Roob’s Observations: Eagles embarrass themselves in Tampa vs. Bucs

Roob’s Observations: Eagles embarrass themselves in Tampa vs. Bucs originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

I looked down at my laptop midway through the second quarter and the Bucs had 255 yards and the Eagles had 0 yards.

You really don’t have to be much of a football expert to understand this is not good.

In fact, it’s impossibly, unbelievably, astonishingly bad.

The Eagles didn’t just lose a football game Sunday in Tampa 33-16, they embarrassed themselves. They were so thoroughly outplayed on both sides of the football it looked they hadn’t practiced or prepared all week.

And if that score looks remotely competitive, it was 21-0 a few plays into the second quarter and it was already over.

Yeah, the Eagles were missing a bunch of really good players, but that’s no excuse for the slop we saw out there Sunday, especially in the first half.

They just seemed out of it. Yeah, it was hot. Yeah, it was their third road trip in four weeks, including a trip to Brazil and a Monday nighter.

But no excuses.

This was gruesome.

Let’s get to the 10 Observations.

1. Just when you were starting to feel good about the Eagles’ defense … this happens. Just a complete breakdown in every phase of the game. Everything the Eagles did right a week earlier in New Orleans they did wrong Sunday in Tampa. Their tackling was horrifying. Just unbelievably bad. Missed tackles all over the place. Maybe 20 of them? Is there a record for that? Guys were out of position all over the field. Once again they didn’t get any takeaways. They allowed big play after big play. They finally got a sack from an edge for the first time in eight games, then immediately gave the ball back to the Bucs on a special teams turnover. They were down 24-0 halfway through the first half and that’s ballgame. The rest was just a matter of determining the final score. The Bucs had 219 yards 3 ½ minutes into the second quarter. The Saints last week had 219 yards the entire game. This was like something out of the Matt Patricia playbook. They looked unprepared, unmotivated and incompetent. You never want to question effort, but for most of that first half it was like the Bucs were playing against air. Nine of their first 28 plays went for 13 yards or more. It got a little better. But not much. I don’t care who you’re playing, if you’re not mentally and physically prepared, this is what happens.

2. And then there’s the offense, and as wretched as the defense was in the first half, the offense may have actually been worse. Their first three drives netted negative-5 scrimmage yards – or negative-10 if you want to include penalty yards. I believe Kellen Moore did a nice job as play caller the first few weeks, but this was an offensive catastrophe. And missing a bunch of starters – including maybe their three-best offensive players – is no excuse for this level of, I don’t know, lethargy? There is no excuse for having a negative yardage total while the other team has already scored four times. The offense did some really good things the first few weeks, and when they’re at full strength they should be borderline unstoppable. But even without A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and Lane Johnson, they should be better than this. Way better. They managed 226 yards, 16 first downs and 113 net passing yards and allowed six sacks against the NFL’s 28th-ranked defense. Unacceptable.

3. What does it mean when a team gets outscored 24-0 and outgained 255-0 in the first 23 minutes? It means it just wasn’t ready to play football at 1 p.m. EST in Tampa, Fla. And that’s completely on Nick Sirianni. When you’re a CEO coach and you’re not calling plays, a big part of your job is getting the team mentally and physically ready to play and that includes the way you practice, the way you run walkthroughs, the way you watch film, the way you warm up before the game, and the reality is this football team just wasn’t ready for the game to start. And it wasn’t just this game. The Eagles trailed the Packers 6-0 after the first quarter, they didn’t score a point in the first quarter against the Falcons and they were scoreless into the fourth quarter in New Orleans last week. They’ve gone six straight games without scoring a 1st-quarter point, and their last 1st-quarter touchdown was scored by Julio Jones, for crying out loud. But this was worse than all of those.

4. You really want to cut Jalen Hurts some slack being out there without DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown and Britain Covey, not to mention Lane Johnson. But he just looked out of it for much of this game, and I don’t care who your receivers are, you go out there and run the offense with crispness and clarity and energy. But the Eagles didn’t even record a first down until they trailed 24-0 with 6 ½ minutes left in the second quarter, and I’m not sure Jalen was the worst of the offense’s problems during that stretch when they got outscored 24-0 but if you’re an MVP candidate type of guy, you need to be able to help pull your team out of that kind of morass, but all we saw was balls flying 10 feet over Jahan Dotson’s head or five yards out of bounds. Hurts was 1-for-7 for seven yards on those first three drives. Just looked out of sync, off kilter, whatever you want to call it. He calmed down a bit briefly, threw a touchdown to Parris Campbell and then drove the Eagles inside the Tampa 20. But then another turnover. He fumbled on a strip sack by Lavonte David with the Eagles inside the Bucs’ 20-yard-line. That’s turnover seven this year for Hurts. He finished with just 158 passing yards, took six sacks, and just looked bad. I keep waiting for 2022 Jalen Hurts to show up. He will eventually. Right? Right?

5. One thing to keep in mind is that after the bye the schedule gets much easier. Their first four opponents are currently a combined 9-6, and three of them have winning records. Their first nine opponents after the bye are 10-23 and only Commanders have a winning record at 2-1 with a game later Sunday in Arizona. That’s one winning team the first nine games back. In particular, their next four opponents – the Browns, Giants, Bengals and Jaguars – are a combined 3-12. So as ugly as this loss was, 2-2 isn’t the worst place to be with four games coming up that look pretty winnable. Of course, if they play like they played Sunday in Tampa, it really won’t matter who they play.

6. The Eagles’ turnover issues are just a flat-out epidemic at this point. They were minus-two Sunday – no interceptions but two fumbles, one by Hurts and one by Cooper DeJean on a punt return that really wasn’t his fault – and they’ve now gone an astonishing 12 straight games without finishing in positive territory in giveaway-takeaway ratio. That’s impossible. It’s the 2nd-longest streak in franchise history, the longest since a 15-game streak over the 1967 and 1968 seasons. And they’re minus-15 during those 12 games. They have two takeaways all year – both Reed Blankenship interceptions – and that’s their fewest after two games since they had one four games into the 1998 season. And get this: This is the first time EVER the Eagles have been minus-1 or worse in turnover margin in each of their first four games. What does this all mean? Pretty simple. Not enough playmakers on defense and Jalen has to stop giving the ball away, especially in the red zone. The Eagles are 22-1 under Sirianni – with 22 straight wins – when they win the turnover battle. It’s been 22-1 for a long, long time.

More coming …

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