Ira Kaufman’s 10 Takeaways From Bucs-Eagles
September 26th, 2023
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BY IRA KAUFMAN
For two sublime weeks, Buc fans were sitting on top of the world. Welcome back to Planet Earth.
First, some perspective.
There’s no shame in losing to the defending NFC champions on a stormy Monday. The Eagles are going to win a lot of games this fall and Tampa Bay’s 2-0 getaway meant Philadelphia wasn’t likely to take the Bucs for granted.
Instead, they took the Bucs to the woodshed.
This was a prime-time beatdown as Philadelphia won all three phases by wide margins. Tampa Bay couldn’t run or stop the run. By the time the Bucs scored their only touchdown, the Eagles were cruising with a 25-3 advantage in the fourth quarter.
In case you haven’t noticed, Tampa Bay’s first two opponents currently sit at a combined 0-6. The Vikings no longer excel in close games while the Bears are staring at a 3-14 season.
The Eagles might finish 14-3. Big difference.
On a night Rondé Barber thanked Eagle fans for turning out for his Hall of Fame halftime ceremony, thousands of Philly fans stayed to savor every last moment. All that was missing was the cheesesteak.
For the Bucs to spring an upset, they needed to be on their game or have the Eagles play flat. These rosters are not comparable, especially with Todd Bowles playing short-handed with an array of injuries to defensive players.
Instead, Tampa Bay was sluggish and sloppy. The mistake-free offense directed by Baker Mayfield suffered two giveaways and Philadelphia’s splendid offensive line had its way as the Eagles punished Tampa Bay with 201 yards on the ground.
In the big picture, with 14 games still to play, this was not a crippling setback. But it was an illuminating loss in terms of providing insight The Bucs may not be ready for prime time, yet they remain tied for the NFC South lead with a division game dead ahead off a short week.
>Here’s how the Eagles spoiled Ronde’s party by winning the battles up front:
* A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith form one of the league’s premier WR tandems, but the Bucs showed them way too much respect. Even with the injuries in the secondary, Tampa Bay defensive backs routinely offered up 10-yard cushions, giving Jalen Hurts too many easy completions on a night Hurts wasn’t that sharp.
Rough night for playcaller Dave Canales.
* Poor judgment by Dave Canales near the end of the opening half, with the Bucs trailing only 10-3. Devin White’s interception with 39 seconds remaining snuffed out a Philadelphia drive but Mayfield was promptly sacked for an 11-yard loss to the Tampa Bay 32. Facing 2nd-and-21, Canales got greedy and ordered up another pass instead of accepting a 7-point deficit at intermission. Bypassing a run, Mayfield flipped a pass to Rachaad White, whose fumble set up an easy FG for the Eagles.
* D’Andre Swift flashed nifty moves while rushing for 130 yards, but let’s be honest — some of the holes in front of him were wider than Dale Mabry Highway. The Eagles were in so many advantageous down-and-distance situations, it’s no surprise they converted 10-of-16 on third down.
* Except for some fourth-quarter production with the game out of reach, this wasn’t a memorable evening for Mike Evans.
* Somebody forgot to tell Tampa Bay’s punt coverage unit it was permissible to tackle Britain Covey.
Lotta big holes for Eagles running backs.
* Through three weeks, it’s been tough to watch the Bucs try to run the football. White gained 38 yards on his 14 carries and he’s averaging only 3.1 yards on the season. We’ve seen this before — and it’s still unacceptable.
* The Eagles wore down Tampa Bay’s defense by moving the chains en route to 78 snaps and almost 18 more minutes of possession. By the end, White and company were running on fumes.
* Unlike the first two weeks, Tampa Bay failed to swarm to the ball. How many missed tackles? Too many.
* Mayfield was late on a few key throws while his teammates didn’t help with drops of catchable balls.
* Now it’s onto New Orleans, where Jameis Winston is likely to be under center for an injured Derek Carr. The Saints just saw a late 17-0 lead disappear in Green Bay, so this will be a matchup between two pissed-off rivals that don’t exchange holiday cards.
September 26th, 2023 at 2:00 am
Sloppy game- Interesting fact…
Britain Covey is the grandson of Stephen Covey of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People fame.
