What Does The Eagles Win Over Bucs This Season Mean Now?
January 10th, 2024
Bucs coach Todd Bowles.
In September, the Eagles looked like the defending NFC champs they were when they pounded the Bucs on Monday Night Football.
Nearly four months later, what does that 25-11 Eagles win really mean? The Eagles are a totally different team. Maybe, so too are the Bucs.
One constant is that the Bucs will host the Eagles in the first round of the playoffs on Monday Night Football.
If you read the fishwraps up in Philadelphia, the entire town seems to have turned on the Eagles. They’re calling the Eagles overpaid, underperforming quitters for dropping five of their last six games and gagging away the NFC East. Philly media have the shovels ready..
Joe has never seen a town turn on a team like Philadelphia has on the Eagles. It’s not like they were the Titans or something. They were a play away from winning the Super Bowl less than 12 months ago.
Now, the place wants to run the entire coaching staff. It’s funny to read and hear the caterwauling.
Former NFL offensive lineman Ross Tucker hosts a regular podcast focused on the Eagles (he has a series of podcasts that may be the best pure football podcasts available). He resides in the greater Philadelphia region.
In short, Tucker noted what happened back in September when the Bucs got beat down by the Eagles has just about zero bearing on Monday night’s game.
In other words, it’s not a lock the Bucs will lose.
The Eagles dominated the Bucs earlier in the season.
How much does that matter now?
Ross Report™️ presented by https://t.co/xSbITdP0sJ pic.twitter.com/dnvZ9mOq3X
— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) January 10, 2024
January 10th, 2024 at 11:39 am
It doesn’t mean a thing. The Bucs were developing Rookies and a rookie OC. The Iggles were riding a team that was Super Bowl ready. Not a surprise the fans turned on them, Philly fans ran Santa Claus off the field with boos and snowballs when i was a young man. They obviously haven’t changed for the better
January 10th, 2024 at 11:49 am
The Eagles’ fans sound like a number of the Baker Haters on this site. Just a bunch of whiners and “fans” who will instantly flip on their team when times get really tough.
January 10th, 2024 at 12:09 pm
Nothing. Thought that game got buried behind Ray Jay the following day.
Looking at the box score. 17 Rushes for 41 yards should increase as Canales has refined the run up the gut scheme.
As far as 15 of 25 Passing for 146 1 TD, 1 INT a QBR of 22.3 and Passer rating of 73.1 that is a toss up. Saints and Panthers have basically shown everybody else the way to slow down the Pass Game. Weeks 16 and 17 are a better indicator than any other game this season.
Bucs may have an advantage with injuries . If Hurts cannot go Mariota is 3-3 in the playoffs, mobile, and would love a chance to highlight his skill for when he hits FA at the end of the season. They will pound it with their Pro Bowl running back and Mariota should be able to execute the RPO’s as well as Hurts. Well enough for the first round. His numbers in a little over a half were better than the Bucs game 1 production and Giants are better against the pass than the Eagles.
Bucs have a deep threat advantage if there is time to throw them and passes are accurate. If passed get thrown up to ‘go get’ it could be ugly.
January 10th, 2024 at 12:18 pm
It’s a new year.
Philly is on downward spiral, and this game is ripe for the picking.
If Bowles defense and Baker’s offense perform poorly, then they are good as gone
January 10th, 2024 at 12:20 pm
Well, to me it means that the Eagles have something to prove. They will probably come out strong. I hope the Buc really feel like they have something to prove, too. I am looking forward to a (hopefully) entertaining game. GO BUCS!
January 10th, 2024 at 12:35 pm
The real question is, what would a dominating victory of the Eagles over Bucs in playoffs mean to Todd Bowles’ job security?
I’m not convinced we are headed in the right direction yet with the coaching. I know Bowles’ job is safe, but a true sign of good coaching would be not to get owned by the Eagles again.
January 10th, 2024 at 12:37 pm
Agree with WyomingJoe. The writers for the Philly rags sound like what I’ve read here all season.
Yes, that first Eagles game wasn’t as close as the score appeared BUT even with all of their offensive output they still only mustered 25 points. We now have YaYa and Kancey getting lots of snaps. Their once-dominant running game is mostly gone. Their WR1 is banged up and their QB will probably have a sore finger on his throwing hand.
We have a banged-up QB but if we get White, Godwin and Otton involved early and often on short to mid passes, we can open up some running lanes and get Evans freed up.
On D if we get pressure and play more man or press coverage we can probably force some bad throws. We need discipline to keep the pocket contained and I like our chances. We’re 3 point underdogs at the moment which is close enough to even for me.
QBs get their throwing hands hit close to a dozen times a game either on helmets, bodies or the ground. I’ll take a QB with sore ribs over a QB who can’t grip the ball.
Quick passes by Mayfield will keep his uniform clean and ribs intact.
Go Bucs!
January 10th, 2024 at 12:40 pm
Based on the sentiment from “fans” this week, one cannot tell if the Bucs have the 3rd pick in the draft or are getting ready for a playoff game Monday night…..
Smh just the worst fan base
January 10th, 2024 at 12:42 pm
To Ross Tuckers point, it doesnt matter what the Eagles did earlier in the year. Teams change throughout the course of a season and Philly is sputtering
I recall the Bucs dominating the Cowboys week 1 last season only for them to come back and dominate us in the playoffs
January 10th, 2024 at 2:14 pm
Eagles secondary sucks. They have no LBs this fool better run into 700 pounds of DT Monday over n over
January 10th, 2024 at 2:47 pm
Joe has never seen a town turn on a team like Philadelphia has on the Eagles.
