Do Buccaneers hold the secret to stopping Eagles Jalen Hurts? The answer might surprise you
PHILADELPHIA − Jalen Hurts had nowhere to go both times the Eagles played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the 2021-22 season.
When Hurts tried to throw the ball, the Buccaneers kept him in the pocket or forced him to run left. Hurts had no answers.
When Hurts and the Eagles tried to run the ball, they ran into a 350-pound brick wall in defensive tackle Vita Vea.
It was ugly. The Eagles trailed 28-7 in the third quarter in the first meeting in their 28-22 loss on Oct. 14, 2021. They trailed 31-0 in the third quarter in their 31-15 playoff loss on Jan. 16, 2022.
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After the playoff game, Hurts gave his press conference while wearing a walking boot, only to have surgery on his ankle a few weeks later.
But it was something Hurts said that damp January afternoon in Tampa that set the tone for last season, and in a way has the Eagles better equipped to handle anything the Bucs might throw at him Monday night when the Eagles play Tampa Bay for the first time since that playoff debacle.
"I think, for us as a football team, this game does not define us," Hurts said that day. "It does not define us at all. We know all the different things we’ve overcome. We know the environment that we built as a football team. I know as a football team, we’ll be back. This is a feeling we’ll kind of simmer in our hearts. ... I know the hunger that we have. I know the feeling we have in that locker room."
So don't be fooled. Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles, who was the defensive coordinator back then, might have known exactly how to stop Hurts and the Eagles' offense back then. But this is a very different Hurts, and this is a very different Eagles offense when the two teams play Monday night.
All you need to see is Hurts' evolution from that playoff game forward.
"Completely different," Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. "You always look at the last time you played an opponent. Always. You want to see how they defended you, and how they played their defenses there, how much has changed, all those different things.
"But a completely different team on both sides. There are new players, new schemes. I know that I have major respect for a Todd Bowles-coached defense. They're always really well-coached. He provides a lot of issues, and he's been doing it for a very long time, and he does a good job adapting to who he has and letting them play the way they need to play."
But really, Hurts spent his entire 2022 offseason working on everything Bowles and the Bucs exposed − Hurts' inability to make teams pay from the pocket, and his inability to throw while rolling out to his left.
When the Eagles came into the 2022 season, opponents used the Bowles model and tried keeping Hurts in the pocket or rolling to his left, daring him to beat them with his passing. Hurts picked them apart. And when defenses adjusted, Hurts and the Eagles ran the ball at will.
Now opponents have adjusted again, taking away the deep ball. This time, they're doing it by not letting A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith get behind them, then dropping linebackers into coverage to take away Dallas Goedert.
And they've also done it by rushing to the outside and keeping Hurts in the pocket, pretty much daring the Eagles to run.
Certainly, Bowles has seen this too. And the Bucs are better equipped to stop the run that the Patriots or Vikings were. Tampa Bay has allowed just 54 yards per game on the ground in the first two games.
Of course, the Eagles have won both of those games, something that's easy to overlook when Hurts is averaging only 181.5 yards per game passing, when he's only averaging 3.5 yards per rushing attempt, when Brown is denying that he was in a heated sideline exchange with Hurts that led Sirianni to intervene.
"You have 1A and 1B. 1A is winning. 1B is playing to the standard," Hurts said. "Now you can win, but not play to the standard, and you're still unfulfilled. You can play to the standard, and not win, and you're still unfulfilled. So what matters?"
Winning.
Look past Hurts' stats in the playoff game against the Bucs. The stats seemed somewhat respectable as he completed 23 of 43 passes for 258 yards and a touchdown pass.
But Hurts threw two interceptions. And this is how the first half went for the Eagles: Punt, punt, punt, turnover on downs, interception, end of half. They trailed 17-0 in the first quarter, 31-0 midway through the third quarter.
It wasn't much better in the regular-season game. Hurts was 12 of 26 passing for 115 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Back then, the Eagles didn't have Brown, who set a franchise record with 1,496 yards receiving last season. The defense was still trying to figure out the system of then-defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon. And Hurts was nowhere near the quarterback that he is now.
And when teams were determined to stop the Eagles running attack, which was the best in the league in 2021, the Eagles couldn't make them pay with the pass.
That's not the case anymore. That's why Hurts isn't worried about what has been perceived as his subpar play so far.
"It's not about me, it's about us," Hurts said. "If they are doing something there for me, we'll go get 250 rushing yards. There are multiple ways to win. The thing I wanna make clear is when did winning not become the main thing? I always say keep the main thing the main thing, and winning is the only thing that truly matters."
The Eagles have done that through two games this season. And that has nothing to do with what the Bucs did in the playoffs nearly two years ago.
"It's a good storyline and everything," Sirianni said. "We know we're different. We know they're different. We watch (the video from those games against the Bucs) more for scheme and stuff like that at this particular point."
How the Eagles can get to 3-0
The Eagles know how to win ugly. And they also know how to not look as ugly as the other team.
For that, the Eagles' defense will make the difference on Monday night. Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Fletcher Cox and Milton Williams are hard enough to handle upfront. Then there's Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat coming in from the edges.
And Baker Mayfield, despite having great receivers to throw to in Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, will be hard-pressed to avoid that pressure. That's really the only chance the Eagles have to prevent Tampa Bay from exploiting Mario Goodrich in the nickel spot. Goodrich would likely often be matched up against Chris Godwin, the Middletown High School star in Delaware, who has had at least 1,000 yards receiving in three of his last four seasons.
But if Mayfield doesn't have time to find Godwin, then the Bucs can't exploit that matchup.
Score: Eagles 25, Buccaneers 21.
Contact Martin Frank at mfrank@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter @Mfranknfl.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Do Buccaneers hold the secret to stopping Jalen Hurts, Eagles offense?
