Rube's observations: Eagles embarrass themselves in Tampa vs. Bucs

I looked at my laptop midway through the second quarter and the Bucs had 255 yards and the Eagles had 0 yards.

You don't really have to be a football expert to understand that this is not good.

In fact, it's impossibly, incredibly, amazingly bad.

The Eagles didn't lose a football game Sunday in Tampa, 33-16, they embarrassed themselves. They were so thoroughly outplayed on both sides of the football that it looked like they hadn't practiced or prepared all week.

And if that score looked remotely competitive, it was 21-0 in the second quarter and it was already over.

Yes, the Eagles were missing a bunch of really good players, but that's no excuse for the slop we saw there Sunday, especially in the first half.

They just seem to figure it out. Yes, it was hot. Yes, it was their third road trip in four weeks, including the trip to Brazil and Monday night.

But no excuses.

This was horrible.

Let's come to 10 observations.

1. Just when you were starting to feel good about the Eagles' defense … this happens. Just a complete breakdown of each phase of the game. What the Eagles did a week ago in New Orleans, they did wrong Sunday in Tampa. They were terrible to deal with. Just incredibly bad. Missed tackles everywhere. Maybe 20 of them? Is there a record for that? The boys were out of position all over the field. Again they got no takeaway. They allowed big play after big play. They finally got a sack from an edge for the first time in eight games, then promptly gave the ball back to Bucks on a special teams turnover. They were down 24-0 in the first half and that was the ballgame. All that was left was to determine the final score. The Bucs had 219 yards in the second quarter in 3 ½ minutes. The Saints had 219 total yards last week. It was like something out of the Matt Patricia playbook. They looked unprepared, unmotivated and incompetent. You never want to question effort, but for most of that first half it was like the Bucs were playing against the wind. Nine of their first 28 plays went for 13 yards or more. It got a little better. But not much. I don't care who you're playing, if you're not mentally and physically prepared, that's what happens.

2. And then there's the offense, and as bad as the defense was in the first half, the offense might actually be worse. Netted negative-5 scrimmage yards on their first three drives—or negative-10 if you include penalty yards. I believe Kellen Moore did a nice job as the play caller the first few weeks, but it was an offensive disaster. And missing a bunch of starters – including perhaps their three-best offensive players – is any excuse for this level of, I don't know, lethargy? There is no excuse for having a negative yardage total when the other team has already scored four times. The offense has done some really good things in the first few weeks, and when they're at full strength they should be borderline unstoppable. But without AJ Brown and Devonta Smith and Lane Johnson, they should be better than that. Way better. They managed 226 yards, 16 first downs and 113 net passing yards and allowed six sacks against the NFL's 28th-ranked defense. Unacceptable.

3. What does it mean when a team scores 24-0 in the first 23 minutes and is outscored 255-0? That means it wasn't exactly ready for the football game in Tampa, Fla. at 1 pm EST. And that's entirely on Nick Siriani. When you're a CEO coach and you're not calling plays, a big part of your job is preparing the team mentally and physically for the game, and that includes the way you practice, the way you run walkthroughs, the way you watch film, the way you warm up before a game. up, and the reality is that this football team was not ready to start the game. And it wasn't just this game. The Eagles trailed the Packers 6-0 after the first quarter, didn't score a point in the first quarter against the Falcons and were held scoreless in the fourth quarter last week in New Orleans. They've gone six straight games without scoring a 1st-quarter point, and their last 1st-quarter touchdown was scored by Julio Jones for screaming loud. But this was the worst of them all.

4. You really want to cut Jalen Harts some slack in there without DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown and Britain Covey, not to mention Lane Johnson. But he looked out of it for most of this game, and I don't care who your receivers are, you go out there and run the offense with grit and clarity and energy. But the Eagles didn't even record a first down until trailing 24-0 with 6 ½ minutes left in the second quarter, and I'm not sure Jalen was the offense's worst problem during that stretch when they went 24-scoring. 0 But if you're an MVP candidate kind of guy, you have to help your team out of this kind of morass, but all we saw was a ball that flew 10 feet over Jahan Dotson's head or five yards out of bounds. Harts was 1-for-7 for seven yards on those first three drives. Just looking out of sync, off kilter, whatever you want to call it. He briefly calmed down, threw a touchdown to Parris Campbell and then drove the Eagles inside the Tampa 20. But then another turnover. He fumbled on a strip sack by Lavonte David with the Eagles inside the Bucs' 20-yard line. Seven turnovers this year for Hearts. He finished with just 158 ​​passing yards, had six sacks and looked awful. I keep waiting for 2022 Jalen Hurts to show up. He will eventually. right? right?

5. One thing to keep in mind is that scheduling becomes much easier after farewell. Their first four opponents are currently a combined 9-6, and have three winning records between them. Their first nine opponents after the bye are 10-23 and only the Commanders have a 2-1 record with a game later in Arizona on Sunday. A team that won the first nine matches. Specifically, their next four opponents – the Browns, Giants, Bengals and Jaguars – are a combined 3-12. So as ugly as this loss was, 2-2 isn't the worst place to be in with four games coming up that look pretty winnable. Of course, if they play like Sunday in Tampa, it doesn't matter who they play.

