New Year, Same Story For Eagles In Embarrasing Loss To Bucs
The Eagles were as bad as it gets at the end of the last season. Their defense couldn’t buy a stop, and the offense was turnover-prone and anemic. People hoped that a new year, with new weapons, and 2 new proven coordinators, would change the narrative. But now 4 games in, we are seeing the same story unfold. It came to a head in week 4 with an embarrassing loss to the Bucs.
The offense was stonewalled. When it looked like they may have a chance to turn the game around, Hurts had his 7th turnover of the season. Yes, they were without AJ Brown, Devonta Smith, and Lane Johnson. So there should be some rope given to them. But the absence of those 3 does not excuse how poorly the offense played, with it taking until the middle of the 2nd quarter for them to get into positive yardage.
The defense was just as bad. Early on, Baker Mayfield and the Bucs had their way with them. Dinking and dunking into the soft spots of the Eagles zone defense. Picking on Avonte Maddox, and matriculating their way down the field for 3 straight TDs to open the game. They allowed nearly 450 total yards and 4 TDs.
Believing that the problem was the two young coordinators looks silly now. The issues for the Eagles go deeper than that. They have a head coach in over his head and a QB who keeps coughing up the ball.
Is Howie Roseman The Problem For The Eagles?
But the problem may go deeper than those two. Who put together this defense that still lacks top-end talent outside of a couple of players? Who hired the the head coach, and retained him after last year’s collapse. Who hired those coordinators last year, and replaced them with Moore and Fangio this year?
At some point, the target has to be put on the back of Howie Roseman. He is the common denominator with all of the Eagles’ problems. He added the players on defense like Bryce Huff and Nolan Smith who have contributed nothing. He picked this head coach who is way over his head. He picked this QB and paid him. Any problem you could possibly have with this team can be traced back to Howie.
Hard To See It Getting Better
These aren’t problems that are just going to go away. We now have 21 games of Hurts turning it over too much. No light bulb is going to go off in the head of Nick Sirianni that fixes his issues as the coach. And 4 games in, it is hard to see Nolan Smith and Bryce Huff suddenly turning into good players.
Could they still win games and make the playoffs? Sure. The rest of the NFC East looks no better than the Eagles. Most of the NFC looks suspect. But is this team good enough to beat one of the real contenders in the NFL? After watching the last 4 games, it is very hard to argue they can.
It might be a new team, with a few new faces. But we are seeing the same team and the same problems we saw from this team last season. That is on Sirianni, it is on Hurts, it is on the rest of the roster. But more than anything, it is on the man in charge of it all, Howie Roseman.
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