Sputtering Eagles Offense
September 13th, 2018
Named starter for Sunday.
In their season-opening debut a week ago, the Eagles offense was just the opposite of the Bucs offense in Week 1.
It sputtered. Sure, the Dixie Chicks are a good team but Joe doesn’t think that defense is the 1977 Steelers. It took two second-half touchdowns and a rotten red zone offense from the Dixie Chicks for Philly to pull out a win.
The Eagles only had 232 yards of offense last week. The longest pass play was for 10 yards against, Atlanta and Philly averages just 3.6 yards a play.
Now if you want to sell Joe on “distractions,” Joe will actually buy that since it was the first home game since the Eagles won the Super Bowl and the banner was raised and all of that.
In the Comcast Philadelphia video below, Eagles coach Doug Pederson explains how he can get his offense on track.
Joe suspects 10 days to prepare for Carlton Davis, M.J. Stewart and Ryan Smith just might be the elixir Philly needs. Will Eagles quarterback Nick Foles break out of his slump? He hasn’t completed a pass of more than 20 yards in a regular season game since last December at Los Angeles when he replaced an injured Carson Wentz.
The rookie Bucs corners must grow up in a hurry or the only way the Bucs will win, it seems, is via another shootout.
September 13th, 2018 at 3:52 am
The Defensive line is going to have to play lights out. I suspect we will see more blitzs than we are used to to help take some time away from Foles so he can’t pick our very green CBs apart… HOPEFULLY!
September 13th, 2018 at 4:11 am
Safety play better be “lights out”. Looking directly at you Chris Control. Here’s your chance to prove you’re better than everyone says you are! Help the youngsters out. You’re gonna have lots of interception opportunities.
September 13th, 2018 at 4:43 am
Excited about this game, I hope the bucs don’t lay an egg.
Home opener against the champs, defense has to play motivated, can’t wait until Sunday, I think they can do it based on what we saw last Sunday., Go bucs!!!
September 13th, 2018 at 5:24 am
Eagles are a pretty good running team as we’ve seen. Bucs DLine is pretty well decimated by injuries already at this early point in the season (especially if JPP is hurting too). They did very good stopping the Saints’ rushing attack, but it might’ve been a different story had Ingram been available. Got a hunch the Eagles will test them rushing quite a bit this Sunday, mixing in a lot of short passes.
What still blows my mind about Sunday is GMC getting 59 of the total 64 defensive snaps (92%). Couldn’t have had much left in the tank by the 4th qtr. Jerel Worthy wasn’t much help at DT (only 15 snaps), but still can’t understand why Beau Allen only got 31 snaps (48%). We’ll need that big body in there a lot more if Eagles run inside especially. And we’ll also need Kwon & LVD to play big against the run & tackle a bit closer to the line of scrimmage.
September 13th, 2018 at 6:29 am
Best thing for a struggling offense is to face a Mike Smith and Gerald McCoy led defense.
September 13th, 2018 at 6:31 am
This team might be like the Houston Oilers of the 1990s: all offense and no defense. The Bucs offense will have to carry this team. This is your new “Buc Ball”.
September 13th, 2018 at 6:44 am
Coach handed over the play calling to Coach Monk, and what a pre-season and week 1. Maybe Coach Koetter needs to get in that Defensive room more now. We hear play to the players strengths, doesn’t seem that way yo me. We ll keep seeing CB’s 15 yards off the ball. At some point, you MUST change or they will ALL be out of a job.
September 13th, 2018 at 6:59 am
Starting to wonder how much mike smiths outdated defensive scheme is hurting the bucs.
I think any coach other than smith should be given a chance to call plays for defense.
Let the linebackers coach get a chance-duffner . Or coach buck. Sorry but mike smith just doesn’t do it for me anymore Seems like he doesn’t care about a players strengths. His way or highway.
September 13th, 2018 at 7:08 am
I know it’s uncommon for this site but let’s look at things from a positive perspective heading into Sunday’s game…
1. O-line suffered no injuries last game, should be healthy heading into Sunday’s game.
2. Possibly no D-Jax, but…..Evans, Godwin, Humphries, Brate, Howard, and Justin Watson all still healthy.
3. All running backs are still healthy.
4. The rooky corners that got playing time in N’awlins won’t be facing near the caliber receivers the Aint’s had.
5. Monk calling plays.
6. D-line still has McCoy, Curry, Allen, Spence, Clarke, Gohlston, Jpp is a maybe….which is still kinda positive? lol
September 13th, 2018 at 7:16 am
Technically the Eagles has the same amount of time to prepare for the roomie CBs since VHIII was injured week 1 and Grimes was injured Friday. Plus litttle real game tape helps.
September 13th, 2018 at 7:16 am
That being said i think this games gonna be real fun and interesting to watch and the biggest determining factor will be Bucs Offense vs Eagles defense.
September 13th, 2018 at 7:28 am
@defense rules
Very true about GMC. He was so gassed that he was trying to get through double teams backwards towards the end of the game.
September 13th, 2018 at 7:47 am
If the offense is having to get into shoot outs weekly with the investiture on defense I would fire Mike Smith mid season.
What do you have to lose???
September 13th, 2018 at 8:09 am
the heck with it…let’s win by shootout!…and it’s more fun!
we really need djax for shootouts tho…as he changes and opens up everything in a sense by spreading the field…
we aren’t going to win much by way of defense…let’s be realistic joeski
September 13th, 2018 at 8:11 am
I think unless foles comes out of his funk that this is going to be an ugly super hot low scoring game with turnovers by each qb and it will come down to a FG either way
September 13th, 2018 at 8:26 am
No way this is a LOW scoring game. Bucs will score 30 at least.
