Eagles exposed by Buccaneers… again

In almost a repeat of the wild card game from just a year ago, the Eagles were absolutely dominated on each side of the ball in a predictable disaster. A shorthanded and unmotivated Eagles team had a lot of mishaps to go over so let’s not waste any more time

No WRs, no offense… except for Saquon

Up until more than halfway through the second quarter, the Eagles didn’t have a single net yard of offense to their names. It was clear to anyone who was watching the Jalen Hurts had almost no trust in his WRs and it quickly became the Saquon Barkley/Dallas Goedert show.

They wouldn’t get into the end zone until late in the first half thanks to Parris Campbell‘s 1-yard TD. There would however be signs of life to open up the second half.

Per the usual, it was Saquon putting the team on his back with a 59-yard explosion right out of the half. Hurts would later convert this to 6 on the tush push for the score.

Then with a chance to seize momentum back, Hurts did the thing he has become infamous for doing over the past 2 seasons. He turned it over. Just outside the red zone with a chance to change the entire game, Hurts fumbled. His turnover problem has become unacceptable and today was once again no different.

You miss a tackle! You miss a tackle! Everybody misses a tackle!

In the same vein as the wildcard game last year, the Bucs forced the Eagles to make open-field tackles and they couldn’t. Almost double digits in missed tackles by halftime. Baker Mayfield was free to do whatever he wanted and he did, throwing for over 300 yards and 2 TDs. Mike Evans and Rachaad White both have quality outings along with it.

Vic Fangio looked outmatched and so did Avonte Maddox. The Bucs targeted him time and time again and it felt like any time they did it was already over. 21 consecutive points will do that to you.

The usual problems were present like the tackling, the lack of pressure, Bryce Huff, and C.J. Gardner-Johnson getting exposed after some cocky pregame comments came back to bite him.

How bad is it?

Well on the bright side, the bye week is here. It’ll give Lane Johnson, A.J. Brown, and DeVonta Smith all time to heal up for week 6.

The bad news is that Nick Sirianni isn’t getting fired this early in the year. The Eagles will need to be in the lab during the bye because there are a lot of problems that need fixing for the Cleveland game, especially since the Browns play extremely ugly as well. This is one of those moments where we will learn a lot about how good or bad of a coach Nick Sirianni really is.

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