Should the Eagles fire Nick Sirianni after the ugly loss to the Buccaneers?

TAMPA, Fla. – In 1998, Ray Rhodes coached an Eagles team that went 3-13. It wasn't a terrible squad: Brian Dawkins, Troy Vincent, Hugh Douglas and William Thomas featured on defense, and Duce Staley, Tra Thomas, Kevin Turner and Irving Fryar led the offense. But that team couldn't overcome the quarterbacks of Rodney Peete, Koy Detmer and Bobby Hoying, and Rhodes and his coaching staff became overwhelmed with the task at hand and were fired.

No team since 1998 has looked this bad.

Until now.

On Sunday, Nick Sirianni fielded a team so lacking in discipline, so fundamentally unstable and so clumsy in directing on both sides of the ball that it had no chance against Todd Bowles' perennial high flyers. Jalen Hurts, Sirianni's former Pro Bowl quarterback, took another step back by recovering a fatal fumble in the second half that ended any chance of a comeback. For the third time in four games against the Bucs, he was completely dumbfounded by the stealthy defense he faced. It was a thoroughly embarrassing display.

” READ MORE: Nick Sirianni's harshest critics say the lack of preseason games has hurt the Eagles, but still believe they will be “special.”

Rhodes' team started 1998 0-5, and the Eagles are 2-2, but they are 3-8 in their last 11 games. It may not be fair and it may not be feasible, but Nick Watch is officially in.

Should he be fired to save the 2024 season?

Probably not. The birds have a bye week to get healthy. And if owner Jeffrey Lurie had fired Sirianni, he would have done so after last year's season-ending implosion.

And yes, after leading the team to the Super Bowl two years ago, Sirianni still deserves the benefit of the doubt.

But the doubt is growing.

Asterisk is Sunday's loss in Tampa, if you will, as the Eagles played without star receivers AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and right tackle Lane Johnson and then lost center Cam Jurgens. But the defense was mostly intact, giving up points in four of the first five series. Baker Mayfield finished the game 30-for-47 for 347 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions and recorded just two sacks.

“Their game plan was to keep the D-line away from him,” defensive lineman Milton Williams said. “Fast passes. Screens. A lot (of things) on the outside. And we didn't handle it well. We didn’t have that today.”

In fact, smart tackling by the cornerbacks and terrible angles by the linebackers gave the Bucs a 24-0 lead in a game that ended 33-16.

There is no asterisk that explains Hurts' 27 turnovers since the start of the 2023 season, which is the most in football. On Sunday he fumbled again. And no asterisk explains why the Eagles haven't scored on any of their first four possessions this season.

The lack of offensive starters didn't excuse the Eagles from forcing collisions with their own punt returner. Twice.

And the guys who were absent Sunday were mostly present during the Eagles' 6-1 loss at the end of the 2023 season.

It was hard to watch.

“Our basic requirements were not what they needed to be. “We need to fundamentally make some changes to what’s going on,” Sirianni said. “We had a few misses at the start of the game. We had a few drops. These will stop drives, and these will extend drives.”

It's time to do the right thing and get healthy, he said:

“The bye week comes at the right time.”

This also applies to the baseball playoffs. When the Eagles reunite next week, Red October will have consumed Philadelphia once again while the Phillies make another playoff run.

On the other hand, the Phillies earned a first-round bye, so the next six days will be unbearable for the Birds if they listen to the critics.

Because there is a lot to criticize in the first four games. They're 2-2, and even though they're just two plays away from 3-1, they're just two plays away from being 0-4.

They had no chance on Sunday. They were extraordinarily silly.

Late in the game, the Eagles defense committed an offside penalty on third-and-15, which wasn't all that bad. But then they called a defensive holding penalty on the same play that resulted in an automatic first down, which was devastating.

With just under five minutes to play, the Bucs and Eagles called penalties during what everyone viewed as a Bucs interception runback play; Kenneth Gainwell's response came too late and was retaliatory. Because the interception was ruled incomplete, the penalties were overturned. Had Gainwell not committed, the Eagles would have had a first down. Instead, there was third-and-15, which became fourth-and-11, where Hurts picked up his sixth sack, and that was it.

This terrible loss causes anxiety for Sirianni's team for two weeks.

This terrible loss follows two weeks in which Sirianni's poor decisions either cost or nearly cost his team a win against Atlanta in New Orleans.

Against the Falcons they tried early, failed and it cost them three points. They passed the third-and-3 late in the game, stopped the clock, and then beat fourth down, which no longer made sense after passing third down.

” READ MORE: Nick Sirianni needs the Eagles defense to save him. Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter can't do that.

In the first half against the Saints, they tried a fake tush push and failed, then were sacked on fourth down instead of kicking a field goal.

The fourth deficit did not contribute to Sunday's bad joke. The two biggest points:

Isaiah Rodgers blocked a Bucs shooter on a fair catch against punt returner Cooper DeJean, then teammate Kelee Ringo ran against DeJean.

Sigh.

To be fair, the Eagles were shorthanded.

Bowles owns Hurts, who has a 74.7 passer rating in five games against Bowles as head coach and defensive coordinator, with five passing touchdowns, six turnovers and 14 sacks.

Ultimately, despite a heat index that reached 110 degrees on the field at Raymond James Stadium and wiped out two of the Eagles' starters, the Eagles didn't give up on Nick like they had on Ray.

So no, Nick Watch is just a watch. It's not a crisis.

Not like 1998.

But we're getting closer.