After facing the Atlanta Falcons Week 2 and the New Orleans Saints Week 3, the Philadelphia Eagles will face their third consecutive NFC South opponent Week 4 in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who they have already played four times since the start of the 2021 season. Here are our five matchups to watch.
1) Jalen Hurts vs. Todd Bowles
Heading into the Eagles' playoff matchup with the Bucs last season, there was no mystery to what Todd Bowles was going to try to do to the Eagles defensively. They were going to blitz Jalen Hurts, early and often.
The Eagles were wholly unprepared for it, as Hurts looked to extend plays by running out of the pocket and away from blitzes, trying to buy time for vertical routes to develop down the field before eventually throwing the ball away. As usual that season, there were no hot routes or other mechanisms to allow Hurts to beat the blitz by getting the ball out quickly.
In that game, the Eagles rarely tried to run the ball, and when they did they were ineffective against the Bucs' loaded boxes. They continuously got themselves into long downs and distances, and went 0 for 11 on third and fourth down conversions. 0 for 11!
"Obviously they had a pressure plan associated with stopping the run and putting a lot of stress on the protection game," Kellen Moore said on Tuesday.
The Eagles' handling of the blitz was a major offseason priority, and so far they've been better.
"I know Jalen has really played well against the blitz these last couple games, and he's worked his butt off on it," Nick Sirianni said. "And just excited about the challenge, but we know there's going to be challenges against a Todd Bowles' coached defense. Again, we have done a nice job so far, but you're only as good as your next game."
Bowles has concocted good plans for Hurts even further back than last year's playoff matchup. In the playoff game following the 2021 season, for example, Bowles and his staff correctly identified that Hurts had a strong tendency to both throw and scramble to the right side of the field.
To combat that, Bowles mush-rushed from Hurts' right side, made him go left if he was going to leave the pocket, and he sought to take away Hurts' first read on the right side of the field. The result? Hurts threw wildly all over the field, missing receivers long, short, left, right, and everything in between.
Interestingly, FOX's Greg Olsen revealed during the Eagles-Saints telecast that the Saints' gameplan was to force Hurts to move to his left. Hurts did make some plays when the Saints were able to accomplish that.
"Obviously any quarterback that is right handed, you're naturally going to roll out at times when you get off-schedule to your right," Kellen Moore said on Tuesday. "Jalen has done a phenomenal job of continuing to build confidence and comfort level in that. I thought he had a few good examples.
"This is a couple weeks in a row where not getting out-of-the-pocket, hanging in the pocket within time and when he has to scramble, he scrambles, and he found Kenny on one down the left sideline. He found Smitty on the left side. Both good examples of when he got into a scramble drill to his left, found a completion and still remained a passer. Those were bigtime plays."
Here's the completion to Kenny Gainwell that Moore referenced.
And the completion to DeVonta Smith:
It'll be interesting to see what Bowles cooks up for Hurts on Sunday. He is a master at identifying and exploiting weaknesses.
"Todd is always going to have his different flavors," Moore said. "He's going to play us, there may be some stuff that falls back on that and there may be some new components that he'll pull out and try to stress you in different ways because he knows you'll be anticipating those. He does an excellent job.
"When I was at other places, we've played him multiple times and every game seems to be a different flavor. It's not necessarily whether he won or lost, it's going to be a different flavor and different challenge each and every week. We have to do a good job of having our answers and understanding our tools and the adjustments that we may or may not need to make."
2) The Eagles' run game vs. the Bucs' run defense
The Bucs' defense has always hung their hat on stopping the run. Their run defense rankings since Bowles became the defensive coordinator in 2019:
• 2019: 1
• 2020: 1
• 2021: 3
• 2022: 15
• 2023: 5
Of course, that doesn't mean that the Eagles can't have success in their run game. In the Eagles-Bucs Week 3 game last season, they absolutely dominated the Bucs in the run game. After the Bucs scored their first touchdown of the night with 9:22 left in the fourth quarter, the Eagles executed a 15-play drive that bled out the rest of the clock. The Bucs were so defeated that Bowles didn't even bother calling his remaining timeouts.
But also, oh hey, Saquon Barkley leads the NFL in rushing.
