Mental And Trenches Struggles For The Eagles
September 26th, 2025
Father Dungy weighs in on Sunday’s matchup.
It’s been a different Eagles team in 2025.
Joe sees the Eagles’ three sacks this season and their lack of an intimidating defensive line as a major difference in the Super Bowl champs.
Father Dungy, one of the four Buccaneers Ring of Honor head coaches, sees that and more.
“We’re used to seeing Philadelphia dominate the line of scrimmage and it hasn’t happened this year,” Dungy told Pro Football Talk. “Saquon Barkley is averaging just a little more than three yards a carry. He was a 2,000-yard rusher last year. Defensively, they’re giving up almost five yards a carry; we’ve never saw people run through the Philadelphia defensive line like that.”
Dungy also hearkened back to how his Bucs teams had a mental block playing in Philadelphia.
Losing there got in their heads, Dungy said, and Dungy sees similaraties to the Eagles’ recent struggles against the Bucs. Philly lost to the Bucs 33-16 last season in Tampa, and in the playoffs during the 2023 season. Eagles QB Jalen Hurts is 1-4 against the Bucs with Todd Bowles calling the defense.
If games are truly won in the trenches, then with Tristan Wirfs nearly a sure thing to return Sunday, the Bucs might have a solid shot to break the Eagles’ nine-game winning streak that includes the Super Bowl.
September 26th, 2025 at 7:51 am
Go Bucs
September 26th, 2025 at 8:05 am
It would be a great win.
September 26th, 2025 at 8:05 am
My annoying Eagles fan buddy is not gonna like THIS. I’ll have to text it to him
September 26th, 2025 at 8:06 am
The Iggles lost a LOT of talent in the offseason. There is no way they can be the same in the trenches. They’ll improve as the season goes on, so I’m glad we’re getting them early again, and with (hopefully) Tristan Wirfs, Ben Bredneson and Graham Barton back at their natural positions.
September 26th, 2025 at 8:19 am
4-0!!!!
GO BUCS!!!
September 26th, 2025 at 8:24 am
Have a tough 4 weeks. Eagles, Seahawks, 49ers and Lions. Playing the NFC’s best
September 26th, 2025 at 8:29 am
Kind of like a Super Bowl hangover.
September 26th, 2025 at 8:31 am
Gonna be a hell of a game!
GO Bucs!
September 26th, 2025 at 8:51 am
If Zack Baum stays hurt, the running game should be more productive.
September 26th, 2025 at 8:59 am
Maybe Dungy dislikes the Eagles more than all of us
September 26th, 2025 at 9:31 am
Yeah the Eagles are pretty much what got Dungy fired. Just couldn’t get past Andy in the wildcard rd a few years in a row.
September 26th, 2025 at 9:49 am
If the Bucs want to be taken seriously, they need to come out of the next 4 games no worse than 2-2. But with Todd Blows in charge I doubt it
September 26th, 2025 at 10:19 am
“Todd Blows” – man that is creative and hilarious!!
Sarcasm
September 26th, 2025 at 10:25 am
It took Gruden to fix the losing in Philly curse. Thank you Chucky. Oh and thanks for SBXXXVII. And for the house plants who still blurble about how Gruden won with Dungy’s team, keep repeating that maroonic mantra. Gruden brought in 5 new offensive starters and challenged the defense to be better. Like a great leader does. And if the house plant can’t get enough water, then consider this.
Dungy couldn’t win it with Dungy’s team, and allowed the Philly curse to dominate player psyche.
September 26th, 2025 at 10:47 am
Hey Joe🎶, Tony Dungy is also enshrined in Canton. Want me to give you some more Bucs History? The one fact I know that was pretty much SOP, was the team that won the SB fell on their face the next year. For some reason, that’s changing. Who is this clown: ‘ Smarter than Joe’? Guess he/she/it needs to fart around on a football fan blog.
September 26th, 2025 at 11:08 am
There are actually forms of help the chronically disabled can get.
September 26th, 2025 at 11:25 am
Buc fan since Doug Williams, Vinnie Testaverde times. Of course Tony Dungy…. that Championship Team was Dungy’s Team with the additional player added by Chucky. That Defense to the man, will tell you that they were Dungy’s Team. If you were not here during the building of that defense. Then you should be quite.
Go Bucs. no ring of honor for Chucky…….. Back Stabber.
September 26th, 2025 at 11:35 am
Famu I’m with you. That defense was all Dungy and they all loved him. Keyshawn def had a part in Dungy being let go. I remember that post game rant he went on after the eagles playoff loss. I think he really wanted Parcells here instead of Gruden.
September 26th, 2025 at 12:52 pm
Seahawks D is legit… hope we heal up quick
September 26th, 2025 at 1:40 pm
It Was Dungys defense that Could. It Was also Dungys horrible offense that Never Could!