September 13th, 2018 at 8:36 am
Joe
I seem to remember Nick Foles is 3-0 against the Bucs. Do I have it right?
September 13th, 2018 at 8:40 am
The only reason Nawleans got so close is Koetter went turtle and Smith went prevent. They blanked them in the third. Who ever blanks the Saints in any quarter? The biggest positive like it was said for this defense won’t be facing the caliber of receivers it did this past week. We blitz some and keep Foles off balance and Monk doesn’t get all scary conservative and predictable this game is ours.
September 13th, 2018 at 8:43 am
Julio Jones went buck wild on that secondary, what do we think our whole receiving core will do? That o line blocks like it did before, they will feast again!
September 13th, 2018 at 8:48 am
This is the first off season we’ve made a major investment in defense. That’s OK since Licht used the resources to get #weaponsforJameis and can anybody deny the huge success Licht has had finding targets….like budding star Chris Godwin in the 3rd round…he’s playing like a 1st rounder!!!
So we’re now trying to balance things but Rome wasn’t built in a day and our defense is not going to be finished in a year…although by the end of the season with rookies gaining experience we might actually have a good D.
But as for THIS game what has Smitty been given to work with…top two Corners will not play…two ROOKIES are available or Smith…yeow. How about that massive rebuild of our DL.
The single most important piece…JPP has a bum knee…Unrein is probably done forever…Spence mysteriously has gone into a funk…and our top draft pick who was selected to shore up the interior of our D line is out.
Oh and wouldn’t it be nice if our two “star” LB’s show up and play like pro bowlers. D.R. likes to point football is still a TEAM sport and this week will really test that concept with our D. ALL 11 will have to play very near their best games.
September 13th, 2018 at 9:00 am
If Djax doesn’t play our receiving core is no better then Atlantas.
September 13th, 2018 at 9:26 am
Evolving
Thanks for a positive post!!! You may be too young to remember radio news star Paul Harvey.
But you just set up his famous closing line…”And now you know the rest of the story.”
September 13th, 2018 at 9:28 am
unfortunately, I think they right the ship vs smitty’s lousy defense…..
#NOEXCUSESIN2018!!!…#PRESSURESONTHECOACHES!!!…GO BUCS!!!
September 13th, 2018 at 9:39 am
Bring the NOISE Tampa fans.
Man I wish I could be there for this game.
It’s been 7 or 8 years since I made it to Tampa for a game.
I live in Dallas and hopefully have the privilege of watching them monkey stomp THE BOYS.
We played New England really close and should have won last year at HOME and I believe this BUC’S team is ready for the Limelight.
Then the NFL can start thinking about flexing some TAMPA games to Prime Time!!!
They will be a blast for fans to watch this year.
September 13th, 2018 at 9:45 am
The Eagles game plan is to run the football, play good defense and control the clock.
September 13th, 2018 at 9:47 am
The positives is if there are any are that the rooms and Ryan Smith know they are going to play a lot, therefore their film study, game planning will be like they are starting, there is no, waiting for the opportunity to go in the game, you know you are going to be in the game form kickoff. Predicting a couple of INTs trying to pick on the young fellas, only concern is Ertz and Sproles as far as receiving goes.
September 13th, 2018 at 11:42 am
LOL, Thanks stpete. I do remember Paul Harvey even though I was a young buck, brings back fond memories of long rides in my dads truck, on the way to school mostly.
September 13th, 2018 at 12:00 pm
In the past Foles has been a stone-cold Buc killer. Howard hopes that history does not repeat
September 13th, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Doctor Stroud Says:
September 13th, 2018 at 6:31 am
This team might be like the Houston Oilers of the 1990s: all offense and no defense. The Bucs offense will have to carry this team. This is your new “Buc Ball”.
—————
I don’t know what you heard about the Houston Oilers of the 90’s but they had some damn good defenses. Tons of all-pros and many high rankings. Their seven year run from the late 80’s to early 90’s saw their offense rank very highly and their defense never being worse than 14th in the league in yards given up and three seasons ranked in the top 10. They finished 4th in scoring defense one year and the year before finished 3rd in yards given up.
They had stud defenders like CB Cris Dishman, FS Marcus Robertson, SS Bubba McDowell, DE Sean Jones and William Fuller, DT Ray Childress, and LBs Lamar Lathon and Al Smith. Those guys were LOADED on defense. They even had reserve S Bo Orlando who was good for a few seasons. Their early 90’s teams were among the most talented on both sides of the ball that I’ve ever seen.
September 13th, 2018 at 2:12 pm
Nothing helps a quarterback get his confidence back than a zone defense with limited pass rush. Let’s hope our home crowd helps add some confusion and inspires the players to do their jobs better than they did in New Orleans.
With that said, I still think we can put up points against the Eagles, just not 48. We can win this with a few turnovers and making them settle for field goals instead of touchdowns!
Barber will need to have another good game. When he gets more than 4 yards per carry, we can stay on the field and help the defense get their breath back.
#TheWinningMustContinue
#BeatTheBirds
#GoBucs
September 13th, 2018 at 4:38 pm
We need to make a statement on defense. Every team that has played us since our SB glory days lick their chops believing the Bucs defense is just what the doctor ordered for their struggling offenses, and they wouldn’t be wrong most of the time. Let’s put the Eagles away in front of the home crowd and what will seem to be half of the stadiums attendance of Eagles fans. Only in Fla do opposing teams seem to have as many fans as Buc fans, and don’t give me that line they travel well. No, they live here.
September 13th, 2018 at 4:48 pm
Not having Alshon Jeffery is huge. Zach Ertz and Agholor are all they have.
Hopefully Beau Allen can help stop Ajayi.
Agree, Bucs OL vs. Eagles DL will be the biggest factor.