TAMPA — Isaiah Rodgers thought he made a savvy veteran play.
He didn’t.
Late in the first quarter of the Eagles’ 33-16 loss to the Bucs, the Eagles’ defense had finally forced their first punt after giving up back-to-back touchdowns. Without Britain Covey, who is on IR with a shoulder injury, rookie Cooper DeJean went back deep to return it.
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At worst, the Eagles should have gotten the ball back around their own 20-yard line with a chance to turn the game around after getting in an early 14-0 hole. But after DeJean called a fair catch, Isaiah Rodgers blocked gunner Josh Hayes into DeJean, who muffed the punt.
It was a disaster.
What was Rodgers thinking?
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“Me being a gunner in my career, I know not to hit the returner,” Rodgers explained. “So with me guarding him, I thought, ‘I’m going to push him into the returner and get the flag.’ Because that’s part of the game. I kind of thought it was going to be a flag, which it was, but they eventually picked it up and said because I pushed him. I never heard that before but it is what it is.”
Yeah, on the field, Hayes was initially ruled for a fair catch interference but the officials picked up the flag when they realized he was blocked into DeJean. And since the Buccaneers clearly recovered, they were set up on the Eagles’ 22-yard line.
The Bucs punched in a touchdown on the short field to go up 21-0 and the game was pretty much out of hand.
“I don’t feel like that really should have been a penalty or whatever,” Rodgers said after the loss. “I don’t feel like [the fair catch interference] should have been waved off but they called what they called.”
Head coach Nick Sirianni didn't agree.
"Anytime you have a contact into him, they’re going to pick that flag up every single time," Sirianni said. "A couple of things went into that. Again, we got to make sure we’re coaching it better. If guys make a mistake out there, we’re going to look at ourselves first [and] we’ll get that cleaned up."
In the win over the Saints last week, the rookie DeJean said he got some jitters out of the way as a punt returner. But this was his first return in this game and it was a disaster.
But DeJean didn’t point fingers at Rodgers. He actually thought he could have done a better job too.
“I waved it. I don’t know if he ran into me or got pushed into me,” DeJean said. “I’ve just got to be more decisive in that situation. Wave fair catch earlier just to let those guys know so something like that doesn’t happen, we don’t turn the ball over in that situation.”
Later in the second half, DeJean was back to field another punt when his teammate Kelee Ringo plowed into him. Luckily, the ball didn’t hit off either player and the Eagles avoided disaster. But two punt return gaffes in one half is troubling.
A little later in the game, Rodgers and Ringo did combine for a huge special teams play when Rodgers blocked a PAT and Ringo scooped it and returned it all the way for a two-point play. That cut the deficit to two scores but it wasn’t enough.
And this wasn’t how DeJean envisioned his first full game as a punt returner in the NFL.
“Yeah, it’s a little bit frustrating,” he said. “More frustrated at myself more than anything. Making those decisions earlier, calling fair catch earlier just so those guys know that I’m going to fair catch, that I’m not going to return it, so they can stop blocking and get out of the way so something like that doesn’t happen.”
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