PR Roundtable: 1 Thing Bucs Must Do To Beat Eagles

A new Pewter Report Roundtable debuts every Tuesday during the Bucs’ regular season. Each week, the Pewter Reporters tackle another tough question. This week’s prompt: Aside from scoring one more point than Philadelphia, what’s the one thing the Bucs must do to beat the Eagles in a Monday Night Football upset and improve to 3-0?

Scott Reynolds: Bucs Must Protect Baker Mayfield At All Costs

Remember how the Bucs defense made Justin Fields’ life miserable on Sunday in a 27-17 win over the Bears? The Bucs can’t let what happened to Fields happen to quarterback Baker Mayfield. Tampa Bay tormented Fields with six sacks, shutting down his possible escape routes with great lane integrity, and picking him off twice.

That was a heck of a defensive performance by Todd Bowles’ unit, overwhelming the Bears offensive line with a powerful four-man rush at times and bringing pressure via blitzes on occasion. Nothing derails quarterbacks and offenses in general like pressure, and last year, nobody pressured QBs like the Eagles did with a league-high 70 sacks.

With eight sacks through two games, Tampa Bay actually has twice as many sacks as Philadelphia (four) does on the year thus far. But that doesn’t mean that the Eagles can’t erupt with a big night against Mayfield and a Bucs offensive line that has given up just one sack in 2023.

Philadelphia had four players – Haasan Reddick, Brandon Graham, Josh Sweat and Javon Hargrave – with double-digit sacks last year. Old man Fletcher Cox was no slouch with seven sacks, either. The escapability Mayfield has shown in the first two weeks of the season will really be tested on Monday night.

I suspect the Bucs will struggle to run the ball against the league’s top-ranked rushing defense as it is. The trio of Cox, Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter just clog the middle and shut down the run, and could make life miserable for center Robert Hainsey. Taking negative plays from sacks will only make things more difficult for Tampa Bay’s fledgling ground game. Offensive coordinator Dave Canales must do whatever he can to protect Mayfield, and the Bucs will need a better effort in pass protection from the tight ends and the backs, too.

That may limit even rookie Sean Tucker’s usage, as he might have to be counted on to pick up a blitz if Mayfield has to check to a pass play. Mayfield’s pocket doesn’t have to be clean. We’ve seen him dodge and duck some would-be sacks through two weeks. Mayfield might need more max protect situations than usual, and he might have to put on his Houdini cape for another week when protection breaks down if the Bucs are going to have a chance to beat the Eagles. Tampa Bay has enough on defense to get the job done, but a Mayfield-lead

Bailey Adams: Continue Winning The Turnover Battle

Following the Bucs’ 27-17 win over the Bears on Sunday, I wrote about how winning the turnover battle has been the biggest reason for the team’s 2-0 start. In Week 1, Tampa Bay won by three points in Minnesota, and in a game that close, the Vikings’ three turnovers loomed large. On Sunday against Chicago, Tampa Bay once again remained turnover-free on offense while the defense came through late with two turnovers to ice the victory.

The Bucs are plus-five in the turnover margin category right now. That’s the recipe for winning football. Just ask Todd Bowles, Dave Canales, Baker Mayfield or anyone in that locker room and they’ll agree. If this team can continue to protect the ball on offense and take it away on defense, it’ll have a chance to do some big things. And those big things could include an upset win over the Eagles in Week 3.

Of course, winning the turnover battle against Philadelphia won’t be easy. Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts only threw six interceptions a year ago and lost zero fumbles. This year, Hurts has thrown one interception and lost one fumble. That’s an uncharacteristic turnover pace for him, but he’s been helped by an Eagles defense that can create turnovers at a high clip. Despite those two turnovers, Philadelphia is plus-four in turnover margin through two weeks.

