By the time the Philadelphia Eagles earned their first first down of Sunday’s game, Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield had completed 19-of-24 passes for 206 yards with two touchdowns and had run for a touchdown.
When Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts scrambled 7 yards for the Eagles’ initial first down with 6:28 left in the first half, the Bucs had a 24-point lead and Hurts had completed 2-of-8 passes for 11 yards.
Mayfield cooled off and game evened out after that, but Philadelphia needed far more to avoid a 33-16 loss on Sunday at Raymond James Stadium, where Tampa Bay had beaten the Eagles 32-9 in the NFL playoffs on Jan. 15.
“We didn’t coach well enough; we didn’t play well enough,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said. “And that’s always going to start with me. If we go out there and lay an egg and we’re down 24-0, that’s going to be on me. I didn’t have the guys ready to start.”
The Eagles played without wide receivers AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, who were sidelined by a hamstring injury and a concussion, respectively. Right tackle Lane Johnson also missed the game because of a concussion. During the game, the Philadelphia offense lost wide receiver Johnny Wilson and center Cam Jurgens.
RELATED: HIT THAT SIDELINED DEVONTA SMITH DRAWS NFL’S SMALLEST FINE FOR WEEK 3
“I don’t look at it as a difficulty,” Hurts said of the injuries. “It’s something that’s different and that you adjust to. I had a ton of confidence in the guys we had going out there today. I don’t think I did enough. I clearly didn’t do enough. You can point fingers wherever, but I own all of that. I touch the ball on every play, and I take pride in that.”
Hurts threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Parris Campbell on fourth-and-goal with 1:54 left in the first half to cap a 14-play, 70-yard drive. Campbell had been elevated from Philadelphia’s practice squad to play on Sunday.
Hurts also scored on a 1-yard quarterback sneak with 12:28 left in the third quarter as Philadelphia trimmed the Bucs’ lead to 24-14.
For the game, the former Alabama quarterback completed 18-of-30 passes for 158 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions and ran eight times for 20 yards. He lost a fumble at the Tampa Bay 24-yard line on a strip sack with 2:36 left in the third quarter and the Eagles trailing 30-16. The turnover was Hurts’ seventh of the season as Philadelphia dropped to 2-2 for the 2024 season.
“Just keep pushing,” Hurts said about his message for the team. “We’ve experienced different adversities. Just have to continue to learn from these moments. That’s been the takeaway from every game we’ve played. We got high aspirations as a football team. We’ve grown together, and we’ll have different adversities that’ll challenge us. Just got to continue to learn and grow from everything we’ve experienced.”
The Eagles don’t play again until Oct. 13, when they face the Cleveland Browns at noon CDT at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The Eagles have an open date for Week 5.
“The bye week’s coming at a good time,” Sirianni said. “We got to get our bodies right, and we got to make some changes as far as what’s going on fundamentally.”
FOR MORE OF AL.COM’S COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
Source link
[redirect url=’https://fastpowers.com/’ sec=’3′]