January 16, 2024

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Buccaneers playoff game

The Eagles have completed their embarrassing collapse. Jimmy Kempski hands out his 10 awards from the team's playoff loss in Tampa.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Kim Klement Neitzel/USA TODAY Sports

The 2023 Eagles: "Life comes at you fast."

After staggering into the playoffs on a 1-5 skid, the Philadelphia Eagles crapped the bed one last time this season in embarrassing fashion, losing 32-9 to a mediocre Tampa Bay Buccaneers team, and ending their 2023-2024 season. As always, win or lose, we hand out 10 awards.

1) The 'Same Old, Same Old: Offense Edition' Award ♻️: The Eagles' handling of the blitz

A week ago when the Eagles faced Wink Martindale and the horrid New York Giants, there was no mystery to what the Giants were going to try to do to the Eagles defensively. They were going to blitz Jalen Hurts, early and often. The Eagles were wholly unprepared for it, as Hurts looked to extend plays by running out of the pocket and away from blitzes, trying to buy time for vertical routes to develop down the field before eventually throwing the ball away. As usual, there were no hot routes or other mechanisms to allow Hurts to beat the blitz by getting the ball out quickly.

Against Todd Bowles and the Bucs, once again it was crystal clear that the Eagles were going to see a lot of blitzes, and sure enough, they did, with even worse results.

The Eagles rarely tried to run the ball, and when they did they were ineffective against the Bucs' loaded boxes. They continuously got themselves into long downs and distances, and went 0 for 11 on third and fourth down conversions. 0 for 11!

3rd and 2. The Eagles run 4 verticals into a blitz. The Bucs get a free runner and there are 0 options underneath. Some things never change. pic.twitter.com/TyUJ9POTy0
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) January 16, 2024

"Everything we wanted to do tonight was there," DeVonta Smith said. "Sometimes we executed well, sometimes we didn't. We knew what they were going to do. We were prepared for it. Sometimes we missed."

Eagles fans have searched for where the blame should fall on the Eagles' offensive woes to close the season.

• Is it Nick Sirianni? It's his offense that the team is running.

• Is it Brian Johnson? He's the one calling the plays.

• Is it Jalen Hurts? He's the one running the offense on the field.

The answer to all three questions is "Yes."

2) The 'Same Old, Same Old: Defensive Edition' Award ♻️: Matt Patricia's disorganized mess of a defense

The Bucs scored 32 points on the Eagles' defense. They gained 426 yards (307 through the air, 119 on the ground), and if they hadn't dropped a half dozen or so passes in the first half the score and the yardage totals would have looked a whole lot worse.

Buccaneers receivers were wide open in all parts of the field, and the Eagles couldn't tackle them after the catch. There was this, for example.

Too smooth! David Moore takes it in for a 44-yard TD 🙌

📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/K04XZqqPvb
— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024

And this:

ONCE AGAIN, HOW Y'ALL FEELING BUCS FANS?! 😱

📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/VtoFNKaLZ5
— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024

Awful.

3) The 'Discord' Award 😒: The Eagles, as a team

The Eagles stopped playing for each other at some point this season, and there were examples galore against the Bucs.

After Lavonte David laid a helmet-to-helmet shot on Hurts (as shown below), I didn't see anyone get in David's face about it.

if Lavonte David did this to Josh Allen he'd be in jail already. pic.twitter.com/kC1zDQrpU4
— Absolutely Hammered (@ah_pod) January 16, 2024

Similarly, against the Giants, linebacker Bobby Okereke jumped over the line of scrimmage on a play that was whistled dead and made physical contact with Hurts that should have drawn the ire of his teammates, and, nothing.

Hurts isn't immune to criticism here either. Late in the third quarter, Kenny Gainwell ran to the right, and made an ill-advised decision to try to backtrack, before running all the way back across the to the left. Hurts could have tried to block David, but he turned it down.

Bucs D putting the heavy pressure on 💪

📺: #PHIvsTB on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/rFlj59UzNi pic.twitter.com/3dqRk2iGDY
— NFL (@NFL) January 16, 2024

Gainwell wasn't going anywhere even if Hurts gave any kind of real effort to make a block there, but you can bet that teammates will see that play on film and shake their heads. If this were a regular season game, maybe it's OK if you olé the defender if you're a $255 million quarterback. But when you're down 7 and your season has 17 minutes left, hit him!

