I don’t take a whole lot from an early season road loss, as it’s usually an anomaly in a winning season. You can go back and look at tons of championship teams who blew their lunches on the road in the second game of a season.
It happens. What makes the Eagles’ loss to Tampa Bay a little bit frightening is the combination of attrition to injuries (LT Jason Peters [a strained quad], WR Mike Wallace [a fractured fibula] and Jay Ajayi [chronic back spasms], and a generic breakdown in defensive secondary coverages.
Maybe the appropriate answer to the title’s question is “both”… study the tape, THEN burn it!
Tommy Lawlor at Iggles Blitz put a definitive spin on the disappointing loss:
“That game really boils down to two plays, each of them a 75-yard TD pass. On the first, Malcolm Jenkins simply made a dumb decision. He jumped an underneath route and let one of the fastest players in the league [DeSean Jackson] go deep on a CB with mediocre speed. Dumb, dumb and dumb. And Jenkins knows that.”
“On the next TD, O.J. Howard caught a pass about 10 yards up the field. Jordan Hicks had tight coverage and just missed deflecting the pass by three or four inches. Ronald Darby was there to make the tackle and limit the play to less than 15 yards. Inexplicably, he decided to try and strip the ball (or something like that). Howard went right by him and down the sideline for a TD. Darby chased him as hard as he could, but didn’t catch up until Howard was in the end zone.
“If Jenkins stays in the middle and Darby makes his tackle, those plays are solid gains, but nothing noteworthy. Instead, there were two breakdowns and they gave Tampa long TDs.”
When you think about it, Lawlor is correct, those two plays were the difference in the final result.
That’s what the Eagles have seen on tape— not that there weren’t a dozen other missed assignments or stupid penalties to learn from, but essentially two big plays from even bigger mistakes cost the Eagles as a team the chance to overcome the deficit in Tampa.
The challenge now is to tighten up the ship against Indianapolis this coming Sunday. Our mistakes and personnel shortages are definitely being studied by the Colts in their respective film room. So even if we burn the Tampa tape, the Colts are eating up their copy of it.
We’ve got bigger fish to fry, and that means figuring out how to coach up Big V as a replacement for Jason Peters at LT, and getting some improved continuity at the running back position, with Sproles out and Ajayi questionable and Wendell Smallwood virtually struggling for his NFL survival.
That, and we have huge question marks at wide receiver and tight end. No Alshon Jeffery, no Wallace, and apparently no Goedert?
Add to all that the announcement that Carson Wentz is going to start at QB, having been declared medically okay to absorb full contact.
Of course everyone who’s a Philly fan will be rooting for Wentz to magically create the difference in a stalled-out, personnel-depleted offense on Sunday. But is that realistic?
I think not. Wentz is going to have timing and tempo issues. He will be operating behind the same offensive line that nearly got Nick Foles mutilated in Tampa. He will be playing with a knee brace, so don’t expect a lot of escape mobility. Since he thrives off play-action, who the heck is going to emerge as his running back complement? And who are his go-to guys downfield? Kamar Aiken? DeAndre Carter? Shelton Gibson? Nelson Agholor maybe, but he will be doubled and zone-covered just like he was in Tampa. Zach Ertz will be likewise blanketed by Indy’s secondary. They could care less about Perkins or Dallas Goedert, if Goedert even sees the field.
I hate to say it, but the next game vs. Indy is going to twist and turn more on the Eagles’ defensive ability to turn in a solid effort than anything Carson Wentz can manufacture from the pocket.
Eagles’ defense can burn the Tampa tape and be none the worse for it. They know exactly how and where they screwed up. The defense is going to have to carry this group until something special shapes up on the offense….and that could take a while. Oh, and it would be nice if Jake Elliott could hit a “routine” 35-yard FG once in awhile…like ALL the time!
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