FAB 4. SR’s Bucs – Eagles Game Notes

If time permits in my schedule, I plan on adding some notes about the previous week’s Bucs game from my film study during the week into each week’s SR’s Fab 5 column. I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing the obvious, Ryan Fitzpatrick’s second 400-yard, four-touchdown passing game in a row to beat the Eagles 27-21. Instead, I’ll try to dig deeper and offer some insight you may have missed when watching the game and tie it into the up-coming match-up.

Here are my thoughts from re-watching the Bucs vs. Eagles game.

• With a heat index well above 100 degrees at Raymond James Stadium, Sunday’s game against the Eagles was one of the hottest Bucs games of all-time. It ranked up there with the season opener in 1993 against Kansas City – a game that I attended in the stands on a day in which there was no breeze and no clouds at the old Tampa Stadium. It was an inferno, and Sunday’s game against Philadelphia was mighty close.

Bucs DT Gerald McCoy – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

The Bucs had 58 snaps on offense, but allowed the Eagles offense to get off 79 snaps – 21 more plays than Tampa Bay. Linebackers Kwon Alexander and Lavonte David each played 100 percent of the snaps on Sunday, while free safety Justin Evans played 78. Rookie cornerback Carlton Davis, who needed an I.V. for cramps during the game, played all but two plays.

Perhaps even more impressive was the fact that defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul played 67 snaps (85 percent) in the blazing heat, while defensive tackle Gerald McCoy played 65 snaps (82 percent). The next most snaps along the defensive line came from Vinny Curry, who logged 50 plays (63 percent).

“I think we’re very fortunate that we had two days off – be it that we have Monday Night Football,” Bucs head coach Dirk Koetter said. “That was brutal. I think I mentioned to you on Monday – we had eight players on defense play over 70 plays, we had five or six players on offense play right at 60 plays – that’s too many for whatever that heat index was. I don’t really know what it was, but it was a lot. That’s too many plays. Chance of injury definitely goes up.”

So what is Koetter talking about with regards to eight players on defense playing over 70 plays when the official NFL gamebook only showed five?

“That didn’t count the penalties,” Bucs defensive coordinator Mike Smith said. “We had them playing – some of the guys upwards of 79-80 – those are official snaps. That’s a lot of snaps in that heat. It was hot. I know it was really hot on the sideline, but it was hot up in the press box, too. Maybe not as hot as down on the field, but it was a warm day. I thought we did a good job with the rotation if you look at our snap count. I thought we felt we had to rotate to keep our guys fresh in there at the end of the game. We had some guys that had way too many snaps, but it was our job to get out there and stop them and we didn’t get that done”

• I continue to be impressed with new defensive end Carl Nassib, who played 34 snaps (43 percent) on Sunday and came close to getting a sack for a second time in a row, registering a quarterback hit despite getting held by right tackle Lane Johnson on the play. Nassib’s effort and play is what is keeping Noah Spence on the inactive list right now. Will Clarke, who was in Tampa Bay all of last year, only played 13 snaps (16 percent) on Sunday.

• According to Pro Football Focus, cornerback Ryan Smith had a stellar game on Sunday against Philadelphia with a career-high 88.6 rating. Smith had seven tackles and two pass breakups, in addition to two big tackles on special teams covering punts. Smith nearly had his first career interception on one of his pass breakups and only allowed one catch for two yards on Sunday. I wrote about the new and improved Smith last week and caught some flak from unbelieving Bucs fans and PewterReport.com readers. Give Smith his due. He’s made a lot of progress and even Koetter got choked up after the game.

“I thought that was Ryan Smith’s easily best game of his career,” Smith said. “I thought he was aggressive all day. Not only that, but he made two really big plays on punt coverage. I’m just so proud of him. Very proud of him because that kid has taken some abuse and for him to hang in there and keep battling.”

• Pro Football Focus wasn’t so glowing about rookie nickel cornerback M.J. Stewart, who was targeted 10 times and allowed all 10 passes to be caught for 89 yards and a touchdown. Stewart got some much needed experience on Sunday, and the play of safeties Chris Conte, Jordan Whitehead and Evans helped bail him out more than a few times.

In fact, Conte was having a sensational game with seven tackles before leaving just after halftime with a knee injury. He saved a couple of big plays and potential touchdowns with sure tackling.

Evans, who had six tackles, was an absolute hero on Sunday, selling out his body to make one of the unsung plays of the game in the fourth quarter. With 8:55 left and the Eagles trailing 27-14, head coach Doug Pederson decided to go for it on fourth-and-10. Nick Foles heaved a deep pass to running back Corey Clement, who caught the ball near Tampa Bay’s 10-yard line only to collide with a diving Evans, who timed the hit perfectly to cause an incompletion.

Evans was injured on the play, but shook it off and only missed one snap and returned to action to help stymie the Eagles’ comeback attempt in the rest of the fourth quarter. Evans had the highest Pro Football Focus grade of any Bucs defender with 88.9.

• The Buccaneers offensive line allowed the first two sacks of the season on Sunday against the Eagles. Right guard Ali Marpet continues to play stellar football and should be in the conversation for his first Pro Bowl, and the timing couldn’t be better as he’s in a contract year. Left tackle Donovan Smith, who is also in a contract year, continues to play extremely well, too.

• Bucs wide receiver Chris Godwin got a lot of props for blocking Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins for about 15 yards downfield on tight end O.J. Howard’s 75-yard touchdown, which was well deserved. But don’t forget that Godwin still had five catches for 56 yards and a key touchdown against Philadelphia, too. Dating back to Week 17 last year, the Bucs are 3-0 when Godwin, the team’s third-round pick in 2017, scores a touchdown.

• And finally, running back Peyton Barber wasn’t able to get unleashed in the ground game as he was held to just 22 yards on 16 carries against a formidable Philadelphia front seven. But for the second straight week Barber was incredibly solid in pass protection in blitz pickup. Barber had a key block on a DeSean Jackson touchdown for a second week in a row, this time on the first play of the game when the Eagles unleashed a corner blitz.

Bucs RB Peyton Barber – Photo by: Cliff Welch/PR

Barber hasn’t received much praise at the start of the season because he hasn’t had a 100-yard game or scored a touchdown yet, but he’s been a film room hero to the Bucs coaches and his teammates for his improved pass protection.

“That’s obviously about being a starting running back in the NFL,” Bucs guard Evan Smith said. “If you’re going to be a three-down back you have to know your responsibilities – even if you’re a first-down back – we have base protections and different protections and stuff, but the running back is involved in all of those. Unless it’s just five-man protection where we’re spreading everybody out, they’re involved and they’ve got to know. I think Peyton has done a great job of stepping that part of his game up. He’s been doing a really good job in blitz pick up and just being where he needs to go. If anything we need to get him going more from an offensive line-standpoint. You see some of the runs, when it’s there, Peyton makes it happen. That’s the thing he’s been doing, we just have to give him more opportunities.”