Instant observations from Eagles 31, Buccaneers 25: Jihaad Campbell’s turnovers lead Eagles to to 4-0

It looked like, for the first time all season, the Philadelphia Eagles would cruise to a victory.

Nope, it never works that way for the Eagles at Raymond James Stadium against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Even with a penalty-aided Bucs field goal drive and a 65-yard field goal by Chase McLaughlin heading into the break, the Eagles played their best half of the year to enter the locker room with a 24-6 lead. They received contributions from all three phases: A special teams touchdown via Cameron Latu and Sydney Brown, a dominant defense and Jalen Hurts carving up Todd Bowles’ blitz early on. It was beautiful.

And then, in a nod to the Los Angeles Rams last week, the Eagles played one of their worst halves. And yet again, there were contributions from all three phases in the other direction: Offensive stagnation, rookies making mistakes on defense, the glaring lack of a running game and issues in punt coverage. After carving the Bucs up in the first half (15-17, 130 passing yards), Jalen Hurts did not complete a pass in the entire second half.

But thanks to some gritty late defense from Vic Fangio’s unit — Baker Mayfield could not lead a late comeback for a fourth-straight week — and two timely turnovers forced by Jihaad Campbell (a forced fumble and interception), the early lead held up. The Philadelphia Eagles are 4-0 on the season after a 31-25 victory in Tampa Bay.

Here are the PHLY Eagles crew’s observations.

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EJ Smith

It may have been more nerve-wracking to the swath of Eagles fans in attendance than preferable, but the Eagles escaping Raymond James Stadium with a win should not be taken for granted. The offense was dominant in the first half, but sputtered for the duration of the second half in a way that let the Bucs creep back into the game. The defense gave up two big explosive touchdowns, but pulled off a late-game stand courtesy of a Moro Ojomo sack.

The Eagles are an imperfect team that’s managed to maintain a perfect record. Not a bad place to be.

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Fran Duffy

How did the Eagles react when dealing with the heat from both Tampa and Todd Bowles’ defense?

Pretty well! At least to start.

The Eagles took control of this game from the jump. The defense swarmed. The offense executed. The special teams blocked. There will be a ton to break down from this game in every phase. Hurts looked outstanding against the blitz. He was poised for much of the afternoon. The third quarter made this a bit tighter than you would have liked to see, with a couple of miscues from the rookies on defense leading to explosive plays for the Bucs. The offense fell apart after a hot start.

There will be some difficult conversations this week as this is a team that is in a great spot when it comes to trying to win this division. But they fo find the best version of the 2025 Eagles. It’s clear that this offense, right now, does NOT have the same identity as they did a year ago. Every year you have a new team. I’m fascinated to watch them continue to evolve.

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Bo Wulf

Through three quarters, this was the best game of Jalen Hurts’ career against the blitz, by success rate. Quite the answer from the Eagles’ quarterback against the team and playcaller that has been his boogeyman. And yet, with that, Cam Latu’s blocked punt turned Sydney Brown touchdown, Dallas Goedert’s two fun Red Zone touchdowns and all the rest from this steamy game, the thing I’ll remember the most about Week 4, 2025 is it was the game in which Tom Brady explained how badly he’s always wanted to punch defenders in the grundle after they sacked him.

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Jamie Lynch

Sydney Brown, that’s how you start a game & calm some Birds fans nerves! The Birds special teams continue to impress this year, Michael Clay has to be enjoying his units start to the year.

I loved the chippiness & spunk of the Eagles today. Nothing I love to see more than Quinyon Mitchell who was having a great game, getting in the face of (& a much larger human) All Pro Tristan Wirfs. The Bucs kept throwing at Q like Kellee Ringo wasn’t the other CB out there?

Second half started to feel like an inverse of last week’s Rams game, hold onto your butts, we’re coming in for a landing. So many flags, such an ugly offense. What happened? Why is nothing ever easy?

Jalen Carter questionable, Lane Johnson questionable to return. WHAT THE HELL. Jihaad Campbell might be sitting atop the DROY race after this one.

That was wild & they win again. Phew. That was fun?

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Rich Hofmann

So many things stood out in that game, but I fall back on two of them.

The Eagles opted to go young on defense, and they are relying on both Jihaad Campbell and Andrew Mukuba in two huge roles. And part of going young is that you have to be willing to live with mistakes, in hopes of the players improving down the line. And we saw some mistakes in this one, with both Mukuba and Campbell playing a part in giving up long touchdowns that kickstarted Tampa Bay’s comeback. But Campbell also came up huge, with two big turnovers to seal the game late when the offense is sputtering. With players this talented, you have to live with both the good and bad. The youth movement is alive and well.

And on offense, after a strong first half by Jalen Hurts handling Todd Bowles’ blitzes, the Eagles basically went into a shell in the second half. Hurts not completing a pass after halftime, after being in total control, is just another example of the Eagles offense churning out wins with a formula that we have rarely seen. And with the lack of blocking and success for Saquon Barkley on the ground, there is still a lot of work to do on that side of the ball.

4-0, and still plenty to talk about! The Philadelphia Eagles Way.