September 29, 2024

The pivotal plays from the Eagles' Week 4 meltdown against the Bucs

The Eagles' defense got carved up, and Jalen Hurts and the shorthanded offense couldn't put together anything sustainable in an embarrassment they'll take into the bye.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Nathan Ray Seebeck/Imagn Images

Bucs receiver Trey Palmer catches a first-quarter touchdown against the Eagles on Sunday in Tampa.

No DeVonta Smith, no A.J. Brown, no Lane Johnson, apparently no tackling either, and just some horrendous discipline.

The Eagles got embarrassed by the Buccaneers, 33-16, on Sunday down in Tampa, somehow making the NFC Wild Card rematch far, far worse than the playoff blowout that brought their total collapse of a 2023 season to a bitter end not even a full year ago.

From the word "go," Tampa's Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans, and Chris Godwin carved up an Eagles' defense that looked wholly unprepared, while Jalen Hurts and the Philly offense hardly showed any signs of a pulse until late into the first half.

But by then it was too late.

The second things started going wrong for the Eagles, it all snowballed, and you just knew they weren't going to recover.

These are the plays that summed up just a brutal day in Tampa, and will have the Eagles looking in the mirror all week going into the bye...

Crossed up in coverage

The Bucs got the ball to start, Baker Mayfield and the Tampa offense stepped onto the field, and between the receiving trio of Evans, Godwin, and Trey Palmer, they made immediate work of the Eagles' secondary.

Tampa drove from their own 21 down to the Philadelphia 2 in nine plays and about five minutes, and on the 10th play, Mayfield dropped back into a clean pocket and placed a perfect ball over the shoulder of Evans leading to the back-left pylon in the end zone on a corner route for the score.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson made an initial bump on Evans on the snap, but lost him as soon as he made the break, and just like that, it was 7-0, Bucs.

Baker to Mike Evans!

📺: #PHIvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/Zvf6IYdEb7
— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2024

On the next Tampa drive, after an Eagles three and out, the Bucs stuck to the plan, capping a five-play, 80-yard drive filled with chunk passing plays off on a 15-yard touchdown toss to Palmer over the middle.

Baker to Trey Palmer! Bucs go up 14-0.

📺: #PHIvsTB on FOX
📱: https://t.co/waVpO909ge pic.twitter.com/HH5869xGoi
— NFL (@NFL) September 29, 2024

The Eagles' secondary got kneecapped on post and corner routes, and Tampa exploited that, especially with Evans winning out on the size advantage over the DBs.

The Eagles were slow to adapt, but never fully did, so there was neve much of a way to close the gap as a result.

MORE: Brutal start dooms Birds in road loss to Bucs

Slip 'N Slide

Granted, better tackling might've helped to make a difference there, but the Eagles were abysmal in that regard.

Tampa ball carriers were bouncing and shrugging off tackles far too often on Sunday, which turned a lot of plays that could've been contained at around 3-5 yards into massive 10-15 or even 20-plus yard gains.

You could take your pick of examples, but the most infuriating one was probably on a Tampa 1st and 10 with 7:10 left in the first quarter, when Mayfield dropped the ball off to Godwin on a play-action screen. Avonte Maddox was right there to wrap him up but went diving right past his assignment instead after Godwin took a quick step back.

Godwin took off for 28 yards to bring the Bucs down into Eagles territory, and they were up 14-0 soon after, while Maddox and the Eagles' secondary were left with a collectively building tape that's going to be a tough watch for them in meetings this week.

lmao pic.twitter.com/t4nmBaZTMB
— Absolutely Hammered (@ah_pod) September 29, 2024

Just a mess

Brandon Graham was left uncovered on a protection shift and burst right off the edge for a sack of Mayfield and an 11-yard loss on 2nd and 4, then on third down, Reed Blankenship caused a pass breakup over the middle to force Tampa to punt.

The Eagles were still in a 14-0 hole, but it was still the first quarter, too. Finally making a stop, and then getting a decent offensive drive in could've flipped the game's entire outlook.

Then Isaiah Rodgers pushed his blocking assignment into return man Cooper DeJean as the kick was coming down. The ball hit DeJean to make it live and a fumble that Tampa recovered. DeJean signaled for the fair catch, but it didn't matter because the contact was forced by his own team. It was the Bucs' ball at the Philadelphia 22, and they punched it right in for another score to make it 21-0.

Just a baffling mistake in the moment that the Eagles immediately got punished heavily for.

And then Kelee Ringo piled on to the special teams sloppiness, outright colliding with DeJean on another punt return before the ball even came down late into the first half.

I’m convinced that Isaiah Rodgers and Kelee Ringo just really don’t want Cooper DeJean to take their spots on defense. pic.twitter.com/XjqhN70Ui9
— Philly Dawgs (@PHLDawgs) September 29, 2024

The slow-mo replay makes the moment look infinitely worse. Mercifully though, there were only seconds left and the Eagles did down it, so there was no real chance to pay for it before the half.

But just like for the secondary, the special teams tape is not going to be an easy watch at NovaCare over the next few days.

It wasn't a shutout, so there's that...

The Eagles' offense went nowhere fast on Sunday.

By the time Tampa had built up its 14-0 cushion, the Eagles had moved the ball a grand total of...10 yards, and they hadn't even held the ball for four minutes.

The thought that Hurts would be better equipped to handle Todd Bowles' blitz-heavy approach this time around was pretty quickly put to bed. He got sacked six times and generally struggled to find quick outlets, and even when he did, he wasn't all that accurate, putting quite a few check-downs and screens way out of reach.

To be fair, there were a couple of passes that fell right out of the hands of their intended targets, which were just spots of bad luck at bad times, and the whole unit definitely missed Brown, Smith, and Johnson, but hardly any of that can be used as an excuse for how ineffective the offense was.

Tampa had the Eagles solved pretty much the whole way.

They put together the drive that ended in a Parris Campbell touchdown late in the first half to at least get on the board still down, 24-7, and Saquon Barkley ripped off a couple of big runs to help tack on another score in the second half, but all that really did was save them from getting completely blown out.