Eagles-Giants takeaways: Bucs’ Todd Bowles may be a nightmare matchup for Nick Sirianni and Brian Johnson

The Eagles went to MetLife Stadium hoping to halt their free fall, but things only worsened for them heading into the playoffs 1-5 in their last six games.

The 27-10 loss to the New York Giants didn’t have any impact on the Eagles’ playoff seeding, but the inability to get things on track compounded by injuries to key players will linger into next Monday’s road game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Here’s what we learned from the ugly loss:

Any notion that the Eagles got a favorable draw playing the 9-8 Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the wild-card round should be dispelled by now.

After watching the Eagles mishandle extra pass rushers with regularity against the Giants on Sunday, the matchup against Bucs coach Todd Bowles is a nightmare scenario.

Like Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, Bowles blitzes at a high clip. The Giants and Bucs rank second and third in blitz rate, respectively.

Unlike the Giants, who ranked 20th in defense-adjusted value over average and 26th in points allowed this season, Tampa Bay has been productive running a scheme built around exotic blitz looks. Bowles’ group finished the regular season 14th in DVOA and seventh in points allowed. DVOA calculates a team’s success based on the down and distance of each play.

Against the Giants, the Eagles offense struggled to sort out extra rushers throughout the first half to a confounding degree. The Giants blitzed Jalen Hurts on 74% of his dropbacks and he went 5-for-12 for 41 yards and an interception on those plays, according to Pro Football Focus.

Overall, Hurts finished 7-for-16 for 55 yards with an interception. He suffered a dislocated middle finger on his throwing hand when Giants linebacker Bobby Okereke got pressure on a delayed blitz and hit Hurts’ hand as he threw.

Hurts didn’t miss any snaps because of the injury but was pulled with a handful of other offensive and defensive starters just before halftime with the team trailing by 24-0.

» READ MORE: Source: Eagles QB Jalen Hurts didn’t fracture the middle finger on his throwing hand

The lack of adjustments against the blitz, both in terms of shifting protections and adjusting route concepts, isn’t a new concern for the Eagles offense. It has been an issue dating to Sirianni’s first year when, somewhat ironically, Hurts struggled in the wild-card round against the Bucs with Bowles as the defensive coordinator.

Hurts was blitzed on half of his dropbacks in that 31-15 loss, completing just 54.5% of his passes and throwing two interceptions when facing extra rushers.

This year, Hurts was the second-most blitzed quarterback in the NFL behind only the Packers’ Jordan Love, according to PFF. Hurts completed 62.6% of his passes against the blitz, with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions for a passer rating of 80.5, which ranks 29th among qualifying quarterbacks.

Sirianni said after the game Sunday that the scheme’s answers against Martindale’s blitzes “weren’t good enough.”

Can the Eagles fix it in time for next week?

» READ MORE: Bucs coach Todd Bowles says Eagles are a ‘tough team to beat’ despite recent struggles

It turns out that the alarming performance by the Eagles’ pass rush two weeks ago against the Giants wasn’t an anomaly.

After managing just one sack against a historically bad Giants offensive line in that game, the Eagles had just two in the regular-season finale. The first came from reserve defensive tackle Marlon Tuipulotu with some help from fellow reserve Moro Ojomo. The second came from Kelee Ringo on a cornerback blitz, meaning the drought from the Eagles top pass rushers will persist into the postseason.

Josh Sweat hasn’t recorded a sack since Oct. 5, and Haason Reddick has been shut out in each of the last four games. Reddick was deployed in coverage twice in limited snaps on Sunday, one week removed from dropping into coverage a season-high seven times against the Cardinals.

The rotation behind the top two rushers hasn’t been any more productive this season. Rookie Nolan Smith finished the regular season with one sack and just eight pressures. Veteran defensive end Brandon Graham, who a year ago collected a career-high 11 sacks, had three sacks and 29 pressures this season.

For what it’s worth, defensive end Derek Barnett, now with the Houston Texans after being waived by the Eagles midway through the season after having a limited role, has 2½ sacks in his last four games.

Considering that the Giants gave up 85 sacks this season, the second-highest total in NFL history behind only the 1986 Eagles, the lack of production continues to defy the level of investment in the defensive front and the organizational philosophy to build the defense around the pass rush.

Something has to change, but those changes will likely have to wait until the offseason at this point.

» READ MORE: Inside the Eagles’ dejected locker room, some don’t quite know what to say about their struggles

When assessing the Eagles’ defensive regression, there’s responsibility to go around.

The secondary, which lost both starting safeties by halftime, looked overmatched against the Giants. Tyrod Taylor left the game with a thumb injury but returned after undrafted quarterback Tommy DeVito suffered an apparent leg injury and threw for 297 yards and completed 71.9% of his passes.

Going into the playoffs, the Eagles have an unenviable quandary on the back end. They don’t have the personnel to play man coverage consistently, and they don’t have the continuity to play zone with any level of cohesion. The group also recorded 10 missed tackles on Sunday, according to PFF, including three from Zach Cunningham.

» READ MORE: Defense has missed Zach Cunningham — yes, a linebacker! Don’t tell Howie Roseman

The Bucs may not have an elite offense — they ranked 20th in both offensive DVOA and points scored in the regular season — but even struggling teams have been able to put up numbers against this Eagles defense in the last month.

After two seasons when he made a strong case as one of the best tight ends in the NFL, Dallas Goedert returned to the pack this year.

On a per-game basis, his 2023 numbers are more similar to the years he spent behind Zach Ertz than the last two seasons as a featured member of the passing game.

He averaged a career-low 1.33 yards per route run according to PFF, which ranked 18th among qualifying tight ends. He finished with a career-high 59 catches, but his 42.3 yards per game his lowest since 2019; his three touchdowns tie the career low he had both last season and in 2020.

Similar to his first few seasons spent behind Ertz, Goedert’s production seems to be more attributable to his surroundings rather than his individual ability.

Given the lack of rhythm the Eagles offense had for most of the season, it’s hard to lay that drop in efficiency at Goedert’s feet. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith both surpassing the 1,000-yard mark is also important to remember when looking at his production, but Sunday’s game was surprisingly light on targets for Goedert considering that Smith didn’t play at all and that Brown went out injured early.

Goedert was on the field for 12 passing plays on Sunday and was targeted just three times, logging one catch for 3 yards.

Especially with Brown and Smith both dealing with injuries at the start of the week, the tight end’s role may need to be reevaluated for the postseason.