And, as usual, cameras caught Eagles players squabbling on the sidelines, a common theme this season. This time it was Hurts and Dallas Goedert.

Frustration on the Eagles sideline
pic.twitter.com/wxmhQpYi1V
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) January 16, 2024

Eagles players on the 2017 Super Bowl team often talked about how the team gelled off the field as much as they did on it, and felt that the cohesiveness they achieved was crucial to their success. The 2023 Eagles just didn't have that, to put it mildly.

4) The 'No-Show' Award 🤷‍♂️: Hurts

Oh, and Hurts played poorly, by the way. He was 25 of 35 for 250 yards, a TD, and 0 INTs, which doesn't look bad in print, but he didn't pass the eye test, and man, how do you take an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone for a safety when the line of scrimmage is at the 14?

Jalen Hurts takes a safety

18-9 Bucs
pic.twitter.com/qP1rl6mkHx
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) January 16, 2024

The Eagles were kinda/sorta still in the game at that point, but after that play it was pretty clear that they were cooked for good.

5) The 'Epic Collapse' Award 🚮: The 2023 Eagles

It all started with a 42-19 home blowout against the 49ers, followed by 33-13 stomping in Dallas.

At that point in the season, the Eagles were still 10-3 and in decent enough position to earn the 1 seed in the NFC. But they panicked, demoting Sean Desai and promoting Patricia to de facto defensive coordinator. Thereafter, they lost to Drew Lock, and then got their asses kicked by the atrocious Cardinals, the dysfunctional Giants, and the mediocre Buccaneers.

Nothing worked. Not the offense, not the defense, and certainly not the coaching.

The 2023 Eagles will serve as a benchmark against which future awful Eagles seasons are measured.

6) The 'Is This the End?' Award: Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox, and Brandon Graham

For Johnson, it doesn't appear so:

Lane Johnson: “I think I have a few good years left.”
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) January 16, 2024

Same goes for Graham:

Brandon Graham says he wants to play 1 more season with the #Eagles and make it his farewell tour.
— Rob Maaddi (@RobMaaddi) January 16, 2024

Cox will likely continue to play as well, as he had a pretty good season. Maybe that's with the Eagles, maybe it's not.

An emotional Kelce understandably opted not to speak after the loss. It feels a lot like he has played his last NFL game.

7) The 'Clean House' Award 🫧🏠🫧: Howie Roseman

James Bradberry, Avonte Maddox, Kevin Byard, Bradley Roby, Shaq Leonard, Nicholas Morrow, Zach Cunningham, Justin Evans, Julio Jones, Olamide Zaccheaus, Quez Watkins, and Rashaad Penny are all likely goners. To be determined on other guys like Jason Kelce, Fletcher Cox, Haason Reddick, D'Andre Swift, Marcus Mariota, and plenty of others.

We'll sort all that out over the next month in our "Stay or Go" series, but there is going to be a lot of turnover this offseason.

8) The 'Should We Mention At Least One Positive Thing?' Award 🎉: DeVonta Smith

Smith was good. There. Something positive.

9) The 'Seat Isn't Even Hot Because Their Seat Is Already Gone' Award ✏️: Pretty much anyone who had anything to do with the defensive scheme

Many heads on the defensive staff will roll. #Analysis.

10) The Blazing Hot Seat Award🔥🔥🥵🔥🔥: Nick Sirianni

Beyond the results noted above, the Eagles were a lifeless collection of individuals to close this season, and not at all a "team." It's not just that the Eagles lost six of their last seven games, it's how awful it all looked.

The TV cameras don't often go out of their way to capture Jeffrey Lurie's emotions for telecasts, but they found him on Monday night and he did not look happy.

The look from Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie says it all pic.twitter.com/wTEjNQt7ky
— Jeff Skversky (@JeffSkversky) January 16, 2024

Firing a head coach who has led his team to the playoffs all three years of his tenure, including a Super Bowl appearance less than a year ago would be unprecedented. And yet, should Lurie dismiss Sirianni, it also probably shouldn't surprise anyone who has paid any attention to what happened to this team this season.

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