Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Buccaneers game

In Week 4, the Philadelphia Eagles returned to Tampa, the scene of their stomping at the hands of the Buccaneers in the playoffs last season. On Sunday, it didn't look all that different.

As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.

On Friday leading up to the game, A.J. Brown practiced for the first time since injuring his hamstring. There was hope that he could play, but he was ruled out on Saturday. Lane Johnson (concussion) also practiced, and then traveled with the team to Tampa, but was ruled out a couple hours before kickoff.

And so, the Eagles were without arguably the three best players in their offense. That's no excuse for the Eagles' play, of course, especially considering the Buccaneers had 19 (!) players on their injury report, and were without a few of their good players as well.

2) The 'Nice Of Everyone Else to Show Up' Award : Everyone else

The Eagles got their asses handed to them to start this game. Here's how the first seven possessions of the game went:

Buccaneers TD
Eagles 3-and-out
Buccaneers TD
Eagles 3-and-out
Buccaneers TD
Eagles 3-and-out
Buccaneers FG

That FG would have been a TD if not for a Bucs dropped pass in the end zone.

Here's what the team stats looked like at that point in the game:

Later, Kelee Ringo jacked up DeJean on another punt return.

The Eagles' special teams sucked in 2022, they were great in 2023, and in 2024...

7) The 'Even You Guys?' Award : The offensive line

The Eagles were down by double-digit points almost the entire game, and as a result, the Bucs were able to pin their ears back and get after Hurts. Those usually end up being tough games on offensive lines. Still, Hurts was sacked 6 times, which you don't often see from the Birds' usually stellar trenches.

8) The 'Bad Vibes' Award : Jalen Hurts and Nick Sirianni

Another press conference, another odd answer from Hurts regarding his relationship / partnership with Sirianni:

It's pretty clear by now that Hurts has zero interest in talking about anything related to his collaboration with Sirianni.

9) The 'Losing Ground' Award : The Eagles, in the NFC East

As of this writing, the Commanders are beating the Cardinals 35-14 in their late afternoon matchup in Arizona. Should they close the deal, the NFC East standings will look like this:

This feels a lot like one of those occasional seasons where the Eagles and Cowboys aren't very good, and the Commanders sneak away with a 9-win NFC East title.

10) The 'Welcomed Relief' Award : The Bye

Normally you don't want to have your bye early in the season, but in the Eagles' case it might not be the worst time, as their best players can fully recover from injury and the team as a whole can regroup from three road trips in four games.

Oh, and Eagles fans get a stress-free weekend away from this weird, inconsistent team.