Game Preview – PHI at TB
Posted September 24th, 2023 | 2 Comments »The Bucs have been a nemesis for the Eagles since the calendar turned to January back in 2003. There was the brutal loss in the NFC CG that month. There was a frustrating loss on a 62-yard FG as time expired in 2006. The Eagles had a 3-game winning streak between 2009 and 2013, but haven’t beaten the Bucs since. Jameis Winston threw 5 TDs in a blowout win in 2015. Ryan Fitzpatrick threw 4 TDs as the Eagles lost early in 2018. The Eagles lost to Tom Brady twice in 2021, including in a playoff game.
On paper, the Eagles should win this game. They were expected to be a Super Bowl team. The Bucs were looked at as one of the worst teams in the league. After two weeks, both are 2-0. It is hard to know what to make of the two teams.
Philly led 16-0 in the opener, but had to hold on for a close win. Philly led 27-7 in Week 2, but had to hold on for a close win. The Bucs won a pair of close games, beating two 0-3 teams. I still see the Eagles as a good team. I still have my doubts on Tampa.
If you want to sum up the Bucs as simply as possible, they are playing good defense and Baker Mayfield is getting Mike Evans the ball. Let’s start by talking about their defense. Eagles fans want to see Jalen Hurts and the explosive offense of 2022. We’ve seen flashes, but not the consistently dangerous group from last year. Tampa is very good against the run, but they are vulnerable to the pass. Kirk Cousins threw for 328 yards in the opener and even the Bears had some success last week.
Eagles coaches have had a chance to study those tapes and find some weak spots. I would expect them to try to get the ball to AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith early and often. In order to do that, the OL must play well. Tampa has some guys who can rush and Todd Bowles will blitz on a regular basis. He’s willing to take chances. The Bears did have some success with screens to RBs and TEs last week. The Eagles don’t do RB screens a lot, but Dallas Goedert could be a good option.
It will be interesting to see if Todd Bowles uses some of the creative looks the Pats and Vikings did. I didn’t see anything I’d call exotic last week. Bowles didn’t fear the Bears skill players so he was more likely to play that straight up. Save the good stuff for the tougher opponents.
Hurts and the coaches have had 10 days to sort out some issues. If the Bucs do go with 3-man rushes and 8-man drops, the Eagles should have more answers. The biggest thing for me is wanting to see Hurts look more comfortable in the pocket. Drop back, read the defense, find your guys and get ’em the ball. Sounds so simple, but it hasn’t been that way this year.
I’m curious to see how the Eagles run the ball. Bowles had good answers for Hurts as a runner in 2021. A lot has changed since then, but we’ll see if Hurts can find space. Kenny Gainwell will play this week. He might be the better option against the Bucs D, with his N-S style. D’Andre Swift likes to read and then run. That was great vs Minny, but might not work as well in Tampa.
The Bucs have allowed 17 points in each game. Don’t expect the Eagles to light them up. I do think Hurts and the coaches figured some things out in the past week and we’ll see a better Eagles offense on Monday night.
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The Eagles have the best run defense in the NFL. They are 31st in passing yards allowed. I think part of the pass defense struggling is on the injuries they’ve dealt with. The good news is that CB James Bradberry and S Reed Blankenship are healthy and will start in Tampa. That will give the secondary a boost.
Mayfield did some good things in CLE a few years back so it isn’t shocking to see him have success. He has excellent WRs in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. OC Dave Canales and Mayfield seem to be in sync and that’s helped the Bucs offense to have success.
The OL is a work in progress. C Robert Hainsey is the only guy playing the same spot as he did last year. Tristan Wirfs moved from RT to LT and is their best blocker. The rest of the group is young and inconsistent. Mayfield has only been sacked once, but he’s not exactly faced the Steel Curtain or Gang Green. He has done a good job under pressure.
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The numbers look great. The tape is a bit more up and down. It felt like a lot of that was Mayfield getting the ball to Evans and letting his star receiver make plays.
The Eagles need a good plan for handling Evans. They could have Darius Slay follow him around. Tampa is mixing Evans in the slot at times. The Eagles could play Bradberry inside to help deal with that. If not, Mario Goodrich will get the start and play a key role. It will be interesting to see what kind of a plan Sean Desai puts together.
With the Bucs revamped OL, the Eagles front must get pressure on Mayfield. This could be the week that Haason Reddick has his breakout game. He’ll be going against Luke Goedeke, who has moved from OG to RT this year. Tampa will give Goedeke help, but they can’t do that on every play. Jalen Carter needs to have a big game. He’ll have the advantage on the guys he’s going against.
We need to see some improvement from the Eagles defense. They blew leads in each of the first two weeks. This is a game where they need to take a big step forward. It would also help if they could stay healthy.
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Both teams are up and down on STs. The Eagles will have a new punter. We’ll see how that goes. Tampa had a FG blocked last week. Chicago beat one of their interior blockers and got pressure right up the middle.
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This wasn’t a banner weekend for the NFC East. Dallas went from looking like the best team in the league to losing to Jonathan Gannon Josh Dobbs by 12 points. The dominant Dallas D gave up 400 yards and 28 points. Guess they won’t be going undefeated. The Cowboys were missing three OL, but that had nothing to do with their defense giving up big plays to the Cards. I did not see this coming.
Washington lost 37-3 to Buffalo. They kicked a FG with :50 left to avoid the shutout. Sam Howell threw 4 INTs and got sacked 9 times. The Bills coverage was outstanding all game long.
The Giants lost to SF 30-12 on TNF.
Let’s hope the Eagles can get to 3-0 and stay atop the division.
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