Ray Lewis rips Eagles defense for lackluster performance against Buccaneers: "Everybody's playing individual football"
The Philadelphia Eagles had one of the NFL's best-ever tacklers watching them in Ray Lewis when they let up a huge touchdown largely due to poor tackling. They allowed several long plays including a couple of long touchdowns in their Wildcard Round loss as the defending NFC champions went home much earlier than anticipated.
Overall, the defense was shredded for 32 points and that was more than enough to cement the victory and send the Eagles packing. Lackluster defense has been an issue and Lewis couldn't believe what he saw transpire.
Lewis said immediately after Trey Palmer took off for a long touchdown on the Eagles' secondary:
"Practicing tackling every day is based off angles. When you see the angles of these guys and the way they approach tackling, it's crazy. Like nobody plays together. Put them in a cup."
He continued:
"If you put them guys in a cup, you're not gonna see big plays like this. But everybody's playing individual football and that's insane to me, man. That's why sometimes I get outside and I go sit on my water because I can't deal with this type of stuff."
The former Baltimore Ravens linebacker can't deal with weak tackling and bad effort on defense, and he was there to witness a pretty poor effort on what ended up being a 61-yard touchdown pass.
Eagles sent home after rough defensive day
The Philadelphia Eagles had a very difficult time on defense Monday night. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers routinely hit big plays through the air and scored 32 points en route to a pretty surprising win.
Thanks to a few terrible tackle attempts, Baker Mayfield ended up with 337 passing yards and three touchdowns as he led his team to victory at home after winning the NFC South.
Now, the Eagles head home with a lot of questions about their roster, the coaching staff and much more. The Buccaneers, meanwhile, will head to Detroit to take on the Detroit Lions in the Divisional Round. The defending NFC champs are done early and will have to simply watch.