By: Kylan Watson

After a come from behind victory over the New Orleans Saints last week, the Philadelphia Eagles faced the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this afternoon. The Buccaneers imposed their will early in this game and beat Philly down 33-16.

The Buccaneers got the fireworks started early despite very humid conditions, they went right down the field using a combination of their run game and short passes. The Eagles had no answers for this early in the game and the drive ended with a Bucs touchdown. That was a recurring theme throughout this game, Philly could not get its offense going and Tampa Bay could not be stopped and when they were it was by miscues by their receivers. Baker Mayfield carved the Eagles defense up like a Christmas Ham, even when they sent pressure after him.

As a result, the Eagles were blown off the field by Tampa and now have more questions then answers heading into their early bye week. Their best offense was Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert (Day ended early due to heat related cramps) and even that was not enough to overcome the Bucs’ offensive master class. When Saquon Barkley led an Eagles drive that ended in a touchdown, the Bucs responded with one of their own.

After showing multiple signs of defensive life last week, Philly’s defense only managed one sack from Brandon Graham. Additionally,  this has been a major problem throughout this season. All that money spent on the Eagles’ defensive line and the secondary and not much to show for it. Besides Quinyon Mitchell and Graham there really were not many highlight plays made on defense in this contest.

“The fundamentals weren’t what they need to be. We need to make some changes with what we are doing fundamentally. We had some mistackles and drops in the beginning. We didn’t coach well enough. It starts with me,”said Eagles Head Coach Nick Sirianni.

The Eagles have got to figure out how to get consistent pressure on opposing quarterbacks. Also, with two weeks to do it there needs to be some progress made, by the time they play the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, October 13^th 2024. Otherwise Howie Roseman needs to make some trades to get players in Philly who can be impact players defensively.

On the offensive side the bye week cannot come soon enough, despite this being an ugly game for them. They have finally unlocked Goedert and Barkley and that can help them win games. Especially, once they get Lane Johnson, DeVonta Smith, and AJ Brown back in a few weeks. As a result, of their return the offense should look better if it does not then it may cost Nick Sirianni his job.

This upcoming bye week comes at a pivotal time for Philly, either they figure out a way to unlock the dominant team they were supposed to be, or this is a lost season and they need to find someone who can unlock this team. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered about this team, and the heat keeps intensifying in Philly for Sirianni, Kellen Moore, and Vic Fangio. All three of them need to implement plays that will put their players in great positions to impose their will in games. Otherwise, there will be a lot of changes in Philly at the end of this season.