The Philadelphia Eagles (2-1) look to head into their early bye week with a winning record if they can get past the pesky Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2-1) on Sunday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium. The remnants of Hurricane Helene should be out of the Sunshine State; however, the early weather forecast is calling for some possible thunderstorms with temperatures in the high 80s. The Eagles will look to weather the storm themselves with a good chance of not having their top three wideouts in A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and Britain Covey all dealing with injuries.
Jahan Dotson, Parris Campbell and Johnny Wilson vs. Buccaneers Secondary
Who will be catching passes from Jalen Hurts this week aside from Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley? It’s truly a next man up mentality for the Eagles’ wide receiver room with Brown nursing his way back from a hamstring injury, Smith suffering a concussion in last week’s win at New Orleans, and Covey missing significant time with a broken scapula.
So, aside from Goedert coming off a career game against the Saints and Barkley who has been an obvious focal point in this offense, one or more of the trio of Dotson, Campbell and Wilson will need to step up.
Dotson is still relatively new but should have a better understanding of the offense while Campbell, a sixth-year veteran, mentioned on Thursday that he had to swallow some pride to return to the Eagles as a member of their practice squad. Wilson is a freakishly athletic miss-match but is just a rookie.
The good news is that Tampa’s secondary has been similar to the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In Week 2, the group did just enough to keep the Lions’ high scoring offense in check in a 20-16 win on the road, despite having five defensive starters miss that game due to injury. The secondary did allow Matthew Stafford to throw for over 300 yards, but did intercept him twice and didn’t allow a passing touchdown while Amon-Ra St. Brown racked up 119 yards but was also held out of the endzone.
Then, last week at home against a then winless Denver Broncos team who scored just one touchdown in their first two games, the secondary allowed rookie quarterback Bo Nix to be comfortable and get the ball out quick, throwing for 216 yards while connecting with nine different receivers in the 26-7 loss.
Head Coach Todd Bowles, known for being one of the best defensive minded coaches in the league, said that “It was as bad as I thought it was after watching the tape”, on his defense’s performance.
The Eagles are hoping a similar trend continues this week. Tampa currently has three defensive starters with a questionable tag heading into this weekend including free safety Antoine Winfield Jr. who has missed each of the last two games.
Eagles’ Pass Rush vs. Tampa Offensive Line
We saw a new front from Vic Fangio’s defense last week as they went with more down linemen in hopes of stopping the vaunted Saints’ rushing attack. It worked splendidly. What was also apparent was the disruption the pass rush was able to create, keeping Saints’ quarterback Derek Carr under 150 yards passing on the day.
This game has a recipe for another successful day for the Eagles’ front seven to try to get home to rattle Buccaneers’ quarterback Baker Mayfield who was sacked seven times in the loss to Denver last week.
Ideally leading the way will be Jalen Carter who showed why he was viewed as a potential number one overall pick before some an off-field incident lowered his stock. Carter put together arguably his best game of his professional career last year, being the physical menace in the middle of the defensive line for the Eagles.
While the Eagles only racked up one sack against the Saints, four different players had a QB hit, an encouraging sign after they hardly got to the statuesque like quarterback in Atlanta’s Kirk Cousins in Week 2.
The pass rush was apparent on the game-sealing Reed Blankenship interception to close out the game against the Saints and if they can get pressure to Mayfield, he has a tendency to try and do too much and will force passes into tight windows, which could lead to more chances for interceptions for this Eagles’ secondary who has held its own to this point of the season.
Eagles’ Secondary vs. Mike Evans & Chris Godwin
A perfect segue to the next key matchup and it’s the other side of the coin from our previous one. The Buccaneers have two very good wideouts in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin. Evans is on the cusp of being a hall of famer while the former Nittany Lion Godwin has turned in a respectable career in his own right.
The duo has combined for 31 catches for 373 yards and 5 touchdowns with Godwin doing most of the damage (21 receptions, 253 yards and 3 touchdowns). What some thought would be an issue for this Eagles’ defense, the secondary has been one of the better units in the NFL.
Blankenship has more interceptions as an Eagle defensive back since Eric Allen in 28 games, rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell leads the NFL with seven forced incompletions per PFF and leads the team with five pass deflections.
Darius Slay, Avonte Maddox and CJ Gardner-Johnson have provided veteran leadership and have made some key plays during the first three weeks of the season to make this Eagles’ secondary a formidable unit.
Tampa comes in tied for 17th in the league with 637 passing yards on the season averaging 212.3 yards per game.
Nick Sirianni vs. Short Yardage 4th Downs
There’s no secret Sirianni loves to go for it on fourth down and short and for the most of tenure with the Eagles, the team has had rather good success thanks to the “Tush Push”. However, there’s a lot that has been made of his decisions to go for it in each of the last two weeks, one of them ultimately costing the Eagles the win against the Falcons in Week 2.
On the season, the Eagles are converting on 4th downs at a 57% clip (4-for-7). Last season, the Eagles converted on 19 of 26 4th downs in the regular season, a 73% rate. Will Sirianni continue his aggressiveness in the situation while missing their top play makers? Will he try to take advantage of an expected aggressive Tampa Bay defense?
Jalen Hurts vs. the Blitz
We have seen glimpses of Hurts handling the blitz better this season. It hasn’t been eye-opening, but he has seemed to improve slightly on recognizing it and handling it when the pressure comes, completing a career-best 71.4% of his passes when facing the blitz. Well, he will need to hit at that mark and even higher this week because the Buccaneers love to send multiple blitzers at the quarterback under Bowles.
The Buccaneers’ defense has the fifth-highest blitz percentage on drop backs at 33.1%, seventh in QB hurry percentage at 12.3% and tied for 7th in QB pressures with 31. The good news for the Eagles is that it seems that the injured linemen in the Saints game in star right tackle Lane Johnson (concussion) and starting right guard Mekhi Becton (finger) were upgraded at practice with Johnson spotted with a helmet on and dressed which is a good sign and Becton was a full participant. They will be key to help protect Hurts and identify the blitz that will surely be coming from Tampa Bay’s defense.
Kickoff is at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay.
Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports
