Eagles observations: Birds don't overcome big deficit this time, they nearly blow it

One week after overcoming an 19-point deficit, the Eagles nearly blew an 18-point lead over the Bucs before escaping with another win.

By Geoff Mosher
PhillyVoice Staff

Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni looks on from the sideline during the second quarter against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium.

One week after overcoming a 19-point deficit in a thrilling home win over the Rams, the Eagles were doing their best to blow an 18-point lead over the Bucs. Two explosive touchdowns by the Bucs – each over 70 yards – and two ridiculous field goals from Bucs kicker Chase McLaughlin of 65 and 58 yards in the second half combined with another Eagles offensive drought brought Tampa Bay within one possession early in the fourth.

Given that the Bucs had set a record by winning all of their first three games on scoring drives in the final minute, their eight-point deficit with 12 minutes, 16 seconds to play felt threatening, especially as right tackle Lane Johnson and some others were forced to exit the game with injuries.

Bucs quarterback Baker Mayfield stalled a potential game-tying drive when he threw an interception in the end zone early in the fourth. Mayfield and the Bucs had another chance as time was winding down but the Eagles' defense tightened again, as the Birds held onto to beat their nemesis in a 31-25 win at Raymond James Stadium.

The Eagles snapped a three-game losing streak in Tampa and stayed unbeaten for the season while the Bucs (3-1) couldn't summon the magic to stay unbeaten for another week.

Let's game to some observations:

Behold the greatness

You might be ticked that the Eagles have you biting your fingernails every week, but they've now won 20 of their past 21 games, a stretch so elite that it's almost inconceivable – especially for a franchise that waited 52 years for its first Super Bowl.  I'm not sure this is written about or discussed enough. This is an incredible run. Think about all those horror stories your parents and grandparents told you about growing up an Eagles fan, and all the heartbreaking losses that made them caution you about getting suckered into bleeding Midnight Green. These aren't the Eagles of yesteryear. Fans should cherish this as much as they possibly can, because epic runs like this don't come around often.

Nick Sirianni shines again

Nick Sirianni might have some strange ideas and methods, but you can't argue with his results. We'll never know if flying out to Tampa on Friday to acclimate sooner to the heat and humidity truly made a difference, but the Eagles sure looked fresh and ready at kickoff despite field temps hovering around 100 degrees. Maybe they wore down after halftime, but that made their first half just as important. We've seen this team have some terrible starts in this stadium. Watching two anonymous staff members holding a sun shield over the players as they sat on the bench  also appeared to help. 

Turnovers are the biggest factors in the Eagles' success

Jalyx Hunt and Jihaad Cambell combined to force Bucky Irving into a fumbling in the third quarter during a time when the Eagles had gone three-and-out on three straight drives and the Bucs had scored their first touchdown. The Eagles converted the fumble into a touchdown. In the fourth, Cambpell got his first career interception when he picked off Mayfield in the end zone as the Eagles were clinging to an eight-point lead and watching the Bucs drive downfield, a major swing of momentum that came as the Eagles were starting to wear down in the heat. The Eagles have forced at least one turnover in all four games, and they've all been huge – the forced fumble on Miles Sanders as the Cowboys were deep in Eagles territory, the Andrew Mukuba interception on Travis Kelce's dropped pass as he was heading for the end zone, the opening possession interception of Matthew Stafford, and now these two. Every Eagles win so far has come by one possession – all four wins have come by a total of 20 points – which illustrates how big these turnovers are in the big picture. 

Did they learn their lesson on offense?

Clearly, the Eagles got the message about their offensive predictability.  For the first time this season, they came out passing – and boy did they pass. On their first possession, an eight-play drive, they dialed seven plays, including passes on their first four plays with Jalen Hurts spreading the ball and hitting a big 3rd-and-8 conversion to DeVonta Smith. One of their passes turned into a run when Hurts got outside the pocket and down the right sideline for a 28-yard gain that set up a shovel pass touchdown to Dallas Goedert –  hey, that's new and exciting – for a 14-0 lead. The overall success of the pass game even masqueraded the fact that A.J. Brown didn't catch his first pass until after the 2-minute warning in the first half, and it was for minus-2.  

In the second half, they did a full WWE heel turn, going back to a run-first conservative offense that featured little ingenuity and unpredictability. They ran far too much on first down, got behind the sticks, and then struggled to find the same openings in the pass game. Hurts was 15-of-16 passing in the first half and finished 15-of-24 after failing to complete a single pass after the break. How is that even possible?