——
What’s hilarious is after the Bucs knocked them out of the playoffs in 2022, I went and listened to various Eagles podcasts and sports radio because there’s nothing more I love than Eagles and Packers fans crying – and anywho, it was great, they were all talking about how Hurts sucks, you’ll never win anything with him, they need to cut bait on him, he’s a terrible QB who can’t throw the ball. Literally every single comment was about how bad Hurts is, and how he needs to go.
Then those same d-bags were chanting MVP a year later.
Then I tune back into those same places this week, and they’re talking about how Hurts sucks, he can’t throw the ball, he’s awful, they need to start Mariota.
They truly are the worst fans in sports.
January 10th, 2024 at 3:15 pm
If the Eagles return to their week 3 form, we won’t have a prayer. We just won’t. But, this is not week 3, and the Eagles are trending massively downward, so I say it’s a 50/50 game, as always, coming down to turnovers.
It’s not like the Bucs are a team trending upwards by any means, so who knows who will win?
Pure talent-wise, the Eagles should dominate the Bucs. Let’s hope the Bucs play and play-call above their weight class for this game. Hey, anything is possible but not everything is probable.
Go Bucs ! ! !
January 10th, 2024 at 3:19 pm
EXCEPT …
The Eagles simply need to follow the same script. Our coaches don’t know how to pivot. Case in point, Bowles said a key to victory is running. 32nd in the league after 17 games and he still can’t change his philosophy.
Easy win for Philly. 31-13
January 10th, 2024 at 3:40 pm
Keep telling that to yourself Joe. Hope Baker boy can get us in the endzone this game. Going to be hard beating these guys without scoring a TD. Sore ribs, sore ankle, popgun arm, I hope we come out throwing!
January 10th, 2024 at 4:31 pm
It’s going to come down to 2 (ok 3) main things:
1. Is Baker actually healthy enough to throw the ball?
2. Will Canales pull his head out of his rear end and not waste 40% of our offensive snaps running up the gut for 2 yard gains?
3. Can our lineman (offensive and defensive) hold up for an entire game?
January 10th, 2024 at 6:10 pm
I’d just like to see an aggressive first possession by the Bucs. Drive the ball down the field and score 7. Set a positive tone for the whole game. Please no run, run, pass for 5 when we need 8 and then punt. This hasn’t worked in the 17 previous games. It won’t suddenly be successful.
January 10th, 2024 at 7:04 pm
Looking back at that 1st game, our biggest problem is that we didn’t do diddly offensively until the 4th quarter (when we were already behind 25-3). Bucs were behind 13-3 at halftime & never recovered. We tried to pass our way back into the game, but continued to mix in enough non-productive runs to start various drives to screw that up each time.
A major problem was that Baker’s deep passes fell on deaf ears until the 1 TD drive in the 4th qtr. He was 3-for-8 deep on the day, but 2 of those deep completions came on that 4th qtr TD drive … after we were already behind 25-3. Chances are Philly was playing loose at the time. Other than those 2 deep completions (for 48 yds), he was 1-for-6 deep … for 16 yards.
If Baker starts and can’t hit the intermediate (10-20 yds) and deep (over 20 yds) passes against the league’s worst pass defense, Bucs will lose. THAT’S the Eagles’ primary weakness, and we have to attack it in order to win.
We also need to run the ball MORE than we did in that game, and to run it much more effectively. Bucs ran it 17 times for a whopping 41 yards rushing (2.4 YPC), but it’s even worse than that. Rachaad had 1 rush for 12 yds, and 1 run for 7 yds, so the other 15 runs gained a total of 22 yds (1.5 YPC). Wow, that’s a LOT of non-productive runs, and it left us with a lot of 3rd-and-longs. BTW I say we need to run it MORE because we got trounced on the TOP … 39 minutes to 21 minutes (Eagles had 78 plays to our 44 plays). Not gonna win many football games like that.
Our defense shares a BUNCH of the blame for that disparity in TOP because we couldn’t stop the run. Eagles ran it 40 times for 201 yards … 5.0 YPC. Eagles had 4 runs of more than 10 yds each (totaling 82 yds) that really hurt us. Unacceptable, and it caused us to focus more on stopping the run it looks like, and allowed their short passes to be much more effective.
January 10th, 2024 at 10:23 pm
I just rewatched the game.
1. A PUNT RETURN got things rolling for the Eagles. Special teams is always big in the playoffs.
2. Bucs D couldn’t get off the field. LBs often out of position or bad reads on RPOs. Overmatched by the Eagles O-line. Remarkable the Eagles didn’t score 90.
3. The Bucs offense was terrible. RBs (all 3 at the time… where is our rookie RB now?) went nowhere. Baker wasn’t accurate. No separation in pass routes. Game plan was awful.
All 3 phases got badly beaten. Could the Bucs flip the script? Maybe, but I wouldn’t bet actual cash on it.
January 10th, 2024 at 11:28 pm
Tucker has taken too many hits me thinks Joe.
Needs to stick to breaking down film. He is very good at that.
Go Bucs!
January 10th, 2024 at 11:33 pm
The truth of last meeting was Rookies starting everywhere two non-rookies who should not have been starting, Canales, O line and Zone scheme.
Defense never got off the bus! There is a way to beat Hurts. That was not it.
Go Bucs!
January 11th, 2024 at 9:07 am
Keep your eye on the weather, looks like it might be bad, could turn into a slog fest, if neither team can pass and both teams have to run the ball , the ability to run and turnovers could be huge.