Battle in the Bay — Eagles at Buccaneers Wild Card Preview
EAST RUTHERFORD, NEW JERSEY - JANUARY 07: (NEW YORK DAILIES OUT) Jalen Hurts #1 of the Philadelphia Eagles in action against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium on January 07, 2024 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Giants defeated the Eagles 27-10. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
After a long offseason, and at times an even longer regular season, the playoffs are finally here. While the Eagles have limped into the playoffs, it’s hard to not wake up this morning with an extra bit of excitement. As we saw in Detroit last night, we should never take playoff games for granted, especially when your team has a great chance to win. Whether or not the Eagles will win remains to be seen, but go into this game with a positive attitude. The Eagles play a playoff game today, let’s enjoy it, at least until the game kicks off.
On Jalen Hurts’ Shoulders
Jalen Hurts will return to the site of his first career playoff game as the Eagles will once again play in Tampa against the Buccaneers. In that playoff game, the Eagles lost 31-15 and Hurts had one of the worst games of his career. After that game, a video surfaced of the Buccaneers’ defenders exclaiming “He can’t read! He can’t read!” after intercepting Hurts multiple times. Buccaneers defensive coordinator and now head coach Todd Bowles was able to throw blitzes and coverages that confused Hurts. Fast forward to today and a lot of those problems from 2021 still remain in his game. Hurts and the offense as a whole have struggled mightily against the blitz this season, which Tampa does the 3rd most in the NFL. When there is a blitz you never see Hurts step up in the pocket and deliver a strike with a man in his face. Instead, he immediately takes off to his right, and most likely throws the ball away. We saw a play last week where Hurts was blitzed, and rolled to his right, but all the routes were being run to the left. If we as fans can see this, the Tampa defense knows this and I expect them to blitz at an increased rate tonight. If the coaches do not have a good plan to beat the blitz, and Hurts does not stay or step up in the pocket and deliver the ball with men in his face it will be an extremely frustrating night for the offense.
Hurts has turned the ball over 20 times this season, and while it may seem like a broken record, he has to keep the ball out of harm’s way to win this game tonight. It’s going to be wet, it’s going to be humid, but Hurts cannot take unnecessary risks in this game. We have seen him force the ball into double coverage too many times this season, and he and the offense as a whole need to play a clean game.
When Hurts signed his 5-year $255 million contract last offseason the expectations for him, and this team changed. He was no longer the second-round backup turned starter who had played himself into an elite Quarterback. The second the pen hit the paper on his contract he turned into the high-paid Quarterback that needs to play like an elite Quarterback season in and season out. He needs to be the Quarterback you win because of, not the Quarterback you win with. At points this season we have seen that player from Hurts, but for most of the season, and most profoundly over the last 6 games, Hurts has not played to the elite standard. Hurts needs to put this offense on his shoulders and go on a run. If the defense ends up losing, or is the reason they eventually get bounced in the playoffs we can all live with that, but it would be tough to live with our $255 million Quarterback being the reason we are going home.
Coaching for His Job
While it may seem like a quick trigger if the Eagles fire Nick Sirianni, there has been a growing sense that he will be coaching for his job tonight. Sirianni has made the playoffs in each of his first three seasons as Eagles head coach, while also making a Super Bowl appearance. Nick has done a great job since coming to Philadelphia, but it’s hard to deny that a lot of the problems that have hurt this team start with him.
When Sirianni was hired he was hired to bring in his own offense and to call the plays. After a slow start in his first year, he gave up play calling to then-offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. Nick has yet to take back play calling, but he has made it very clear it is still his offense. While the stats may say the offense has been great this year, the eye test says otherwise. Hurts has taken a step back this season, and the play calling and play design have been lackluster. If the front office is unhappy with the offensive, then it starts with Sirianni.
The sell after he stopped calling the plays was that he would be able to be a better situational football coach, which he has not been this year. After the Super Bowl, A.J. Brown said that he thought they lost the game when Sirianni decided to kick a field goal instead of going for it on 4th down. We have seen this year questionable calls with 4th down decisions, and multiple bad uses of timeouts. If you are not going to call plays, you need to be an elite game manager, which he has not been.
The last thing people hailed as a positive about Sirianni was his locker room culture. During last year’s run, many players talked about how great of a locker room they had, when this year it is clear that is not the case. There have been leak after leak coming out of the locker room including one today where Tim McManus of ESPN wrote “A disconnect between the visions of Sirianni, Hurts, and offensive coordinator Brian Johnson has affected the offense’s ability to land on an identity, the source said.” A.J. Brown had to hold a players-only meeting, where the message was that we needed to trust the coaches. That is not a message that breeds confidence in Sirianni.
For tonight’s game, Sirianni needs to have a plan for the blitz. Hurts has struggled with it his whole career, but Sirianni needs to do absolutely everything he can to help him out. This will start with the running game. In the first matchup of these teams, the Eagles ran for 201 yards. While Tampa’s defense is better against the run, with the weather and Hurts finger they have to utilize the running game. Another part of the run is that it chews up the clock. The Eagles need to win the time of possession tonight if they want to win this game. The less time the defense is on the field the better.
It would definitely be a quick trigger to fire Sirianni after three straight playoff appearances, but there is far too much smoke to not believe it to be a real possibility.
Time for the Line to Step Up
With their playoff hopes on the line, the Buccaneers visited the 2-14 Carolina Panthers. Win, and you’re in. The Buccaneers won that game, at just 9-0. In their biggest game of the year the offense did not even put up double-digit points. Yes, the Eagles’ defense is bad, but they need to get at least a few stops against this Bucs offense tonight. Bucs Quarterback Baker Mayfield is 1-5 against teams with a winning record this season and is also dealing with an ankle and knee injury. This is where the defensive line steps in. The highest-paid unit on the team has not done a good job this year. The Eagles need Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, Jalen Carter, and Fletcher Cox to wreck this game. In last year’s postseason, Reddick single-handedly ended the 49ers season. I’m not saying we need them to take out two Quarterbacks, but they need to make Baker feel them all game. Baker is prone to turnovers, and if he keeps seeing the winged helmets in his face, he will turn the ball over.
The biggest problem the Eagles defense will face tonight is Mike Evans. Evans recorded his 9th straight season of 1,000 plus yards, while also earning 2nd-team All-Pro honors. Evans is on a Hall of Fame track, and the Eagles will need Slay to slow him down tonight. Evans has the rare ability to beat you in so many ways. He can catch a slant, he can beat you in the intermediate routes, and he can jump over you on a deep ball. If the Eagles are able to slow Evans down, they will have some success on defense tonight.
A.J. Brown and Other Injuries
The big story on the injury front is that A.J. Brown will be out for tonight’s game. A.J. suffered an injury to his knee in last week’s loss against the Giants, but he is hopeful that he will be available next week if the Eagles are able to move on to play the Lions.
Safety Reed Blankenship is currently a game-time decision with a Groin injury. While he will try to give it a go, he did not participate in the Eagles’ final practice on Saturday. If he cannot go the belief is that Avonte Maddox will slide into the Safety position, with Bradley Roby playing the slot. Maddox was originally drafted to be a Safety but has since moved to the slot corner position.
There is some positive on the injury front for the Eagles as they will get both Darius Slay and Devonta Smith back for this game. With Mike Evans on the other side, it is massive that Slay will be back for this game. Smith will also play a big role tonight with Brown hurt, and he will be the number one target for Hurts. I’m excited to see what Smith can do in the true number-one receiver role.
For the Buccaneers Quarterback Baker Mayfield is officially listed as questionable for tonight’s game with both an ankle and knee injury. He is though expected to play tonight.
