Bucs Defense Turned Eagles Offense Into “Pound Cake”
January 17th, 2022
Good times.
Joe can’t talk enough about how dominant the Bucs defense was yesterday.
The defense was like the bouncer at the bar who ran out of patience with the 5-10, 160-pound dweeb trying to impress the chick he picked up at last call. And then the bouncer dished out two swings and a karate kick to the head of the dweeb now laying on the sidewalk.
The Bucs defense just f’ed with the Eagles yesterday. And Kevin Patra of NFL.com documented the curb-stomping.
[Eagles quarterback Jalen] Hurts struggled because the Super Bowl defense was back in Tampa. Todd Bowles’ unit flew around the field from start to finish. The Bucs stifled an Eagles top-ranked run game that came in hot. Tampa was well prepared for the run-pass options and read-options that the Eagles love to run with Hurts, smothering them from the outset. Through three quarters, the Bucs forced four three-and-outs and allowed just one drive with more than one first down on nine Philly possessions. The Eagles generated 44 rushing yards through three quarters. Tampa’s D was an oppressive nightmare. The safety play was superb, with Jordan Whitehead flying around, making tackles behind the line of scrimmage, and Mike Edwards leading the team with nine tackles and a glorious INT in the end zone. Shaq Barrett’s tip-INT in coverage was the icing on top of Sunday’s pound cake. Tampa got healthy on defense …
Look, Joe isn’t sure if the Bucs defense was that good (likely) or the Eagles offense was that bad (probably). The bottom line is, the Bucs got the job done.
Shut out any team in the playoffs for the first three quarters, and you will win games. Probably all of them.
Joe has a hunch yesterday’s beat down of the Eagles caught the attention of the Rams and Cardinals coaching staffs.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:06 am
Hurts is trash, so that helps quite a bit. That dude can’t hit the broad side of a barn. Defense played well, but they really didn’t have to give any respect to the Eagles passing game.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:08 am
Jordan Whitehead, most underrated Buccaneer. Must resign. When healthy Buccaneers have best safety unit in NFL. Ashame we lost Godwin or we would be favorite to repeat.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:11 am
Based on the showings of the Eagles and Steelers yesterday, maybe letting the 7th team into the playoffs was a bad idea?
January 17th, 2022 at 10:19 am
OFF TOPIC
Folks, I just bought pair of tickets for the (if necessary) Conference Final between San Fran and Tampa. Would likely stay about 4 nights and have a rental car.
Any suggestions on where to stay? My first thought was Clearwater.
Not sure this kind of “off topic” post is welcome but I thought this may be a good forum to ask.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:26 am
The expansion of the 7th seed was never about quality of football, but quantity and $$$.
I don’t think it has to be one or the other with good Bucs defense or bad Eagles offense, rather a bit of both. And I hardly think anyone other than the advance scouts with the Rams or Cardinals lost attention on their game tonight to care that a defending champion defense beat up a bad wannabe offense. Now had that not happened, that would have been attention-grabbing!
January 17th, 2022 at 10:27 am
@toronto
Clearwater is nice but will cost money. Rocky point is on the bay and close to the stadium. Safety Harbor is a nice small town that is a short drive to Clearwater and the stadium have some good options for food as well.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:30 am
I agree Buddah
January 17th, 2022 at 10:32 am
This win was even more satisfying than the one against the Eagles at the old Veterans stadium leading to the first Bucs SB.
Joe did Sirianni meet BA at the end of the game. The TV cut off away after BA was at mid-field looking for him. Did he show?
January 17th, 2022 at 10:46 am
Agree with gotbbucs – To be kind, Hurts did not have his best day. I haven’t watched that many Eagles games this year, so I don’t really know how he looked during the season, but yesterday he had open receivers on many occasions and couldn’t get the ball to him. Yes, the Bucs D was disruptive, but I guarantee you if Brady, Rogers, Mahomes or a number of other QBs were back there, the Eagles would have moved the ball 4 times better than Hurts did yesterday.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:51 am
I hope Whitehead doesnt resign while he’s playing so well. But I do hope the Buc’s re-sign him.