Dungy never could close the deal. In fact in my view and as CRAZY as it may sound, Bowles has been a better “Stewart” of the offense than Dungy ever was.
With THAT said, it WAS Grudens Team that FINALLY took us to Glory. Something Dungy never could…. To me it’s “almost” equal billing between Dungy And Gruden for that Super Bowl win. 51% HAS TO go to Gruden! It WAS Obviously Grudens re imagined Offense that walked us through the door to the Promised land.. So IT WAS GRUDENS TEAM THAT “IN FACT” WON US THE SUPER BOWL…Period End of Story…
I was at that Colts game that night….. Dungy got his revenge though HE DIDN’T DESERVE IT! It WASN’T his defense that won the game. Just like these days, my Bucs hand it IN HAND by a mile! And just like Bowles, went into the Good Ole “prevent defense” AND IT BLEW UP IN OUR FACES! Manning Won that game Just like Mayfield has to bring us from the bri k of the Black Hole ALL TO OFTEN! But Manning DID. Shock and Awe was the moral to the story. Complacency GETS YOU BEAT AND PREVENT DEFENSE IS DANGEROUS! It kinda gives everybody “permission to go to sleep” and by the time my Bucs woke back up…. IT WAS GAME OVER! Thanks to a deadly offense that woke up as we went to sleep…. We Never recovered and thus started our slow walk to slow death into the lost decade….
September 26th, 2025 at 1:52 pm
And THAT IS EXACTLY WHY I CRITICIZE Bowles So Much..
I’ve seen what he’s doing and how Quickly he let’s our guard down before…..
It cost ME and THOUSANDS of others MISERY for MORE THAN a Decade! This time, it’s playing All Over Again!
Bowles “acts like” the new Dungy. He DOES care More for the Offense than Dungy did but HE let HIS defense slide Too Far! He’s made adjustments. He has my THANK YOU for it! BUT…. He doesn’t understand the lessons I learned OR he WOULDN’T BE letting our guard down so quickly AND NOT ADJUSTING QUICKLY BACK TO FULL ON STOP the opponent, that got us a lead in the first place! He’s being SLOPPY!
If he doesn’t adjust His point of view SOON… HE’LL BE THE NEXT DUNGY TO BE KICKED OUT FOR A OFFENSIVE MIND TO GET US BACK TO THE SUPER BOWL….
Mark It Down….
September 26th, 2025 at 2:11 pm
Geezzz. We’re 3-0
First prime time win in a while.
First creamsicle win in forever.
First EVER game 1-3 final <1:00 winning TD drives
He wanted Baker … Baker is out franchise QB.
Defense is playing better. Not perfect but much better.
Bowles' Bucs are undefeated against iggles.
We can run on this version of a green birds team. We are in Hurtz's head.
If special teams plays special for once, refs call a fair game and we don't have another injury Sun, the game is extremely winnable.
September 26th, 2025 at 2:50 pm
If we somehow manage to go 4-0 these next 4 weeks, look for the Bucs to be like 14-3 in the regular season. Wish we had Evans, too!
September 26th, 2025 at 3:52 pm
Always respected Dungy and so didn’t the players. Bowles has the same relationship going. No mental blocks this Sunday. Go Bucs!
September 26th, 2025 at 5:53 pm
Obvious
“Something Dungy never could….”
Your post is a little open ended. One could think you mean TD could never get that specific team for whatever reason to the SB. Then again perhaps you just don’t like Tony and think he doesn’t have the talent to coach a team to the Lombardi.
Cheap opinions can come back to bite you.
Maybe you slept through the 2007 Super Bowl where it was TD who coached his team to the Lombardi.
I get the Lombardi brings a special kind of love. Brady earned it Chucky…perhaps not so much. Look at Chucky’s record after the SB
7-9…5-11…11-5…4-12…9-7…9-7. Chucky might have survived but the final 9-7 featured a season ending FOUR game LOSING streak. More importantly he had clearly lost his team.
Ask yourself. How many 7-9, 5-11, 4-12 seasons Todd will survive even if he wins the SB this year?
September 26th, 2025 at 9:02 pm
Since Wirfs is back, 3/5 of the O line returns to normal.
Last week, I thought they would lose this game. Now I think they win. I’ve been saying this for the last two weeks, Philly defense is not what it was. I didn’t realize their offense has been struggling to run the ball, but you could argue the Bucs have also. The difference is they have the excuse of the offensive line.
September 26th, 2025 at 9:07 pm
Obvious One
Seriously, get a grip dude. He’s turned into a pretty damn good coach, whether you wanna believe it or not.
You can argue about his defense all you want because rankings go by yards giving up, but the reality is they’ve been in the upper half of points allowed every year. Bend don’t break.
Of course, the biggest thing is he’s had to work without a four man, consistent pass rush. If it wasn’t for his schemes and blitzes, which every NFL player who goes against him says is difficult to play against, this team would not have won the division the last few years