Philadelphia Eagles: 3 Big takeaways from loss vs. Buccaneers in Week 2

3. Injuries, Injuries and More Injuries

The Philadelphia Eagles injuries piled up early and often in this game. First, we saw starting running back Jay Ajayi leave the game after only one carry. He injured his back after the Eagles first series and missed the rest of the first half. He was able to return in the second half and score a touchdown, but his injury hurt the team early.

Already without change-of-pace back Darren Sproles, the Eagles were forced to rely heavily on Corey Clement and Wendell Smallwood. While they filled in valiantly, it was still hard for the Eagles to get a rhythm going offensively without their top two running backs.

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The next Eagle to go down with an injury was wide receiver Mike Wallace. Wallace suffered a fractured fibula in the first quarter and never returned to the game. Furthermore, his status for the rest of the season is now in doubt. While Wallace still hadn’t made a catch for this Eagles team yet, his absence was obvious. The Eagles are already missing Alshon Jeffery, making Wallace’s injury a little harder to bear for the offense.

With their top two options at receiver down, they were forced to play Kamar Aiken and Josh Perkins much more than they would have liked. Nelson Agholor did a good job as the top wideout, but without Wallace, the Eagles don’t have much of a threat in the passing game after Agholor and Zach Ertz.

Finally, another key Eagle went down in the first quarter as well. All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters left the game with a quad injury and was replaced by the familiar backup, Halapoulivaati Vaitai. Vaitai did have some success, but it was the injury itself that was just icing on the cake for a first quarter to forget.