January 17th, 2022 at 10:53 am
Also, for those who got on to BA for slapping Adams’ helmet, Adams was attempting to pull an Eagles’ player off the pile. That is an automatic 15 yard penalty! He was trying to tell Adams to get his head out of his a$$
January 17th, 2022 at 10:57 am
Torontobucsfan
If you want to be at beach clearwater nice
St pete downtown is pretty sweet these days and closer to raymond james stadium
January 17th, 2022 at 11:01 am
They’re facing a much better offense next week so the defense is gonna have to continue playing well. I think we need to hold a team under 24 to win next week.
January 17th, 2022 at 11:10 am
Yawn same ol schpiel. We score 30+ doesn’t matter who we play we will win. We’re 500-0 when scoring that much
January 17th, 2022 at 11:14 am
If the Defense can get pressure on the QB, they can stop any team. No team can run well enough to keep up with this Offense.
January 17th, 2022 at 11:28 am
Eagles just weren’t a playoff team like they thought. Down year got em in. Only a steady downpour coulda made that game close enough for Philly to cover. Thank the gods it didnt happen!
January 17th, 2022 at 11:29 am
Toronto,
Any of the gulf beaches (St. Pete Clearwater) are nice. I echo the comments on Downtown St. Pete as well. If you want to tailgate with our group, hit me up on Twitter @DRobLewis
January 17th, 2022 at 11:30 am
and who doesn’t like an opening of playing the fret board with a power drill!
January 17th, 2022 at 11:47 am
Toronto
You can see from my moniker I’m biased. But I echo the other guys who recommended downtown St. Pete.
It depends on your budget and desires. There is obviously first class with the Vinoy or Hilton, there are many cool “boutique” hotels including the Hollander which is on the edge of town.
When the N.Y. Times listed St. Pete as one of the top hundred tourist spots in the world the pic they used was the craft beer bar at the Hollander. Good eats there as well.
Depends on what you want. Beach is a separate activity. I do not recommend staying there…traffic this time of the year can be bad.
If you like the Arts St. Pete is tops.
And here is an idea if you stay downtown. There is a Cross Bay Ferry that will take you to Tampa. Tampa has begun to emulate St. Pete and has created a great walking space all along the Hillborough river. So you can arrive and either Uber to something or walk.
https://www.thecrossbayferry.com/
Good luck wherever you stay and welcome to the Sunshine State!
January 17th, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Bucs’ formula for playoff games this year remains almost exactly the same it looks like as it was last year.
o Win the Turnover Differential (3 – 0 yesterday) and capitalize on the turnovers (scored 1 TD & 1 FG off TOs).
o Win the Time of Possession (33 – 27 minutes yesterday, with the Bucs having 72 plays to 62 for the Eagles).
o Run the ball more than normal (Bucs ran it 31 times yesterday, for a run-pass ratio of 43%, roughly 10% higher than in regular season).
Our playoff wins last year followed the same general approach. Bucs ended up with a Plus 5 Turnover Differential overall; we won the TOP in 3-out-of-4 playoff games, and our average run-pass ratio was 45.7%, roughly 10% more than in our 2020 regular season. And the Bucs’ offense last year did a great job in capitalizing on takeaways generated by our defense. Looks like a winning formula.
January 17th, 2022 at 12:19 pm
Hurts is just another QB/RB hybrid who cannot throw an accurate NFL pass, or quickly process defenses and deliver the ball where it needs to go.
When will teams learn this combo is cute, but won’t last long when DC’s figure them out.
I’ll take a QB with brain speed and accurate arm who is so slow you can time his 40 with a sundial (lookin’ at you, GOAT 😉 )any day over a Hurts/Tua/Jackson/Bobby Douglas any day.
January 17th, 2022 at 12:35 pm
Loving all the safeties but why no mention of Winfield?
I thought Winfield was the best player on the field yesterday.
January 17th, 2022 at 12:58 pm
next draft alternate corner with pass rusher through round 4 then bpa no more draft piks like kyle trask–useless for us when its kyle trask time all is over and nothing matters
January 17th, 2022 at 1:40 pm
Not sure how good/bad the Eagles are. Buc Luck is starting on the OLine which stinks. Glad the Defense looked like their usual butt kicking selves yesterday.
January 17th, 2022 at 3:45 pm
Hey Joe, thanks for the VH. That ish was the good ole days for me.
January 17th, 2022 at 4:47 pm
Anyone else find it weird that the bouncer is the hero and the “dweeb” is the villain in Joe’s metaphor?
LOL