Wanted: Some edge rush

Collectively, the Eagles played pretty good defense outside of two shot plays that led to Bucs TDs of 70+ yards. One was a coverage gaffe, the other came from a scramble drill. Generally, though, the Eagles' pass rush didn't shine in its first game without Nolan Smith, who went on injured reserve last week with a tweak of the triceps that he tore in the Super Bowl. We wrote last week that Fangio has been blitzing much more this season than last year, a trend that continued against Tampa as Fangio dialed up a series of extra-man pressures and SIM pressures in attempt to get something from a pass rush that isn't getting enough 1-on-1 wins, especially from the edges. Fangio's blitzes were effective – one led to Moro Ojomo sacking Mayfield just before the two-minute warning – but it also allowed Mayfield to find some openings downfield and two Bucs to go over 100 yards receiving. Fangio badly needs an edge rusher who can win more on four-man rushes. It's amazing that even with Nolan Smith down, Azeez Ojulari can't get active. That was a miss by Howie Roseman.

Quinyon Mitchell continues to be a shutdown CB

For the third time this season, Mitchell was asked to travel with a wide receiver as much as possible. Mitchell's assignment was Bucs rookie WR Emeka Egbuka, who had three TD catches in his first three games and, as we wrote about last week, had gained Baker Mayfield's confidence early. Mitchell had multiple pass breakups in the first half against Egbuka, who was asked to play more outside snaps in absence of injured All-Pro Mike Evans. Egbuka was wisely moved inside on his 77-yard TD catch in the third quarter that came on a blown coverage between rookie Andrew Mukuba and safety Reed Blankenship. Yes, he can be handsy at times and got away with a potential holding in the third and fourth quarters when he had a fistful of jersey, but he and Cooper DeJean continue to be sticky in coverage and get their hands on passes for breakups, especially on third downs. Mitchell had a huge breakup on Egbuka in the fourth on a Go route to the end zone – a major PBU that helped decide the outcome.

Jalen Hurts was well protected 

Of course, you can't have this kind of pass game efficiency against Bucs coach Todd Bowles and his always-blitzing Bucs defense without good pass protection. After a rough start to the season, the Eagles' offensive line – along with the RBs and TEs – did an excellent job of keeping Hurts upright and not letting free rushers tee off on the QB because of a protection scheme breakdown. The design of Tampa Bay's blitzes and disguises is to fool the offensive line into blocking the wrong defenders but the Eagles were generally in sync up front. Even when Matt Pryor needed to replace Tyler Steen and when Fred Johnson replaced Lane Johnson, Hurts wasn't under much duress. In fact, Bowles backed off his blitzes majorly in the second half.

Special teams are truly special 

They have some work to do on punt coverage, but give some credit to the special teams staff – coordinator Michael Clay and his assistants, Joe Pannunzio and Tyler Brown. In the past two games, Eagles special teams has blocked two field goals and a punt, scored two return touchdowns, and they're getting great punts from Braden Mann and perfect kicking from Jake Elliott. Just as sound of an operation as it can be. Now, if they can clean up punt coverage, they'll check the final box.

Mixed results for OC Kevin Patullo

The Eagles' first-year OC took a big chunk of criticism over the first three weeks for his play calling and play designs, but the Eagles not only had answers for Tampa Bay's blitzes but also some new calls and designs that certainly fooled Tampa Bay's defense. Dallas Goedert's TD catch came from a diamond formation on the right side that turned into a Hurts shovel pass, and Saquon Barkley's third-quarter touchdown was a well-designed pitch from the Tush Push formation. There were a few snaps when a wide receiver lined up as a running back, and John Metchie got involved with two catches. Yes, the pass offense went through a horrific second-half drought, which makes this a mixed bag for him. But because the Eagles opened the pass game earlier and a took a lead, their drought didn't result in fully blowing their big lead.

Still waiting on Saquon

There was a belief that a better passing game would get bodies off Saquon Barkley, but that wasn't the case. Barkley still ran squarely into a wall of defenders for most of the game, totaling just 43 rushing yards and averaging 2.3 yards per carry. He didn't even have the longest run by an Eagles running back, as A.J. Dillon's 11-yarder was longer than anything Barkley mustered. Figuring out how to get Barkley sprung has to be a priority of the coaching staff.  

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-buccaneers-observations-matchups-nfl-jalen-hurts-baker-mayfield-nfl-saquon-barkley-emeka-egbuka/

Look we are 4-0 and that’s of course great and we should be very hopeful about what this team can do again this season. They’ve had a pretty tough run (perhaps their toughest stretch they’ll face) and they’ve come out of it 4-0 as the reigning SB champions.

But we can’t ignore the warning signs. We can’t just push them asides. The offense is yet to get going and the defense whilst still really good isn’t quite as good as last year (which was to be expected and is also okay).

Let’s hope this team is getting ready to get hot when it really matters. Let’s hope these last 4 games have been the team shaking off the rust and effectively their preseason. But we need to avoid this being the 2023 season.