Postgame Perspective: What the Buc?

It's a word that has been used far too often to describe Philadelphia sports performances. Embarrassing.

When you look back to this team, the preseason success that followed an offseason of pure insanity, they were the hope of the Philadelphia sports scene.

The Phillies and Sixers are locked in rebuilding. The Flyers are what they are while they wait for development to end and success to begin.

The Eagles, supposedly, had it all figured out.

If Sunday's game, a 45-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, proved anything, it's that they are as far off as the rest of the city's teams and not only struggling to succeed individually within Chip Kelly's system, but now, they are looking like one of the worst teams in the league.

What was so astonishing about Sunday's thrashing by Tampa Bay was the ease at which Doug Martin and the running game succeeded. Martin reeled off two runs for 58 yards and 84 yards. He finished with 235 yards rushing on the day.

Add to that a career day for Jameis Winston.

It is the type of day that a first overall pick is supposed to have. It is the type of day Winston was expected to be capable of producing.

Five touchdown passes. 246 yards. No interceptions.

First-overall pick and up-and-coming team aside, allowing 521 total yards to an offense that had struggled to find a rhythm is unacceptable for any team.

What you saw was what the Eagles have to work toward. Mark Sanchez is what he is. He's a three interceptions for every two touchdowns kind of quarterback.

Sam Bradford gave it his best shot. At times, he looked like the former first-overall pick. More often, he looked like he was on a different wavelength. His chance is likely spent. The Eagles will roll through the motions for the remainder of the season and Bradford will be a memory after that.

Communication and chemistry have been issues for the Eagles all season. They are never on the same page. That is as much the coach's fault as it is the players.

The Eagles looked like they brushed this game aside like it was nothing, and as it started to get out of hand right around halftime, they mailed it in the rest of the way.

That's what made this frustrating. For the defense to turn in a poor outing, there was no explanation for why it happened this particular week, but it happens, even to the best.

But the offense has not clicked yet this season. They have yet to truly put it together, and at this point, 11 weeks into the season and 10 games in the books, they may not ever really put it together for one game.

It's starting to not matter anyway.

Efforts like that don't warrant talks about being in the worst division and being only a game back of first place. You can take that talk elsewhere, because no one is listening anymore.

There is no solace in playing in the NFC East and being one game behind the Giants at 4-6. It is not a stamp of pride. And at this point, you can't hang your hat on any of it.

You are only as good as your last game. And this last game for the Eagles was as bad as it gets.

If that's the case, then it sure says a lot about the Eagles, where they are at, and what they have to do to truly be the team that Chip Kelly wants them to be.

It won't be easy getting there, considering the number of holes and flaws exposed in the blowout loss on Sunday. But as we've learned all season, this is Chip Kelly's team and it's his mess to fix.

Kevin Durso is managing editor for Eagledelphia. Follow him on Twitter @Kevin_Durso.

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