Eagles And Tampa Bay

by Marc Narducci | Sep 26, 2025

The Eagles have shown warts in all three games this season; and one could say that a play here and there, and they could be 0-3 instead of 3-0.

Yet the only thing that matters in the NFL is winning.

For the Eagles to be 3-0 and have made some key mistakes is a positive.

No win can be taken for granted.

Remember, after two weeks, everybody had the Green Bay Packers penciled as this season’s Super Bowl champs.

Then the Packers went into winless Cleveland and lost to Audubon’s Joe Flacco and the Browns, 13-10. That’s not to suggest that the Packers aren’t Super Bowl contenders, but it’s also a good time to remind people to pump the breaks this early into the season.

What the Eagles could learn from their 33-26 win over the Los Angeles Rams is that they can truly be a dominant passing team.

That doesn’t mean the Eagles have to throw the ball 50 times a game, but they had gone too far in the other direction through the first 2.5 games. Trailing by 19 points forced the Eagles to open it up and they showed that they are more than capable.

The Rams have one of the top defenses in the NFC, if not the entire NFL, and the Eagles were lighting them up in the passing game. There aren’t many teams that can stop receivers A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith and tight end Dallas Goedert.

Let’s examine the win over the Rams.

Brown had six receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown. Smith had eight receptions for 60 yards and a score. Goedert only had one catch, but he was wide open for a 33-yard touchdown.

The Eagles running game hasn’t come close to being as dominant as last year, but the passing game could actually set up the run, contrary to conventional wisdom which suggests the opposite.

And now the Eagles face another major obstacle when they visit the Tampa Bay

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Buccaneers on Sunday at 1. (Love those 1 p.m. games).

The Bucs, like the Eagles are 3-0, but this is far from a juggernaut. Tampa Bay has beaten Atlanta, Houston and the New York Jets by a combined five points.

Again, winning is what matters, but those three wins have come over teams with a
combined 1-8 record.

Tampa Bay has been living dangerously, but quarterback Baker Mayfield has become arguably one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the NFL.

Mayfield has guided the Bucs to the playoffs in each of the last two years.

Heck, he even made the playoffs in 2020 with the Cleveland Browns.

He struggled earlier in his career, but has found a home in Tampa Bay.

This year he has completed 61.6% of his passes for 615 yards, six touchdowns and no interceptions. Mayfield is a lot like the Eagles’ Jalen Hurts, who is also a Top 10 NFL quarterback.

Both are good scramblers, but Hurt is the better runner, among the best running quarterbacks in the NFL. Mayfield is an effective scrambler, but the Bucs don’t have many designed runs for him. He has 12 carries for 116 yards (9.7 avg.) and no touchdowns.

Hurts has completed 71.4% of his passes for 479 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He has rushed 37 times for 117 yards (3.7 avg.) and four touchdowns. Stopping him on the Tush Push continues to be among the toughest tasks in the NFL. Tampa Bay edge Haason Reddick will be looking for revenge against his former Eagles team. The Haddon Heights graduate has eight tackles and one sack for his new team.

This is a game that looks like it will be one by the team that gets better quarterback play. Neither can allow the opposing quarterbacks to scramble, because both can make big-time plays.

It should be a close game.

There have been suggestions that both the Eagles and Tampa Bay have been lucky this year. There might be something to that, but the thing that is most important is that both are 3-0, warts and all.

Photo: A.J. Brown / Courtesy of Philadelphia Eagles X/Twitter

Author: Marc Narducci

Eagles And Tampa Bay

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