- Saquon Barkley, Eagles: 351
- Jordan Mason, 49ers: 324
- J.K. Dobbins, Chargers: 310
- Alvin Kamara, Saints: 285
- Derrick Henry, Ravens: 281
The Eagles have a bunch of injured wide receivers:
- A.J. Brown: Missed the last two games with a hamstring injury, and missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
- DeVonta Smith: Left the Saints game with a concussion, and did not return. Missed practice on Wednesday and Thursday.
- Britain Covey: Placed on injured reserve on Monday.
- Johnny Wilson: Appeared on the injury report each of the last two games, but played in both of them.
The Eagles shouldn't overthink it. Lean on the run game.
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3) The Eagles' run defense vs. the Bucs' rushing offense
Usually, when a team has a defensive head coach who is hellbent on stopping the run, that team is also usually built around the run game offensively. Not the Bucs. Their rushing attack stinks every year. Their rushing rankings during the Bowles era:
• 2019: 24
• 2020: 29
• 2021: 26
• 2022: 32
• 2023: 32
• 2024: 27
The Eagles' run defense was bad the first two weeks of the season, but they tightened up Week 3 against the Saints. They have an opportunity to keep that momentum going against a Bucs offense that hasn't been able to run the ball for over a half decade.
4) The Eagles' linebackers and defensive backs vs. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and Rachaad White
Chris Godwin's 2024 season is off to a fast start. He already has 21 catches for 253 yards and 3 TDs.
And as always, allow me to marvel at the extraordinarily consistent and durable career that Mike Evans has had, as he has topped 1000 yards in each of his first 10 NFL seasons. His career stats, not including 2024:
| Mike Evans | Rec | Yards | YPC | TD |
| 2014 | 68 | 1051 | 15.5 | 12 |
| 2015 | 74 | 1206 | 16.3 | 3 |
| 2016 | 96 | 1321 | 13.8 | 12 |
| 2017 | 71 | 1001 | 14.1 | 5 |
| 2018 | 86 | 1524 | 17.7 | 8 |
| 2019 | 67 | 1157 | 17.3 | 8 |
| 2020 | 70 | 1006 | 14.4 | 13 |
| 2021 | 74 | 1035 | 14.0 | 14 |
| 2022 | 77 | 1124 | 14.6 | 6 |
| 2023 | 79 | 1255 | 15.9 | 13 |
| TOTAL | 762 | 11680 | 15.3 | 94 |
He has 10 catches for 120 yards and 2 TDs so far in 2024.
The Bucs found success against the Eagles in their wildcard round playoff game a few seasons ago when they put Evans in the slot against Avonte Maddox, an obvious size mismatch.
In Week 1 in Brazil, the Packers were able to get 6'4 Christian Watson matched up on Maddox in the red zone. Here's how that went:
Beyond Godwin and Evans, the Bucs have a third receiving option in Rachaad White, who was fourth among NFL running backs in receptions (64), and third in receiving yards (549) in 2023. But more impressively, he has caught 126 of his 141 career targets (89.4 percent!) in his two-plus NFL seasons. Granted, most of those are short, easy throws, but the Bucs are efficient with it, and White is able to make defenders miss in the open field.
We should probably mention Baker Mayfield in this post at some point too, right? He's off to a great start, completing 61 of 82 passes (74.4%) for 637 yards (7.8 YPA), 6 TDs, and 2 INTs (110.7 QB rating). He has already taken 13 sacks though, which brings us to...
5) Where might the Eagles go Feastin'™️? 🍗
The Bucs' offensive line looks like this:
| LT | LG | C | RG | RT |
| Tristan Wirfs | Ben Bredeson | Graham Barton | Cody Mauch | Luke Goedeke |
Wirfs is a two-time All-Pro with trips to the Pro Bowl in each of the last three seasons. He is among the NFL's elite offensive tackles. Goedeke is a solid enough starting RT
The interior of this Bucs O-line is shaky:
• LG Ben Bredeson: Bredeson was a part of the Giants' historically awful offensive line last season. He played at LG, C, and RG for them last season, and wasn't good at any spot.
• C Graham Barton: Barton was the Bucs' 2024 first-round pick (26th overall). He's an intriguing player, but, you know, a rookie.
• RG Cody Mauch: PFF had Mauch down for 7 sacks allowed in 2023, and 2 already in 2024.
The interior of the Eagles' defensive line was disruptive all day against the Saints Week 3. Jalen Carter was a menace:
Jordan Davis, Milton Williams, Thomas Booker, and Moro Ojomo all flashed as well.
#FeastinMeter™️: 5 turkey legs 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗
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