Grayson's Grades: Eagles at Bucs

The Philadelphia Eagles were unable to overcome another slow start and got beat handily 33-16 by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Eagles dug themselves a 24-0 hole just 22 minutes into the game and never got the deficit under double digits the rest of the way.

There were big issues on every side of the ball. The offense failed to get a first down until late in the first half. They are the only team in the NFL that has yet to score a point in the first quarter. The Eagles also lost the turnover battle for the fourth time this season and twelfth time in a row dating back to last season. The defense racked up at least 13 missed tackles. Even special teams had trouble with a muffed punt resulting in a recovery by the Bucs.

The Eagles are getting the bye at the perfect time. They need to get healthy after playing this game shorthanded and without their best offensive lineman Lane Johnson and their top two receivers AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith.

The Eagles fall to 2-2 and need to come out of the bye correcting a lot of mistakes. The red pen nearly ran out of ink grading this performance. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

Saquan Barkley - Barkley once again proved to be the catalyst on offense. He racked up more than 100 total yards and had a huge play early in the second half when he broke a 59 yard run down to the Bucs' ten yard line. Barkley carried the ball ten times for 84 yards. He also caught two passes for 32 yards.

Dallas Goedert - Goedert had to be the focus in the passing game without AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith. He drew a lot of attention and caught his share of passes once again. Goedert hauled in seven receptions for 62 yards. There was a big drop on his part early in the game when the Eagles really needed to get something going. A Hurts pass went off his fingertips in the first quarter to start a drive that would have gone for about 15 yards.

None

Special Teams - This would have been a 'F' without the great Extra Point block by Isaiah Rodgers that was returned for two points by Kelee Ringo. That was the only bright spot for that unit. They had two big miscues on the punt return unit. One saw an Eagles player block one of the Bucs into Cooper DeJean as he was trying to catch it resulting in a fumble and recovery by the Bucs. Another saw an Eagles player run into DeJean before he could catch it. It was sloppy. That all needs to be cleaned up when the Eagles come out of the bye in two weeks.

Vic Fangio - I graded Fangio separately from the defense because the volume of missed tackles clearly affected the outcome of the game. Fangio's job is to put his players in position to make plays, but he cannot make the tackles. However, it was easy to see early in the game that the Bucs were going to get the ball out of Baker Mayfield's hands quickly. Fangio has to adjust the coverage to be tighter and not leave so much cushion. Mayfield picked apart the zone coverage. Fangio has to spend some time this bye week self scouting what happened in this one because it is a copycat league and I would expect future opponents to look to replicate what the Bucs did against them.

Nick Sirianni - Sirianni said it himself afterwards that the blame for a team starting slow starts with the coaches and especially himself as Head Coach. There is a growing concern over the fact that this team is not scoring a point in the first quarter. Slow starts are becoming way too common and they have not scored a point in the first quarter through all four games so far this season and that streak dates back to include two games last season. This bye week comes at a great time for the team to get healthy but also for this coaching staff to regroup. Sirianni needs to lead the way in self scouting his decisions as well as the tendencies that have been exposed on all sides of the ball.

Offensive Line - The offensive line was missing their best lineman in Lane Johnson. They also lost starting center Cam Juergens due to the extreme heat in the second half. The result saw this line unable to stop the pressure from the Bucs and it led to six sacks. It forced Saquan Barkley and Kenny Gainwell to stay in and help try and slow down the pressure which was disguised very well.

Kellen Moore - Moore cannot escape some of the criticism. I know he was down two of his top offensive weapons and top offensive lineman; however, there has been a pattern of some slow starts with this team. It shows that his opening 10-15 play script is not working. He has to design better plays to get this team going from the outset. It is inexcusable to go through the first four games and fail to score a single point in the first quarter. It puts pressure on your defense and forces your team to come from behind.

Jalen Hurts - I find it hard to believe that nobody has tried to preach to Hurts that he cannot turn the ball over. Therefore it appears as if he is too stubborn to work on changing that. Until Hurts plays a clean game with no interceptions or fumbles on his part, this team is going to have a hard time winning consistently. Hurts is holding the ball too long against the blitz, failing to evacuate the pocket to buy time and not protecting the ball in a crowd. Hurts completed just 60 percent or 18 of 30 passes for just 158 yards and one touchdown. He also carried it eight times for 20 yards and a touchdown. Hurts also fumbled it once when the pocket was collapsing and a rusher knocked it out of his hands when he was getting ready to throw.

Defense - The entire defense failed to play together well. Every level had its issues. The defensive line was unable to slow down the rushing attack. The Bucs clearly wanted to get the ball out of Baker Mayfield's hands quickly so the pass rush had trouble affecting the game. The linebackers were all part of the group of players that missed tackles. Nakobe Dean made a great tackle for a loss at one point, but that was overshadowed by several missed tackles or poor angles taken on tackling attempts. The defensive backs also missed quite a few tackles and leave too much space in their zones for opponents to complete passes. The Bucs racked up 445 total yards of offense. They had 29 first downs and dominated the time of possession 36 minutes to 24 minutes and the Bucs were four of six in the red zone.