Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has a record of 57-25 in the regular season, and 6-4 in the playoffs. Against the Buccaneers, however, Hurts has gone 2-4.
Former Tampa Bay linebacker Lavonte David, appearing recently on The Arena, explained the Buccaneers’ approach to playing defense against the Eagles with Hurts at the helm.
David said they focused stopping the running game, and forcing Hurts and the Eagles to beat them in the passing game.
“Our whole game plan was just give him different looks,” David said. “It was one year when we beat him in the playoffs. We was playing straight cover zero. Cover one and cover zero made him want to beat us. . . . In 2023, the game prior to that, they had a great run game. They ran the ball over us . . . So our game plan [for the playoff game] was just, like, you know, we’re gonna make Jalen Hurts beat us, you know, we’re gonna keep him in the pocket, make him make his reads, make him understand what defense he’s seeing and stuff like that, and make him beat us.”
David reasoned that the Eagles didn’t ask Hurts to do much in the passing game. Some may say Hurts is the one who wanted to keep it simple. Still, the revolving door of offensive coordinators surely has been a factor.
Whatever the reasons for the inability of the Eagles to take advantage of Tampa Bay’s focus on stopping the run, the Eagles have struggled against the Buccaneers. And the Buccaneers, as David has explained it, have prioritized neutralizing the running game and daring the Eagles and Hurts to beat them through the air.
Tampa Bay surely isn’t the only team to play the Eagles that way. Few have managed to win 66.6 percent of their games against Philadelphia since Hurts became the starter. With the Eagles breaking in another new coordinator, and presumably installing a McVay-style attack, the franchise is at an inflection point that will require Hurts to do more.
Whether he hasn’t been asked to do more in the past or has resisted, this year the Eagles will be putting more on his plate. What he does with it will say plenty about whether the 27-year-old Hurts finishes the decade as the team’s starting quarterback.
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