Cool Story- His dad is MR Covey an expert on Trust Building and Leadership
I believe the NFC East is more physical than our division.
September 26th, 2023 at 2:13 am
Ira, I have never seen a team do a 9 min 22 second close out drive to finish the game in 48 years of watching football, very indicative of the whole night.
Bucs had the ball for 15 plays total after Rashaad fumbe 5 plays punt, 1 play safety, 9 plays TD
BAD NIGHT
September 26th, 2023 at 2:14 am
So sick of of this stadium being half full of the other teams fans.
Insert dueche bag here, sitting next to other season ticket holder all of a sudden shows up to the game in eagles jersey, with the “Oh my uncle grew up in Philly and sent me a shirt when I was four” F-ck this A hole I will never speak to this person ever again. Or the I route for the Bucs except insert which ever team is having a good year is coming to Tampa.
This place is miserable. Its hilarious watching Baker Mayfield trying to quiet the crowd against the Bears the worst team in the league. I’m sure there was a fun conversation on the sideline when his teammates told him that hey Baker the Bucs play 17 road games a year.
You want Bucs fans to stand up – Throw a 2 dollar shmedium t shirt in the stands or offer to throw a 5 cent plastic beaded necklace and they will stand and wave their hands for hours
Want to get Bucs fans to yell or make noise, Just stand up and cheer on the Home team you will hear them yell in unison “Sit Down”
Our cheerleaders are ugly- some of them have gained 100 pounds and grown facial hair all of a sudden- who’s idea was this
Hey paying outrageous money for food is nothing new when they get you in the door but how about actually serving something good to eat instead of pretzels that are so hard they should be signed as offensive linemen. Or hamburger that tastes like it wouldn’t even sell in a middle school.
This team has to play perfect, zero turnovers, and get multiple turnovers from the other team in order to win a game. Its not sustainable. Devin White gets an Interception with a convoy and only a couple of eagles in front of him but he runs out of bounds? WTF? Just stop trying to run the ball it is absolutely useless and can’t be done with this line. High hopes but I’ve seen this team for too many years in person at the “Den of Depression”. Its a 6 win season
The Glazers should demolish the upper deck limit the seating to 35k and only allow in Bucs fans. I can’t watch this team Avg 16 points a game while 31 other cities fans infest our stadium.
September 26th, 2023 at 3:07 am
[Naw man, sorry. That’s too over the top. You can be critical and rip offensive coaches or any coach but no need to go that route and stoop to that level. — Joe]
September 26th, 2023 at 4:57 am
The big story of the night is the way way way overrated defense and, specially, this so called “defensive guru” that is our Head Coach. Why is he an elite defensive mind? Over 4 seasons here his defense was good for half season, in the second half of the Super Bowl season. Injuries every team has, specially on defense. The really good ones overcome it, cover for the most glaring weaknesses and enhance its strong points.
Once again, explain me, why is Todd Bowles a so-called “Defensive Guru”? Because he designs “exotic looks”, because he blitzes from strange angles? Because he drops in coverage his 350 pounds DT? What is so special about that if there are no results? If WRs and TEs spend a whole game roaming absolutely free in our backfield? If everyone runs all over our defense like they are drill cones? If our defense cannot even sniff the aftershave of the opposing QB? If fundamentals, like tackling and covering, seem to be a deep mystery for us?
Last night we witnessed what a really good defense is: the Eagles defense. No “exotic blitzes” or “exotic looks”, just plain simple basic stuff done properly. And, most important, effective! The amount of points and yards allowed to the opposing team is the only thing that counts for a D at the end of a game. Let’s stop fooling ourselves by this fake Guru! Enough!
September 26th, 2023 at 7:57 am
ItzOK,
I agree with most of what you said. Those same “Philly Fans” were probably saying “BAY!!!” every time the PA announcer said “First down Tampa….”
You’re right about the cost in general but there were a lot of unsold tickets and the prices dropped before the game.
September 26th, 2023 at 8:00 am
I think the defense did OK honestly given all circumstances / injuries.
When your offense goes Punt / Punt / Punt / Field Goal / Interception / Fumble in the 1st half I would expect to lose 100% of the time. But the D kept the score closer than it should have been.
