Monday Night Football: This Could Be an Upset

[protectionist]

Monday Night Football is an interesting phenomenon. The whole country tunes in to ABC or ESPN for it, with no other games played simultaneously. You have almost 70 million people in the general living areas of the 8 teams of the NFC East & South + millions more in their NFC conference, and just a lot of people curious to see if the underdog (the Bucs 5 point) can pull off an upset against one of the top teams in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles.

Hopefully, injuries won't be too much of a factor. On the Tampa Bay side, the most serious are cornerback Carlton Davis, a huge setback for the Bucs, if he doesnt play. Another is Vita Vea, also questionable presently. The 350 pound Vea is one of the prime reasons why the Bucs are 2nd in the NFL against the run (Philly's main offensive attack)

On the Eagles side, there aren't any questionable players as serious as Davis & Vea on the Bucs side, but there are some listed.

If any one player could be the most central figure for this game it might be D'Andre Swift who is averaging 6.1 yards/carry on 29 rushes. His problem is going up against the Bucs run defense, which no team in the NFL is better at stopping him.

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/philadelphia/stats/

https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/teams/tam/stats/

In a general comparison >>

• the Eagles are 2nd in the NFL in rushing, but the Bucs defense is also 2nd in stopping the run. Even.
• the Eagles are 27th in passing, while the Bucs passing defense is 24th. About Even.
• the Bucs are 19th in rushing, and the Eagles are 1st in stopping the run. Edge - Eagles.
• The Bucs are 12th in passing, with the Eagles 31st in stopping the pass. Big Edge -Bucs
• In the kicking game, the 2 teams are about even, both having excellent kickers over 80%, and with long FGs of 57-61 yards.

I don't see too much of a difference in the matchup here other than the Bucs' very talented receivers going up against the Eagles pitifully weak pass defense. I'm looking to see Baker Mayfield (leads the NFL with least sacks) shred the Philly secondary, with numerous passes to Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, and tight end Cade Otton.

Despite this huge advantage for the Bucs, I'm calling this game EVEN, with the winner taking it by one point.

 

[toobfreak]

Monday Night Football is an interesting phenomenon. The whole country tunes in to ABC or ESPN for it

ESPN SUCKS. Everything about their production sucks. Last week during the Browns-Steelers game, for almost FIVE MINUTES, they switched to a split screen where they had the Saints playing in another game on the right for no apparent reason with the MNF game in the midst of a major, decisive part of the game split on the left in another window.

Then they finally reverted back for no reason to the MNF game on full screen.

Screw ESPN.

 

[protectionist]

ESPN SUCKS. Everything about their production sucks. Last week during the Browns-Steelers game, for almost FIVE MINUTES, they switched to a split screen where they had the Saints playing in another game on the right for no apparent reason with the MNF game in the midst of a major, decisive part of the game split on the left in another window.

Then they finally reverted back for no reason to the MNF game on full screen.

Screw ESPN.

Thank goodness the game is also being broadcast on ABC-TV.

 

[toobfreak]

Thank goodness the game is also being broadcast on ABC-TV.

Yeah but ABC only gets to carry the shitty ESPN feed, whatever it is.

 

[Borillar]

Good analysis, but kind of hard to make a statistical judgement just two weeks into the season.. If Vita Vea is out or hobbled, the Bucs run defense will take a big hit. The Iggles should be able to run on them. I don't believe that the Eagles pass defense is that bad. They have a good pass rush, and Darius Slay is a good ball hawk DB. I think the Eagles win this contest. Should be a good game.

 

[protectionist]

Good analysis, but kind of hard to make a statistical judgement just two weeks into the season.. If Vita Vea is out or hobbled, the Bucs run defense will take a big hit. The Iggles should be able to run on them. I don't believe that the Eagles pass defense is that bad. They have a good pass rush, and Darius Slay is a good ball hawk DB. I think the Eagles win this contest. Should be a good game.

Eagles will NEED a good pass rush with Baker Mayfield being first in the NFL in least sacks. They won't have it though, as their pass defense is worse than 31 of 32 NFL teams. They have no pass rush, and expect the secondary to be picked to pieces by Mayfield, Evans, Godwin.

The main question I see is the Eagles running game. That is what they have been relying almost entirely on, but they havent faced a run defense as solid as the Bucs. Teams that routinely put up 200 yards rushing, come out of games with the Bucs with 50 yards on the ground. If the Eagles find that they can't run on the Bucs, Hurts will be hurting. Should be interesting

 

[toobfreak]

Thank goodness the game is also being broadcast on ABC-TV.

How about that game last week between the Browns and the Steelers? The Browns destroyed Cincinnati the week before ending any hope that Cincinnati and Joe Burrow might be a threat anymore, then come to Pittsburgh a week ago, lose Nick Chubb their top weapon for the rest of the year, then to add insult to injury, lose by four points to the Steelers with the worse ranked QB and most inept, bumbling non-starter amateurish, predictable grade-school offense and offensive coordinator I think in the entire NFL!

 

[22lcidw]

Eagles will NEED a good pass rush with Baker Mayfield being first in the NFL in least sacks. They won't have it though, as their pass defense is worse than 31 of 32 NFL teams. They have no pass rush, and expect the secondary to be picked to pieces by Mayfield, Evans, Godwin.

The main question I see is the Eagles running game. That is what they have been relying almost entirely on, but they havent faced a run defense as solid as the Bucs. Teams that routinely put up 200 yards rushing, come out of games with the Bucs with 50 yards on the ground. If the Eagles find that they can't run on the Bucs, Hurts will be hurting. Should be interesting

The Eagles have new Offensive and Defensive Coordinators. Some of this is adjusting. Hurts history is that if they are losing, he may take it upon himself to run more if the passing is not idea and the running yards are slowed down a little.

 

[protectionist]

I also forgot to mention that the Bucs have 2 defenders in the NFL top 5 in interceptions. Christian Izien with 2, and Shaq Barrett with 1. Eagle have 1 interception - Darius Slay.

Both teams are high in good turnovers. Bucs are 2nd in NFL with +5. Eagles are 3rd with+ 4. Bucs are tied for first with zero turnovers committed.

 

[protectionist]

The Eagles have new Offensive and Defensive Coordinators. Some of this is adjusting. Hurts history is that if they are losing, he may take it upon himself to run more if the passing is not idea and the running yards are slowed down a little.

Against the Bucs, he might be better off passing as much as possible.

 

[protectionist]

Mayfield has another + factor going for him. New offensive coordinator, Dave Canales.

 

[Wiggle_Piggy]

The Browns should have given Baker 1 more year... he was injured most of the year last year... the first 2 games Baker was elite, then he decreased.

The Watson move by the Browns could be one of the worst moves in not just NFL history, but sports history.

 

[protectionist]

Browns loss is Bucs gain. Things happen that way sometimes.

 

[protectionist]

Not much of a change, but just for the record, the odds have gone from Eagles favored by 5 points, to Eagles favored by 4.5.