I’m not sure anybody expected the Bucs to put up 48 points in New Orleans, but go figure, they were the highest-scoring week one team, tied with the Jets for that honor, if you can believe it.
Five of Tampa’s touchdowns came from the offense, while the defense chipped in with a 34-yard fumble return. Backup quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick went 21 for 28 with 4 touchdowns and 417 yards and ran for a score as well.
So what’s the story here? Were the Bucs really that good on the day? Was New Orleans’ defense really that bad? Was it a combination of both?
It was a little bit of both. Tampa got some exceptional individual performances out of their receivers and Fitzpatrick was incredibly efficient on the day. The Saints’ secondary really struggled.
I went back and watched the condensed film on Gamepass, and here’s what I saw:
I think the takeaway for me is that they’ve got a really diverse group of receivers and they’re a huge downfield threat. They don’t have much of a running game and hit on a lot of Hollywood stuff over the top of the defense.
This might be a pretty big Sidney Jones/Malcolm Jenkins/Rodney McLeod game. You’re going to have Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills lined up against the outside receivers, but Tampa showed some different looks in the slot and Jenkins might be up on the line for a chunk of snaps. McLeod is going to have to provide cover for Evans and Jackson getting down the field.
DeSean, who looks like he’ll be healthy for this game, caught all five his targets running this route tree:
On the far right, that completion was a huge 3rd down catch that moved the chains with a little less than eight minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. Tampa had just run the ball twice without much success and would have given the ball right back to New Orleans without that connection. And on the touchdowns, you see how they lined him up on the inside and torched the Saints on a post route and a loopy flag route.
Evans also caught every target, all seven of them.
He’s a big body and a guy who can make contested catches ala Alshon Jeffery, and you’ll see a combination of short, intermediate, and deeper stuff coming down the right side of the field:
That’s really what it is, accounting for the big play receivers and trying to limit downfield opportunities.
The Eagles defensive line should be able to handle Barber and company without having to the stack the box or sacrifice something elsewhere. I’d sit in nickel all day long and let Fletcher Cox and the defensive ends do their thing. This is the group that sacked Matt Ryan four times and hit him 14 times. Fitzpatrick needs to feel uncomfortable and can’t be given time to unleash those deep balls. The Birds’ defense was so good at taking away the running game and making teams one dimensional last season, and there’s no reason why that shouldn’t happen this year.
My only real concern is whether Nick Foles can stay on the field long enough to keep Fitzpatrick off of it. You’re talking Tampa heat in mid-September, and you don’t want the defense gassing out early. That might be doable considering the fact that the Bucs are missing Vernon Hargreaves and maybe Brent Grimes and shipped 40 points in the week one win.