Canales should have had a better game plan and/or get ready to abandon the run lol. Not sure wtf Luke Goedeke was referencing that he was excited for.
White is terrible I was wrong on him out of the draft. He is no Leveon Bell lol. That is one position Licht has not figured out in his career for whatever reason.
September 26th, 2023 at 8:18 am
Can we can the run up the middle plays once and for all? I’ve seen too many years of it.
September 26th, 2023 at 8:26 am
Amen to what Ruka said. I’ve been hearing this exotic crap for years and don’t recall playing guys out of their skill set actually having a good effect. We don’t tackle and get off of blocks in the run game.
September 26th, 2023 at 9:14 am
Bowles draws up baloney so exotic he’s a loser as a HC.
September 26th, 2023 at 10:15 am
@ITzOK and D Rome
O SHAT! You pulled a gut buster with a giant smile out of me! Thanks for the “truthful laugh” And D Rome wrapped it up Perfectly with the opposing fans answering the “Bay” call… That’s freaking hilarious! You know why?
BECAUSE IT’S ALL TRUE! And for the opposing fans to be answering the call because they don’t have a worry in the world that their team “X” Is Surly going to win, WHY NOT!
Bowles and Canales didn’t sail us into the den of depression… NO. THEY HIT THE TURBO CHARGE BUTTON TO GET US THERE FAST!
WHICH ONE OF THESE BAFFOONS BROUGHT THE TEAM SPIRIT DOWN TO DARN NEAR ZERO? BECAUSE SOMEONE DID! THEY PLAYED WITH NO HEART, NO FIRE, NO WILL! WHICH MORON TOLD THEM ALL THAT THEIR DOG DIED BEFORE THE GAME STARTED???
September 26th, 2023 at 10:15 am
August 1976, so you did not watch the Washington game last year?
September 26th, 2023 at 10:38 am
Swift averaged 8.1 yards per carry. Logan Ryan is horrendous. Saw him miss plays and tackles all game.
September 26th, 2023 at 11:51 am
ONE GAME …
This team was supposed to be terrible. We’re 2-1. We lost to the defending NFC Champions. We’re okay. Look ahead …
1. Saints. A win next week and we’re tops in the NFCS
2. Bye Week. A chance to get key players healthy.
3. Winnable Schedule. We’ve got Buf and SFO. Bucs can hang with everyone else.
4. Trade Deadline. This should be interesting. Do the Bucs trade Evans?
September 26th, 2023 at 12:12 pm
And Devin Thompkins should not be getting so many snaps. Dude is too small of a target. Trey Palmer or Jarrett.
September 26th, 2023 at 1:54 pm
SlyPirate if the Bucs were competitive in this game your opinion would have been spot on but they weren’t. In my view the way they played was unacceptable. The defense gave up 472 total yards and 201 of those yards were on the ground and the time of possession was 39:01 to 20:58 and that is unacceptable we only had a combined 41 yards rushing and 133 yards passing that’s a total of 174 yards it’s just ridiculous and unprofessional. I was optimistic about this team until they showed they can’t compete with the better teams in the league.
September 26th, 2023 at 3:40 pm
August 1976 Buc Says:
Ira, I have never seen a team do a 9 min 22 second close out drive to finish the game in 48 years of watching football, very indicative of the whole night.
THIS ^^^^ Could not stop them AT ALL. Just a total beat down. Bucs had less than 100 yards of offense until that one meaningless drive in the 4th.
September 26th, 2023 at 4:14 pm
Thanks,Slypirate. 2 wins is typical of most teams now. We have14 games left and most teams are not like Eagles. O line is bad and we need a good center. Defense was not prepared for philly…which defenses are prepared for a powerhouse like that? Our defense has talent but could not hold out in such a lopsided game. Offense let us down but.candles is a rookie playcaller…he is learning and he will do better. Mayfield is a very good QB and he will do better. 🙂
September 26th, 2023 at 5:17 pm
On the bright side it wasn’t a division game. If we clobber the Aints next week we will be in pretty darn good shape. We gotta leave the Sewer Dome with a win.
September 27th, 2023 at 5:16 pm
We are 2-1 and reading these comments you’d think we’re about to sell the team. Ya’ll are hilarious.