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GROUND and pound! We rushed for 259 yards in a game that we never trailed in. In fact the Eagles have yet to trail in a game this season. Our opponent this week, has been down to both the Vikings (whom we just defeated) and the Bears. The Bears! A team on a 12 game skid (going back to last season). Using Minnesota as point of common comparison, it doesn’t look good for the Bucs this week.

A win here puts us at 3 – 0, and gives us our first win over a winning team this season. (Both Minny and New England are 0 – 2.) The early look NFC East, seems like another dogfight. Just like last year was. So we can hardly afford an early stumble.

Who’s Out As of 9/23/22:

Tampa: OUT: NA/ DNP: DL-Calijah Kancey (Calf)/ Limited: CB-Carlton Davis (Toe), G-Cody Mauch (Back), NT-Vita Vea (Pectoral), LB-Devin White (Groin)

Philadelphia: OUT: NA/ DNP: WR-Quez Watkins (Hamstring), SS-Terrell Edmunds (Illness)/ Limited: LB-Zach Cunningham (Ribs), DT-Jordan Davis (Ankle), RB-Boston Scott (Concussion), TE-Jack Stoll (Ankle), DE-Josh Sweat (Toe)

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The point of Four Things isn’t to predict a winner, it’s to discuss which tactics would give our Eagles the best chance to win this game. So here are the Four Things that we need to focus on this week versus: the Buccaneers.

1) Run to Set-up the Pass: Going pass-happy early in the game, creates no mismatches for us later. Everyone knows that we’re a running team. Let’s not get cute or over-think it. Come out doing what we’re great at.

When the Buccaneers make the adjustment to stop our run game, we can look at who they pulled from what area. Then we can exploit the weakness that they just handed us. Usually by going deep to WR A.J. Brown. Or WR Devonta Smith. Although I have a feeling that the Slot may be huge for us this week.

2) Rush Five: We are starting four defensive linemen and OLB Haason Reddick. So why, in two games do we have just 4 sacks? It’s because we are going with a primarily four man rush. It’s giving teams time to get the ball out, is stranding our Secondary, and has us giving up 326 passing yards per game. That’s 31^st in the NFL. We are the second worst passing defense in the league. This has to stop.

If we have five rushers out, we need to bring five rushers. Period. The squandering of talent that produced 70 sacks last year, is an indictment of Defensive Coordinator Sean Desai. If we don’t get 4 sacks in this game, we fans need to batter the airwaves about his removal. Because we’ll never see the Super Bowl bleeding yardage like this.

3) More Man Coverage: QB’s see zone coverage before the snap. They identify the quick gimme, then after the snap, they check to see if the route is indeed clear. Once they see the way is clear, they let it rip. Zone coverage has it’s place, but it has no place on third and more than five. It has no place on second and more than ten.

Man coverage forces the QB to read where the defenders are, in relation to his receivers. When the QB has to do that for each receiver, it takes time. That time allows the pass rush to get home. That’s why CB’s who can play man-to-man, are so highly prized and paid.

The Eagles are paying 80 million dollars (over three years) for CB Darius Slay and CB James Bradberry. Routinely playing them in zones, like practice squad fill-ins, should be enough to cost someone their job. It’s waste of resources. Worse than that, it’s over cautious and can rob a defense of it’s aggression. We need to play more man coverage.

4) Unleash the Pass: Over the last couple weeks we’ve shown that we can get deep down the sidelines, but we haven’t established the deep middle. The attention that the run and the outsides command should create openings for TE Dallas Goedert and WR Olamide Zaccheaus in the Slot.

We need a couple of attempts (but completions would be better), with the ball in the air for 20 yards or more. The threat of us exploiting that area of the field, doesn’t allow the opposing defense to get comfortable with whatever they do to take away our run game.

If we can keep them uncomfortable, we can force them into mistakes.

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If the Eagles do these Four Things, then we’ll be virtually impossible to beat. That being said…

This games features two 2 – 0 teams that haven’t beaten anybody good yet. This week C Jason Kelce described the Eagles as a team on edge, “…we’re 2-0 and we know we could very easily be 1-1 and we have not played football the way we wanted to play football yet. So the temperature of the team is a little bit on edge. And I think everybody feels that we need to play better and if we want to live up to the expectations that we think that we are capable of playing like, we need to make improvements and we need to perform better. I think that’s the temperature that I feel and, honestly, I think that’s a good temperature. That’s where you want to be in this league. 

So the team is worrying about expectations, to the point where they are looking past their accomplishment, to the disaster that might have been, but isn’t. That honestly has me a little worried for my guys.

Stated plainly, the Eagles are a desperate 2 – 0 team. Most football teams are at their best, when the players enjoy the ride, but Eagles don’t seem to be doing that. They may frankly, be asking too much of themselves. That pressure is either going to crack us in this game, or it’s going to hit the Buccaneers like an avalanche.

In any case, someone on this team has to find a way to hit the pressure release valve. And soon. It shouldn’t be this intense going into Week Three. (I type that while listening to a Morrissey song, followed by a Radiohead song. Talk about irony!)

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WARNING: I don’t have the faintest clue as to what a point spread is, and I know even less about how it works. I know FOOTBALL and that’s it. If you use Four Things as a gambling tool, then you are a fool trying to lose your money, and will deserve it when you do.

Check back in a couple of days for Four Things Reviewed, and we’ll discuss how this game went.