6. The Eagles' turnover problems are a flat-out epidemic at this point. They were minus-two Sunday – no interceptions but two fumbles, one by Hurts and one by Cooper Dezin on a punt return that wasn't really his fault – and they've now gone an astounding 12 straight games without finishing in positive give-to-take ratio territory. It's impossible. It is the 2nd-longest streak in franchise history, trailing the 15-game streaks in the 1967 and 1968 seasons. And they are minus-15 in those 12 games. They have two takeaways all year – both Reid Blankenship interceptions – and are their fewest since two games since they had a four game streak in the 1998 season. And get this: It's the first time the Eagles have been minus-1 or worse in turnover margin in each of their first four games. What does this all mean? Pretty simple. The defense doesn't have enough playmakers and Jalen has to stop giving the ball away, especially in the red zone. The Eagles are 22-1 under Sirianni — with 22 straight wins — when they win the turnover battle. It has been 22-1 for a long, long time.

7. I don't know what options the Eagles have to fix their tackling issues because you can't practice live tackling in practice these days, but Vic Fangio and Co. have to do something because this was a tackling disaster. How many tackles did they miss on Sunday? Must be 20? You're not going to win a football game by missing 20 tackles. Sometimes two or three missed tackles in the same game. It seemed like every big third down, someone missed a tackle. I thought it was the right move to start Nakobe Dean, but he was the biggest offender on Sunday and he's dealt with issues all year. What options are there? You have Devin White on your roster, but he didn't even make the trip to Tampa due to some personal issues, and you don't want to guess about it, but here's a former first-round pick who's been inactive all year, and we know he's not too happy to imagine that he is. will magically begin to play and have an effect. The Eagles dealt well in New Orleans on Sunday, so it's possible. But I just know they're going nowhere this year if they don't fix what they did on Sunday.

8. Saquon Barkley and Dallas Goedert had 178 yards — 116 for Barkley, 62 for Goedert — and 93 yards for the rest of the backs, receivers and tight ends. And I get that the Eagles lost their starting WRs, but I expect more from the other guys, especially Jahan Dotson, who cost the Eagles a 3rd round pick. Dotson caught two passes for 11 yards and now has five catches for 25 yards and a long gainer of seven yards in four games. He's been here long enough to be more integrated into the offense than he should be. This is a guy who was the 16th pick in the draft just two years ago and has 84 catches, 1,055 yards and 15 touchdowns over the past two years. And it was with Carson Wentz, Sam Howell and Jacoby Brissett. Disappointing for the 16th overall pick, but should be more of a factor than that. I thought it was a great opportunity to take him. He has been here for five weeks now and he will be able to contribute much more than that.

9. The Bucs come into this game with a smart gameplan and if the Eagles aren't careful, this could be a template for attacking this team. Rely on a quick release to neutralize the pass rush, short high-percentage passes to get the ball in the receiver's hands, then missed tackles to pick up big yards. And why not? If you have a quarterback as accurate as Baker Mayfield — he's at 71 percent this year — you can put up points without risking down the field. The only way the Eagles can stop teams from doing that is at tackle. Because when that four-yard play turns into a 13-yard play, teams are swinging the stick instead of being vertical. And if you don't get third down, they're going to be very makeable 3rd and shorts. The Bucs perfected this type of dink-and-dunk attack on Sunday, and it worked perfectly. The Eagles have to find an answer or teams are going to. And continue to succeed in doing so.

10A. Can we talk about Saquon Barkley for a minute? He was pretty bottled up in the first half – 8-for-22 rushing with a seven-yard gainer. He went 59 yards on the first carry of the second half, a week after his 61-yard touchdown, and he finished. Barkley now has 435 rushing yards, 520 scrimmage yards and a 6.0 rushing average per month on the season. The 435 yards are the second-most in Eagles history after four games (LeSean McCoy had 468 in 2013) and the 6.0 average is the highest in Eagles history after four games. Barkley should have had more carries on Sunday but it's hard to top a 30 carry game running back when you keep going 3-and-out and you keep finding yourself 3-and-10. I wasn't sure about Berkeley. Here's a guy who averaged 3.9 yards per carry over the last four years, and I wasn't sure if he was a fading veteran or if he didn't have a chance to succeed because he was on a crappy team with other weapons. It's clear now that Barkley still has a ton left in the tank.

10B. Another positive thought: It was pretty cool that Kelly Ringo and Isaiah Rogers, who have battled all summer for corner play, combined to get the Eagles two improbable points in the third quarter. Ringo and Rodgers competed throughout camp for the starting corner job that eventually went to Quinion Mitchell. But through it all they stayed close and kept the team scoring ahead. On Sunday, Rodgers blocked a two-point conversion and Ringo scooped up the loose ball and returned it 60 yards for two Eagles points, the first time the Eagles scored on an opponent's extra-point attempt. Three-step change. It was not enough. Didn't really matter in the big picture, but it was a great play.

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