Eagles Film Analysis: Offense takeaways from the loss to the Buccaneers

I’ll be frank: I don’t have any major takeaways from the Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It felt like the entire game plan went out the window after the first two drives, and the offense never recovered. It was an odd game plan. (

Offense

It’s time to talk about the offense. I don’t have a great deal to say about this game because I just don’t think this is the Eagles’ offense. This offense did not look the same as it did Week 1. You can absolutely be critical of the Eagles for this, but there is no doubt that this is an offense built around superstars. Without AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith this offense did not look right. Honestly, I am incredibly disappointed in Kellen Moore this week. I’m quite a big fan of his and have watched many of his offenses. This offense did not look like a standard Kellen Moore offense. If you only watched this game, you would not think much of Kellen Moore as an offensive coordinator.

I saw a lot of talk about Jalen Hurts badly missing Saquon Barkley here. I’m not sure. I would love Hurts to be able to make this throw, but I’m not sure he has the arm talent to make it without resetting his feet. Maybe I’m harsh, but this one doesn’t shock me. This play nicely sums up the Eagles’ offensive game plan this week: three short hitches and two flat routes. No motion. No creativity.

I want to go on a little bit of a rant here. I have long thought about this but have never been able to express what I truly mean. I am convinced that Jalen Hurts has a massive trust issue. He will make tight-window throws like this to Dallas Goedert (this is an absolute dime), but there is no chance he will make this throw to anyone else on that field. I saw a few snaps where Jahan Dotson ran an excellent route and Hurts didn’t even look his way. He seems to have ‘his guys,’ and he doesn’t trust the other receivers when ‘his guys’ aren’t on the field. It is a criticism, but I think the Eagles should know this now. Bringing in a receiver just before the start of the season is probably not a good idea, considering this. The funny thing is that it’s not a massive problem unless AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith are injured. So, this might not even be a problem over the second half of the season. I might be completely wrong, but I’ve thought about it for a while.

This is the kind of play that disappointed me. When you don’t have your superstar receivers, you must scheme ways to get receivers open. The Eagles didn’t do this. There was a real lack of motion. They tried one screen pass to Barkley, and that was it. They didn’t rely on the quarterback run game (there was 0 designed runs by Jalen Hurts in this game), which just isn’t good enough. This was so poor.

It is far too simplistic to say that everything good is because of Kellen Moore, and everything bad is Nick Sirianni’s fault. However, there has to be some truth to the idea that Sirianni has some say in the offense. He is the head coach! I highly doubt that he has absolutely no say in the offense at all. In my opinion, the offense drifted too far back to the ideas from last year that relied on individuals winning their matchups and not the scheme to help get them open. We didn’t even see a lot of motion this week.

The Eagles did go back to their classic 3-level stretch concept. No one runs these intermediate out routes better than Dallas Goedert, and Jalen Hurts loves to throw these outside-the-numbers balls, too. This should always be a staple concept in the Eagles’ offense, and it was good to see it a few times. It would have been nice to see Mesh again, wouldn’t it? You know, the play that the Eagles had a ton of success with last week?!

Let’s talk about Jalen Hurts. Some of the comments about Hurts this week have been way over the top. I’ve seen a lot of statements about his complete inability to function as a quarterback, and we all need to take a deep breath. I would say the fault for this week lies at about 50/50 between Jalen Hurts and the rest of the offense. Hurts did not play well and missed some throws. But the offense did not put him in a great position to succeed either. Kellen Moore has to take some blame for not providing easy answers for Hurts in the passing game. This was an excellent play out of structure.

I was pretty furious about Saquon Barkley’s usage in this game. I find it pretty mental how little they ran on 1st and 10 on the first few drives of the game. Todd Bowles runs the kind of defense where you need to get to 3rd and short to have a chance. Everyone talks about the game script, but even when the Eagles were getting hammered 21-0, it was still only the 2nd quarter. The Eagles should have committed more to running the football because Saquon Barkley is an absolute monster. He’s a superstar. This play felt like going back in time with Cam Jurgens playing the role of Jason Kelce. It’s an incredible play. I think the Eagles have the best running back in the league right now.

This is a tricky play to analyze. It’s a bad play by Hurts and he has had a problem with fumbling of late. But in isolation, I don’t think this is a terrible mistake. It’s a mistake, but his pocket movement here is excellent. He avoids the rush and keeps his eyes down the field, and doesn’t bail from the pocket. This is what people have wanted to see from Hurts! The issue is that there’s no short route available to Hurts as the Eagles are running a number of deep routes (we’ve seen this before – haven’t we?), and Hurts thinks that Barkley has blocked the linebacker. It’s a bad play, but it’s a little unfortunate too.

I posted this play purely because I was annoyed by some comments about Jalen Hurts this week. That’s all!

This was Hurts’ worst play of the game. He needs to work on his play out of structure, and it also goes back to my trust point. I am almost certain that if this is AJ Brown running across the field rather than Jahan Dotson, Hurts is looking for him when he leaves the pocket. He has to be better here.

It is also essential to note that the end of this game would always be a disaster for the offense. Todd Bowles is a master at bringing pressure in obvious passing situations. You do not want to be in a situation where you are losing heavily in the 4^th quarter and have to throw the ball. This is music to Todd Bowles’ ears. I think the game state was a big reason the Eagles’ offense struggled, too. It’s hard to play consistent offense and get in a rhythm when you come out for your 3^rd drive 21-0 down. I’ve ended the film review a little early this week because I didn’t learn anything about the Eagles offense in the

I remain very optimistic that the Eagles’ offense will get this together. I expect this offense to be much better after the bye, and I’m not particularly worried about it moving forward. I still believe in Kellen Moore, and I think the offense will return to the style they used at the start of the season. I am far more concerned about the defense.

Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts, so feel free to comment below and ask any questions. If you enjoyed this piece, you can find more of my work and podcast here.