time when the Eagles were desperate for a spark. Barkley scored the go-ahead TD and got the 2-point conversion. On both plays he ran straight ahead and hard. He wasn’t going to dance and look for daylight. He attacked up the field.
Dallas Goedert had the game of his life, going 10-170. It is rare for your TE to have three plays that go for 30 yards or more. The Eagles needed those big plays with AJ out. Goedert made some tough grabs and did a great job of running after the catch. Grant Calcaterra struggled as a blocker. He missed the block on the fake off the Brotherly Shove play. If he slows down his LB, Barkley is likely to get the first.
DeVonta Smith was great until getting hurt on the cheap shot hit. He was 7-79 and made some key grabs. Parris Campbell and Jahan Dotson each had a pair of short catches. Johnny Wilson had a good catch and run on third down to move the chains. He also had a drop on the final drive and was called for holding on another play. The Eagles need more from the backup receivers. Britain Covey was 1-11 before getting knocked out of the game.
The OL had a terrific game. Mekhi Becton hurt his hand and was replaced by Tyler Steen at RG. Lane Johnson suffered a concussion and was replaced by Fred Johnson at RT. Normally having a whole new right side of the line would be big trouble. Steen and Johnson played the best games of their NFL careers and came up big when their team needed them the most.
The rest of the OL played at a high level. The blocking on Saquon’s long TD run was great. The blocking on the short TD was great as well. Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson were key on those plays. Cam Jurgens had another good game. Hurts had a lot of time to throw on most of his dropbacks. Barkley had room to run on a regular basis.
DEFENSE
What a difference a week makes. Fangio made strategic changes, but we also have to give credit to the players for simply playing at a higher level. You could tell from the start that the defense had a different vibe. They were more aggressive, more physical and more emotional.
Jalen Carter was the star of the show. The stat sheet shows 4 tackles, 2 TFLs and 2 pass deflections. His impact was so much more than that. Carter was a disruptive force all game long.
Carter wasn’t alone. Jordan Davis played his best game of the year, finishing with 4 tackles and a sack. Milton Williams had 2 TFLs. He played DT and DE, helping to control the run inside and outside. Moro Ojomo and Thomas Booker were good off the bench.
The edge rushers didn’t come up with a sack, but were impactful. Josh Sweat had a good game and got into the backfield several times. He was only credited with 1 QB hit, but I think that’s wrong. He was disruptive. Brandon Graham played inside and outside. He came up big on the fourth down stop and also on the final play of the game. Bryce Huff didn’t play much. He is trying to re-invent his game and is struggling. Nolan Smith had a couple of tackles and played the run well.
Zack Baun had another monster game. He led the team with 13 tackles. Baun set the edge, stuffed inside runs and played well in space. He was all over the field. Kamara did beat him down the sideline for a nice catch, but Baun had good coverage. Nakobe Dean played his best NFL game. He had 8 tackles and a TFL. He didn’t miss tackles. He got to the ball cleanly and made plays. He was under control, but aggressive. This was the best game by a pair of Eagles LBs in a while.
Baun and CJ Gardner-Johnson were both playing against their former team. That brought out the best in both players. CJGJ played a very emotional game. Any time he had a big hit or physical tackle, he made sure everyone knew about it. He might have gotten lucky on an early tackle of Kamara along the sideline. CJGJ kind of threw him to the ground out of bounds. It wasn’t hard, but we’ve seen officials call that. CJGJ had 8 tackles and a PD. He almost picked that pass off. It hit the ground, but it was a great effort. He gave up a TD to Olave.
Reed Blankenship only had 2 tackles, but did make the game-clinching INT. He saw the ball was underthrown and flew upfield to make a diving pick. Great awareness, effort and hands.
Quinyon Mitchell had 4 tackles and a pair of pass breakups. He had a shot at an INT, but couldn’t get his hands on the ball cleanly. He generally covered well. Darius Slay had a couple of tackles and broke up a pass in the end zone. That was a key play. When Slay was knocked out of the game, Kelee Ringo replaced him.
ST
Not the best game. Jake Elliott missed a 60-yard FG. He just pushed it.
The Saints blocked a punt. It looked like Nolan Smith was to blame on that.
Cooper DeJean replaced Covey as the PR. He had one return for 6 yards.
The KORs averaged 26 yards per return.
The Eagles didn’t give up any return yards.
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