Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Takeaways from Dirk Koetter’s phone interview
The Philadelphia Eagles are gearing up for a battle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Hear what Tampa Bay’s head coach, Dirk Koetter, had to say about the upcoming match up.
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have a lot in common heading into Week 2 of the 2018 NFL season. Both teams walked away with a win in Week 1, and they both defeated one of the league’s top-offenses. The Eagles outlasted the Atlanta Falcons, and the Bucs took care of business against the New Orleans Saints..
Now, these two teams will face one another. One will remain undefeated. Who will it be?
Bucs’ head coach, Dirk Koetter, recently spoke with the Eagles’ media during a phone interview. Hear what he had to say:
Video courtesy of the Eagles official YouTube page
Here are some of the highlights:
1. Third downs are key to success.
A big part of the Buccaneer’s offensive success was due to what they were able to do on third down. They converted eight of their 13 third-down attempts.
Thirds downs were manageable due to the fact that they were typically in short-yardage situations.
Koetter is fully aware that the team will need to have third-down success once again if they want to hold their own against the Birds and that tremendous pass rush.
Here’s a quote:
"There are so many teams. And the Eagles are the bell cow for that. So many of these teams have multiple rushers, and they try to get their match ups where they are getting all of their guys singled up. And they are really, really good at it."
2. Koetter was impressed with the Eagles holding the falcons to 12 points.
Having served as the Falcon’s offensive coordinator in the past, Koetter knows how productive Atlanta’s offense is capable of being.
He was surprised by the Eagles’ ability to only allow the Falcons to score 12 points.
This Philly defense was able to prevent quarterback Matt Ryan and his offensive weapons, such as Julio Jones and Devonta Freeman from getting into the end zone for most of the game.
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Atlanta only scored one touchdown in the Thursday night match up, when running back Tevin Coleman found his way into the end zone on a 9-yard run.
Having played so well defensively against a high-powered offense like the Falcons definitely catches the attention of other coaches in the league, and Tampa Bay’s coach definitely took notice.
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3. There’s a ton of confidence in ‘Fitzmagic’.
Bucs quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick put on a show in Week 1. Some would call it a magic show. It was ‘Fitzmagic’.
Fitzpatrick was 21 for 28, finishing with 417 yards and four touchdowns. Who wouldn’t have confidence in a quarterback who performed that well?
Well, Koetter not only has confidence in him. He believes that Fitzpatrick made up for the fact that the Bucs were unable to land Eagles quarterback Nick Foles.
"At one point, we actually tried to get him [Foles] to come down here. That’s worked out well for him. And we did good in getting Fitz."
One thing is certain, there are two decent quarterback playing against one another on September 16th. The one thing that is unknown is who will best who? The team with the better quarterback play will likely win this ball game.
Kickoff is set for 1 PM EST.