Wild-card playoff preview: What the Eagles must to do beat the Buccaneers
When the Eagles came into their Week 6 Thursday night game with the Buccaneers, they were in trouble. There were serious questions about first-year head coach Nick Sirianni and defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, the offense with quarterback Jalen Hurts hadn’t figured itself out quite yet, and the 2-3 team did not have the look of a playoff entrant at all.
In the game itself, the Buccaneers proved to be the superior team — not a surprising result from the defending Super Bowl champs. Tom Brady and his crew put up a 28-7 third-quarter lead before the run-averse Eagles finally put things together and closed the gap to 28-22 with two Hurts rushing touchdowns.
Both Sirianni and Gannon seemed to grasp clues about their players that propelled them forward, and over time, the Eagles became a different team. This is now a run-heavy offense with great productivity and efficiency, which allows Hurts to develop as most second-year quarterbacks should — in a system where he doesn’t have to do everything, and with a defense that can get things done… to a point.
The Eagles bottomed out at 3-6 in Week 9 after a 27-24 loss to the Chargers, and they then rattled off six wins in their final right games to earn themselves a rematch with the champs.
Here’s how Sirianni’s team can create a different result this time around.
Use Jalen Hurts as a feature runner.
(Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
Earlier in the 2021 season, teams were just not running the ball against the Buccaneers. Why? Because especially when nose tackle Vita Vea is healthy and on the field, running the ball against Todd Bowles’ defense is generally the equivalent of banging one’s head against the same wall, over and over. In the first half of the Bucs-Eagles Week 6 game, Philly called passes or quarterback runs on 24 of their first 25 plays — the only exception was a one-yard Miles Sanders run. Head coach Nick Sirianni said after the fact that a lot of those passes were RPOs that quarterback Jalen Hurts read to pass, which made sense.
But as the Eagles started to use Hurts as a runner, throwing off Tampa Bay’s fronts with zone-read concepts, things opened up a bit. In the end, the Eagles managed 100 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns — both by Hurts. This after running the ball just seven times for 21 yards and no touchdowns in the first half.
As a runner, Hurts tested Tampa Bay’s ability to get to the perimeter, and he also faked that outside look away for an inside rushing touchdown. Both times, it was pretty simple — read the opening, and take it.
Philly’s run game has expanded exponentially since Week 6, and the Eagles have become the NFL’s most productive team. In the rematch, Sirianni and his staff should have it all revolve around Hurts again.
Put Darius Slay on Mike Evans, to match him step for step.
(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
The Buccaneers come into the playoffs with a receiver problem. Chris Godwin has been out with a torn ACL since Week 15, and he won’t be back no matter how far Tampa Bay gets in the postseason. Antonio Brown was released by the team in early January for… well, being Antonio Brown. That leaves Tom Brady without his two favorite short and intermediate targets not names Rob Gronkowski, and it leaves Mike Evans as Brady’s primary receiver.
The connection between Brady and Evans has been hit-and-miss through Brady’s time in Bruce Arians’ offense — Evans leads the team with 12 receptions on 26 targets for 338 yards and four touchdowns, but he’s also tied with Godwin for the team lead in dropped passes with five, and there are other times when Brady and Evans just haven’t seemed on the same page.
In Week 6 against the Eagles, Evans found himself covered by Darius Slay, Philly’s best cornerback, pretty frequently. Evans caught just two passes on three targets for 27 yards when Slay was on him, and the only time Slay looked out of place on Evans is when he was asked to do what he doesn’t do at the top of his skill set — play off-coverage against a big, physically gifted, matchup nightmare of a target as Evans can be.
On this 22-yard pass to Evans, Slay was aligned off as opposed to in press, and you could see right away that Slay wasn’t comfortable with it. This was a Quarters look where Slay wasn’t going to get any help from his safety, and Evans put him in the dryer pretty quickly.
In the rematch, the best thing defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon can do is to Velcro Slay to Evans from the receiver’s first step. Slay has the athletic traits to match Evans through his routes; he should be allowed to use them.
Pressure Tom Brady up the middle.
(Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports)
No rocket surgery here, kids. Interior pressure has been Tom Brady’s one consistent Kryptonite throughout his career, and that first really showed up in Super Bowl XLII at the end of the 2007 season, when the undefeated Patriots were shocked by the Giants, and Justin Tuck made Brady’s life completely miserable with pressure right in his face. Brady isn’t going to roll out of the pocket that often, though he is good for a couple of boot-action touchdowns every season (as Rob Gronkowki detailed with me in October), but for the most part, Brady would prefer that you don’t move him off his spot.
This incompletion to tight end Cameron Brate, which was nearly an interception, was caused by defensive tackle Fletcher Cox steamrolling right guard Alex Cappa into the pocket, and Brady didn’t have time to let the crosser develop.
The Eagles are able to get pressure against most offensive lines with a productive, aggressive front, and they’ll need to work it right up the middle once again.
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