Eagles stats: Missed tackles on defense and pressure on Jalen Hurts were too great to overcome vs. Bucs

Any progress that the Eagles seemingly made last week in their victory against the New Orleans Saints, particularly on defense, evaporated in the Tampa Bay heat on Sunday.

The Eagles collapsed to new lows in their dismal performance against the Buccaneers, dropping to a minus-6 in turnover differential on the season (second-worst in the league) and conceding a season-high 445 net yards of offense. The banged-up team, which lacked three of its top offensive players in A.J. Brown (hamstring), DeVonta Smith (concussion), and Lane Johnson (concussion) against the Bucs, limps into the bye week with a 2-2 record.

Here are four stats that paint the picture of the Eagles’ excruciating 33-16 loss to the Buccaneers:

Baker Mayfield played hot potato with the football all day long in the passing game. The quarterback averaged the second-quickest time to throw of his seven-year career at 2.22 seconds, according to NFL Next Gen Stats. On those quick-game passes, Mayfield went 22 of 32 for 219 yards and a touchdown, dinking-and-dunking down the field to a victory.

Nick Sirianni acknowledged on Monday that the blame could be distributed between the scheme and the players’ execution for the soft coverage on the back end.

“There’s times where we were tight,” Sirianni said. “Baker got the ball out, and we missed the tackle. There’s times we didn’t cover down fast enough in our disguise. So that’s both/and. We want to hold the shell and disguise, but then it sacrifices you coming down late and they can get the ball out. So that’s on both sides of coaching and playing.”

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni says the Eagles have some studying to do during the bye. There’s a lot to evaluate.

By leaning on the quick passing game, the Buccaneers offense often took the Eagles’ pass rush out of the equation. Mayfield was pressured on just 22% of his dropbacks (11 pressures total; down from his season average of 31.6%), which ranks No. 22 among starting quarterbacks in Week 4 so far. Of those 11 pressures, six resulted in incomplete passes or a loss of yards, including two sacks. However, aside from the sacks, the Bucs’ inefficiency on those plays was more the fault of their receivers (mostly dropped passes) than the pass rush. Mayfield still managed to throw in rhythm in the face of the scant pressure that the Eagles mustered.

For those keeping track: Bryce Huff played 33 snaps (43%), mostly in pass-rush scenarios. He registered one hurry and a tackle. Huff now has three pressures and three tackles on 113 defensive snaps through four games, according to Pro Football Focus.

Last week against the New Orleans Saints, the Eagles only missed three tackles. The defense reverted back to square one against the Bucs. The group whiffed on 16 tackles, allowing 105 yards after those blunders, according to Next Gen Stats. That total is the second-most yards lost by a defense in a contest this season. The team responsible for the third-most yards lost by a defense this year? Also the Eagles, in Week 1 against the Green Bay Packers (92 yards).

Nakobe Dean, the third-year inside linebacker who is in his first season as a full-time starter, led the team with five missed tackles against the Bucs. Reed Blankenship, who exited late in the second quarter due to an illness, accounted for three. In total, whether it boiled down to busted coverages or missed tackles, the Eagles allowed 204 yards after the catch (most in Week 4 as of Sunday) and 3.92 yards after contact per carry (fourth-highest in Week 4).

» READ MORE: Eagles’ defensive players are honest after collapse: ‘We let ourselves down’

“We’ve got to be better,” Dean said. “That’s it. And I put that on the leaders of the defense, the guys, the middle, the back end, the front, everybody on defense, just to get better at little techniques. Tackling. Tackling was just a bad thing today.”

The odds were stacked against the Eagles as soon as Johnson was ruled out for not clearing concussion protocol before the game. Going into Sunday, the offense had struggled with allowing pressure in Johnson’s absence since Jalen Hurts became the starter in 2021 (33.5% pressure rate allowed with Johnson, 13th lowest in the league in that span; 42.3% without Johnson, highest in the league, according to Next Gen Stats).

» READ MORE: Eagles-Bucs takeaways: Saquon Barkley and the identity search beckon the question: What’s the offense’s ceiling?

Fred Johnson was tasked with making his first start since 2021 in Johnson’s place, and it didn’t go well. Johnson allowed a team-high 11 pressures, including two sacks, per Pro Football Focus. Next Gen Stats attributed three of those pressures and a sack to Bucs outside linebacker Yaya Diaby, one of seven players who registered at least one pressure against Fred Johnson. This season when Lane isn’t on the field on 69 dropbacks, the Eagles have permitted a 43.5% pressure rate and 11.6% sack rate. With Lane, the Eagles allowed a 26.7% pressure rate and a 5.6% sack rate.

Just like he did in the wild-card game last season, Todd Bowles dialed up the pressure against the Eagles offense. The Bucs defense blitzed the Eagles on 70.3% of Hurts’ dropbacks, according to PFF, and rattled the offense in the process. When the Bucs sent extra rushers, Hurts completed just 60% of his passes and made three plays that PFF deemed turnover-worthy (11.1% of his attempts).

Hurts’ two fumbles in the pocket, one of which the Eagles lost, came on exotic pressure looks. On the fumble that the Eagles conceded in the third quarter, the Bucs blitzed inside linebacker Lavonte David from the second level, bringing four rushers in total on a sim pressure as outside linebacker Joe Tryon-Shoyinka dropped into coverage. David obliterated Saquon Barkley in pass protection. While Hurts initially dodged the linebacker, David pivoted and took a second run at the quarterback, swatting at his arm and forcing a fumble while Hurts had his arm cocked for a throw.

On the second fumble in the fourth quarter on third-and-29, the Bucs showed six rushers before the snap, but only sent five. Kenneth Gainwell fared better in protection against inside linebacker K.J. Britt, who blitzed the A gap. But Hurts stood in the pocket as Johnson struggled to hold off Diaby, who eventually strip-sacked the quarterback. Johnson recovered the loose ball, but the Eagles were forced to punt.