The Eagles can rush the passer, and the Bucs will have to protect Baker Mayfield so that he isn’t A) repeatedly sacked and/or running for his life and B) forced into making poor decisions and turnover-worthy throws. And on the flip side, the Tampa Bay defense will need to continue to generate takeaways.

The Bucs had nine takeaways through four games last year and finished with just 20 on the season. They need to make sure a similarly hot start this year doesn’t end up fizzling the way it did in 2022. And the defense doing its part to help win the turnover battle against the Eagles could go a long way in putting Tampa Bay in position to win on Monday night.

Matt Matera: Successfully Run The Football

The Bucs have already established that a commitment to running the football is vastly important to the offense. It doesn’t always need to be the extensive 10-20-yard run, but the Bucs need to be able to find a semblance of a run game against the Eagles to at least open everything else up that they want to do.

We get a very fun matchup of the two best run-stopping defenses in the league with the Eagles allowing 52 yards per game and the Bucs surrendering an average of just 54 yards. Tampa Bay has been up and down with its running game to start the season. The team ran for just 73 yards in Week 1, but were much better in Week 2 with 120 yards. Rachaad White improved while rookie Sean Tucker struggled.

They didn’t put themselves in this situation constantly, but there were times last week where the Bucs were able to convert on third-and-long situations. That was highlighted by a touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans on third-and-14. Against the Bears, the Bucs could get away with it, but that will prove to be more difficult against the Eagles.

If the Bucs want to win they’ll have to control the time of possession, which they’ve shown they’re able to do. They also can’t end up in too many “must pass it” situations because this offensive line is not ready just yet to hold up consistently against a dangerous Eagles front seven. Can the Bucs run it well enough? Yes, although they’ll need a better effort because it will be tougher sledding against Philadelphia

Josh Queipo: Finish In The Red Zone

Through two games in the 2023 NFL season the Bucs have scored just two touchdowns in six red zone opportunities. That 33% conversion rate is 30th of 32 teams. They have a combined 23 points to show for those six trips to the red zone, good for a 3.8 points average when they get inside the 20-yard line.

Against a considerably greater foe in 2-0 Philadelphia, the defending NFC champion, the Bucs can ill-afford to leave points on the table like they did against Chicago and Minnesota. Tampa Bay will need to be damn-near perfect in the red zone to have a hope of keeping up with the high-flying Eagles.

Offensive coordinator Dave Canales will need to be deep in his bag with his play-sequencing while dialing up calls that his offense executes at a high level. If the Bucs can pull this important phase of the game off they will have a puncher’s chance.

Adam Slivon: Win In The Trenches

For the Bucs to continue their hot start and march off the field at Raymond James Stadium Monday night undefeated, they will need to win their matchups in the trenches – on both sides of the football.

Starting on offense, Tampa Bay’s offensive line will have its hands full containing a Philadelphia defensive front led by Haason Reddick, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham, and Fletcher Cox.

Yikes.

It says a lot when Cox, who is a six-time Pro Bowler, is the third-highest graded Eagles defensive tackle by Pro Football Focus behind both Carter (90.2) and Davis (89.8).

This will be, on paper, the toughest defensive front the Tampa Bay offense will face all season. For an offensive line that has done well containing both the Vikings and Bears, it will need to bring its ‘A’ game for Baker Mayfield to avoid facing even more pressure than last week and for Rachaad White to have any holes to run through.

Not only does the offensive line need to win their battles up front, but so does the defensive line. The defense was able to get home on Bears quarterback Justin Fields on Sunday with six sacks, but that was against a questionable Bears offensive line. There is no questioning the big guys up front for the Eagles. 

Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson have reputations for being two of the best offensive tackles in the business, while Jason Kelce is as close as you’ll get to finding a Hall of Fame-caliber center. Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens are not quite at that level at guard, but they do their job enough to make the Eagles’ offensive line one of the NFL’s best. That is the level the Bucs need their big guys to play at for all four quarters to have any chance of beating the Eagles and heading off to New Orleans 3-0.

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