Tampa Bay Buccaneers Head Coach Todd Bowles was a defensive specialist for much of his career. An NFL safety for eight years, he honed his craft in a variety of destinations. He was a defensive backs coach with the New York Jets and both a defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach at the college level with both Morehouse College and Grambling State.
As Florida fans know, he gained national notoriety as the defensive coordinator of the Super Bowl-winning Buccaneers alongside Coach Bruce Arians, a position he held from 2019-2021. Todd Bowles continues to make defense his calling card as Head Coach of the Buccaneers. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he dialed up blitzes throughout Monday’s NFC Wild Card Game against last year’s NFC Champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. Even when the Eagles knew pressure was coming, the blitz still made it home and disrupted Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts. The Eagles were hit with pressure from all angles on play after play. As the game wore on, everyone in America knew the blitz was coming including the entire Eagles offense, but that didn’t mean that they were able to stop Todd Bowles’ well-orchestrated blitz.
There’s no beating Coach Bowles’ blitz
The Buccaneers defense was the talk of commentators, sports writers and a very pleased Buccaneers quarterback. “They’re so damn good. They’re fun to watch,” Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield said of his defensive corps in his postgame interview after having a three touchdown day. Mayfield expressed enthusiasm about Tampa Bay safety Antoine Windield Jr. making his first Pro Bowl roster, noting that it’s time that he got “the recognition he deserves!” Tampa Bay’s merciless onslaught of blitzes had the Eagles in what proved to be an unsolvable quandary for the duration of the game.
The Eagles had two possible solutions they could conceivably count on to beat the blitz: gaining chunks of yards with short passes over the middle or eating up yards with their running game. Finding soft spots in the middle of the field to get some breathing room is the classic way to beat a blitz. Significantly, Hurts was unable to spread the ball around. Instead, the Philadelphia quarterback continuously targeted the same receiver in series after series. As a result, Devonta Smith had a great individual game with eight catches and 148 yards. Hurts found no options in the middle of the field, as receivers did not do enough to gain separation.
Few stats have ever told the story of a game more than this one tells the story of this game. The Eagles had no third down conversions the entire game. As stingy as ever with the opposing offense, Bowles did not want to give his opponent anything – he even aspired to cut out any possibility of his team having to defend a fourth and short. He acknowledged that he had to “scheme things up to get (the Eagles) out of their running game.” That recipe for success enabled his team’s victory.
An emotional win
Bowles was pleased with his team’s sense of urgency. “(Our) guys were playing hard,” Bowles told reporters. He explained that the Bucs were determined not to allow a repeat performance of the last time the teams played each other when the Eagles put on a clinic and, as a team, ran for over 200 yards.
The Bucs’ defensive tactics proved very effective, and Eagles third-year offensive coordinator, Brian Johnson, had no answers. Hurts was left with no recourse but to play hero ball. With 12:02 left in the fourth quarter, the Eagles had reached the red zone but were facing a fourth and five. Hurts went for it all with a deep pass, again, to Devonta Smith on the right side. This play is a tell-tale microcosm for what the Eagles attempted to do throughout the game to beat the blitz. Halfway through the fourth quarter, the team from Philadelphia only had 34 rushing yards.
A physical win
Todd Bowles went after them all night. His team was the more physical team and the team with the emotional edge. The Tampa Bay defense exceeded expectations. Jalen Hurts played like he only trusted one receiver throughout the whole game. The inescapable result was that the Eagles fell flat in Tampa Bay, finishing with only 42 total rushing yards and no third down conversions. The Eagles could come up with no answer to puncture the incessant blitzing by the Buccaneers.
Philadelphia’s inability to run the ball contributed to a result that was the complete opposite of their last head-to-head meeting with the Bucs. Bowles wants to dial up more of the same against the Buccaneers’ next opponent, the Detroit Lions. As Bowles knows very well, “If you give them a three yard pass, they can turn it into a 15-20 yard gain.” The Buccaneers look forward to presenting many of the same challenges to the Lions as they did to the Eagles.
The Lions’ share
It’s now only a short matter of time until we find out if the different defensive looks Bowles dials up on Divisional Sunday will slay the upstart Lions. In the meantime, Baker Mayfield remains confident. He knows that the Bucs have “so many studs over there (on defense). They’re getting better and better as the year wears on.”