Good news for Eagles fans: There will be no heart attacks this week. Bad news for Eagles fans: it's because they got blown out. Baker Mayfield put together another beautiful performance, picking apart the Birds' secondary, throwing for 347 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran in a score, his second of the season. The Eagles never had a chance to win this game due to almost as bad a first quarter as you can have. In their three, technically two first-quarter possessions, they had two three-and-outs, and Cooper DeJean muffed a punt that the Buccaneers recovered. The Buccaneers put up 24 points before the Eagles found the end zone and cruised by the rest of the game, winning 33-16.
FEED SAQUON
Saquon Barkley had 84 rushing yards against Tampa Bay, his lowest of the season. However, he did it on just 10 carries. I'm far from an NFL Head Coach or Coordinator, but I feel like giving your best available player only 10 touches while your top two receivers are missing doesn't seem like a recipe for success. It was Barkley's second straight game, having over eight yards per carry. He's been the only consistent part of Philly's offense to start the season. Saquon scored two rushing touchdowns in each of the Eagles' wins, but he has zero touchdowns in the Eagles' two losses.
Only ONE of the Birds' ten drives started with a Saquon Barkley run. What happened when they began a drive with Barkley? He took it 59 yards and set the Eagles up to score a touchdown that would cut the lead to 10, which was their smallest deficit of the game after going down 14 to start the game. Usually, when trailing by multiple scores for most of the game, teams tend to rely more on the pass to score quickly, which is why the main issue is the Eagle's refusal to get Saquon started early, resulting in two straight scoreless first quarters.
Jalen Hurts is STILL turning the ball over
This week was the first game that Jalen didn't throw an interception, however, he still had a fumble in the red zone. Hurts made a nice move to evade a sack, but instead of escaping the pocket after, he immediately tried to pass, and Lavonte David forced a fumble that Tampa recovered. Jalen Hurts now has four interceptions, which is tied for the third most in the league. He also has five fumbles, losing three of them, leaving him with seven total turnovers, second most in the league. This is especially concerning when you remember Hurts only had eight turnovers in his career-best 2022-23 NFL season. Dating back to last season, Jalen Hurts has turned the ball over in NINE straight games, the most by an Eagles QB since 1995. Hurts still has the most turnovers in the NFL since the start of 2023, with 27.
Was the defense a one-game wonder?
After a questionable first two weeks defensively, Philadelphia's defense completely shut down the league's top offense in Week 3, giving Eagles fans hope that Vic Fangio could make this defense one of the best in the league. Baker Mayfield and the Bucs offense shattered those hopes by doing whatever they wanted to Philly's defense. They had 445 total yards and scored on six of their 11 drives. CJ Gardner-Johnson has allowed four touchdowns in four games, and Darius Slay got cooked and took to Twitter to defend himself before going on division rival Micah Parson's podcast and laughing at CJGJ's struggles. This might be more than just an on-field issue if one of the leaders of this defense is acting like this. It might be time to apologize to Jonathan Gannon and Sean Desai because, season by season, the defense's issues seem to get worse, if anything.
Final Score: Buccaneers 33, Eagles 16
Dixon's Three Stars
1st Star - Quinyon Mitchell (6 tackles, 1 Pass Deflection)
2nd Star - Saquon Barkley (84 Rushing Yards, 32 Receiving Yards)
3rd Star - Dallas Goedert (7 Receptions, 62 Yards)
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