January 10, 2024
Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA Today
Eagles running back D'Andre Swift hurdles Antoine Winfield Jr. during the team's Week 3 Monday Night Football win over the Buccaneers.
The Philadelphia Eagles look like one of the worst teams in the NFL at the moment, after losing consecutive games to horrid teams. They limp into the playoffs having lost five of their last six games, and will face a familiar foe in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Here are our five matchups to watch, when the Eagles have the ball.
There was no mystery to what the Giants were going to try to do to the Eagles defensively in the Eagles' regular season finale last Sunday. They were going to blitz Jalen Hurts, early and often. And yet, you'd have thought they'd never seen a blitz before. As we have seen so frequently this season, Hurts looked to extend the play 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, there were no hot routes or other mechanisms to allow Hurts to beat the blitz by getting the ball out quickly.
ESPN's Dan Orlovsky illustrated some of the Eagles' struggles against the blitz:
Worst team in the playoffs with this @Eagles
— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) January 9, 2024
SB caliber talent on this offense not being utilized #nfllive
No plan
No execution pic.twitter.com/SlnkphzJql
Bowles has come up with good game plans for Hurts in the past. In the Eagles-Bucs playoff game during the 2021 season, for example, Bowles recognized Hurts' extreme tendency to throw to the right side of the field, so he took away Hurts' first look to that side of the field on the back end while the Bucs' pass rush made sure that if Hurts escaped the pocket, he had to do so to his left. Hurts is a different player now than he was then, so Bowles will no doubt have a new plan. Spoiler: That plan will involve a heavy dose of blitzing, as the Eagles have proven that they cannot make opposing defenses pay when they send extra guys.
The Eagles dominated the Buccaneers in the trenches back in Week 3, especially in the run game, as they outgained the Bucs 201-41 on the ground. 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 at the end of that drive that Bowles didn't even bother calling his remaining timeouts. They just let the clock run out and took the loss.
Swift piled up 130 rushing yards on just 16 carries (8.1 YPC) in that game. The offensive line opened up holes and Swift burst through them.
Swifties will love this run.
— NFL (@NFL) September 26, 2023
📺: #PHIvsTB on ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/NkpBC1YFYJ pic.twitter.com/jLOLxddeU1
We haven't seen the Eagles' rushing attack be that dominant since.
The Bucs' bad game defending the run against the Eagles turned out to be a bit of an anomaly, as they were a good run defense the rest of the season.
| Bucs run D | Stat | NFL rank |
| Rushing yards allowed per game | 95.3 | 5 |
| Rushing yards allowed per attempt | 3.83 | 8 |
| Rushing first downs per game | 5.9 | 11 |
| Rushing TDs allowed | 11 | T-8 |
| Run play percentage | 39.0% | 5th lowest |
That's not a big surprise, since Bowles and the Bucs have always hung their hat on stopping the run. Their run defense ranks since Bowles became the defensive coordinator in 2019:
• 2019: 1
• 2020: 1
• 2021: 3
• 2022: 15
• 2023: 5
The Eagles need an effective run game to help keep pressure off of Hurts, who may have to play superhero within a flawed passing scheme if they cannot stay on schedule.
The Bucs' defense had 48 sacks on the season, which tied them for seventh in the NFL alongside other good defenses like the 49ers and Jets. However, they did so without the presence of a dominant individual pass rusher. Their sack leader, Yaya Diaby, only had 7.5 sacks on the season. They had 14 players who had sacks.
The high number of sacks combined with the lack of a stud pass rusher gobbling up double-digit sacks is emblematic of a team that blitzes a whole lot.
Jason Kelce volunteered for some of the blame for the Eagles' struggles against the blitz against the Giants.
"Sometimes we weren't pointing right, and that's my job," he said. "I have to put us in a better situation. Sometimes we just didn't pick it up, guys missed blocks or whatever. They just had our number. They got us into some protections where the blitz kind of breaks your rules. If we check the protection, get to a max protection, and they only rush four, then you only have three guys running routes. They did a phenomenal job, credit to them, and we didn't do a good job of handling it."
It's not just Hurts or the coaching staff that has to be better against the blitz. So does the offensive line.
Though the Bucs' defense has done a good job stopping the run and creating some chaos in the passing game with their blitzing, they have also given up a lot of big plays on the back end.
| Bucs pass D | Stat | Rank |
| Passing yards allowed per game | 248.9 | 29 |
| Opponent completion percentage | 66.1% | 22 |
| Opponent yards per pass attempt | 6.9 | 25 |
| Opponent passing first downs per game | 13.5 | 30 |
| Pass plays of 20+ yards allowed | 65 | 31 |
Those pass defense numbers are particularly alarming, given that the Bucs had the benefit of playing in the awful NFC South for six games against Desmond Ridder, Derek Carr, and Bryce Young.
The Eagles have gone big-play hunting all season, arguably to their detriment, but big play opportunities should be available against this blitz-heavy defense, as long as they can find better answers for the blitz. The Bucs have had some coverage busts this season. For example:
Ridder to Pitts! 36-yard touchdown!
— NFL (@NFL) December 10, 2023
📺: #TBvsATL on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/pWMED8S30C pic.twitter.com/7E7Tnx8ayM
Brown and Smith should have some opportunities for big plays, even if they're both still banged up.
Winfield is a star player who makes big plays. On the season, he had 122 tackles, 6 sacks, 6 forced fumbles, 3 INTs, and 12 pass breakups. He is an impact player and the Bucs love to move him around. The Eagles have to know where he is on the field pre-snap before every play.
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