January 15, 2024
Kim Klement Neitzel/USA TODAY Sports
The "Tush Push" finally got stopped Monday night in the Eagles' wild card loss to the Buccaneers.
An ugly Monday evening concluded the worst collapse in Philadelphia sports since the 1964 Phillies. The Eagles, despite their best efforts to let Buccaneers blow them out early, kept things close into the second half before losing 32-9 in Tampa in the Wild Card Round.
This was a one-score game longer than it had any business being. Credit to the Eagles' pass rush for that. Following an underwhelming regular season after the defensive line's historically great 2022 performance, they had a pulse out there at Raymond James Stadium. Few other Eagles did, including their coaching staff.
The Eagles were without their best player this year in A.J. Brown. Jalen Hurts is dealing with a dislocated finger and has been clearly hampered with a lower body injury that's kept him from being the formidable runner that Philly had grown accustomed to him being. Even so, it was a woeful night for this franchise, the type of nosedive that would've been unbelievable at the start of last month.
This game was mailed in.
DeVonta Smith, the Eagles' lone legit offensive playmaker in Brown's absence, had an urgency to him, totaling 148 yards, including a life-infusing 56-yard catch in the second quarter. Fletcher Cox was more animated than anyone on this zombified Eagles team. If this is his last game in midnight green, he went out looking like his former All-Pro self.
Matt Patricia should not be allowed in the NovaCare Complex ever again given this end-of-season tire fire, but his defense performed valiantly just long enough to give their offense a chance at putting up some points and fighting back.
The offense had no interest in doing so.
Whose offense is it? Nick Sirianni's? Brian Johnson's? It doesn't matter because they both might be gone by this time on Tuesday and it's rotten either way. To throw this entirely upon Johnson would be foolish. This all works under Sirianni's larger system. Sirianni has gone 34-17 in his first three seasons in Philadelphia, bringing a fire to the franchise after the all-too-familiar combustion of the Doug Pederson era. Sirianni gloating on camera during the Birds' playoff smackdown of the Giants last January, a personification of Eagles fans' id with a headset on, feels about 10 years ago.
Since the Sirianni-Hurts era's first playoff game, which also came in Tampa, back in Jan. 2022, it's been clear that the blitz is an effective way to neutralize Hurts and this offense. The Bucs blitzed the hell out of Hurts that afternoon and did so again in this one.
The Eagles faced a third and two at their own 44 on their first drive of the game. The Buccaneers, predictably, blitzed, tipping the ball and forcing an incompletion. The Eagles' pass-catchers were running vertical routes. Why? That's where they miss Brown on slants, but, hey, they never did that enough when he was actually healthy and on the field, so perhaps this is all a moot point.
Sisyphus had an easier time getting his rock to the top of the mountain than the Eagles had moving the ball. A seven-point Tampa Bay lead in the third quarter still felt insurmountable with this combination of scheme, injuries and general incompetence. A Bucs safety that made it officially a two-score game? That wrapped it up. Deflating. It's all so utterly deflating for a team that, just six weeks ago, was 10-1.
Forget Mike Evans destroying this Eagles defense, as appeared destined this past week. Tampa Bay's Cade Otton, David Moore and Trey Palmer can fight for the mantle of "Gen Z's Joe Jurevicius." James Bradberry aged about a decade this offseason. Darius Slay and Avonte Maddox are battling injuries and they ran out of bodies at safety. The middle of the field was easy picking for Baker Mayfield and, honestly, the Bucs' offense should've put up a lot more points if not for some odds drops. It was worse than the actual final score. That secondary, along with the Eagles' laughable linebacker unit, put forth the most pathetic tackling performance these eyes have ever seen. Pathetic!
"I'm sorry to keep saying the same thing, but I keep seeing the same thing," ESPN broadcaster Joe Buck stated amidst the Eagles' horrific string of missed tackles. It was only the second quarter when he said that. The video crew had a lowlight reel of missed tackles and they hadn't even played a full half of football yet!
Where do the Eagles go after this?
I can't imagine this embarrassment sits well with Jeffrey Lurie. Gut feeling, a coaching change seems like the simplest way to hit the refresh button on a roster that has loads of talent and big-game experience. Sirianni is 17 games over .500 in the regular season and just led the team to the Super Bowl, but it would be rational to move on. Only Philadelphia. It's the only place where a coach who wins two-thirds of his games could get run out of town and it would be mostly justified. There was a quit in this team that I never knew possible. It reminds me of Pederson's end and Andy Reid's as well.
The 2023 Eagles were a complete failure. Is there a silver lining? If you're over the age of 26, it's not the worst playoff loss against the Bucs you've watched. Nothing else is redeemable after these last seven games.
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