Crossing Broad
That one was satisfying. Was it enjoyable to watch? Absolutely not. But satisfying because the Eagles always struggle with these jokers down in Tampa, so you take a win however you can get it against the Bucs to move to 4-0 and come back home to rest up.
This was a classic “ceiling is as high as the floor is low” type of game. They looked like they were gonna run away with this one in the first half. Great play calling, special teams, and defense. Then they couldn’t pick up a first down or even complete a pass for most of the second half, while the defense uncharacteristically gave up two deep bombs before locking it back down. So it’s one of those things where you see how good they can be if they finally put together a complete performance over four quarters of football.
Regardless, the Eagles win again. They cover the spread. They are undefeated, with three wins in three weeks over quality teams. The Birds are the NFC’s best team through four games, and that’s the bottom line! Because Stone Cold said so.
To the observations!
1) “91 degrees but feels like 100,” said Erin Andrews to begin the game. Good thing the Birds were loaded with SEC guys who have played in Florida. Obviously the heat was a storyline coming into this one, but the way they talked about it you’d think they were playing on the surface of Venus.
2) That was a very loud “Coooooooooooop” after the DeJean PBU on Chris Godwin. Confirmation, perhaps, that Tampa fans are just New York expats who have forsaken the Jets and Giants.
3) Everything about the punt block touchdown was awesome. Great camera angle on Sydney Brown running it in. Michael Clay with the aggressive fist pump. And Cam Latu was a reclamation project, a third round pick who tore his meniscus as a rookie. That resulted in the 49ers giving up on him, then he did the practice squad shuffle with Cleveland and the Birds before finding a role here on special teams. He came into this game as one of the top eight guys in ST snaps.
4) Eight plays, 73 yards, 4:14 off the clock on the opening drive, which was probably their best of the season. They had:
Then the TD pass, which was cool as hell. That looked like something that evolved from the Andy Reid red zone shovel pass:
The fact that they’ve got four guys stacked up but put Hurts under center had to be confusing for Tampa. They didn’t know what was coming, nor did we.
5) The taunting calls are obviously annoying, but the players gotta know by...
