Philadelphia Eagles will face unexpected challenge in Ryan Fitzpatrick during Week 2

All of a sudden, it looks like the Philadelphia Eagles will face a much tougher challenge than originally expected in Ryan Fitzpatrick for Week 2.

While the Philadelphia Eagles got to enjoy Sunday off since they won a few days ago on opening night against the Atlanta Falcons, the focus for the team now becomes next weekend’s game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the first road battle of the year for the defending champions.

Originally, the Eagles seemed to have a slight advantage against a Buccaneers team that was a disaster for the most part last year after being the only team in the NFC South not to make the playoffs.

Not to mention, Tampa Bay would be going with Ryan Fitzpatrick under center while Jameis Winston serves a three-year suspension as a result from an incident with an Uber driver in 2016.

Nothing against Fitzpatrick, but the veteran quarterback has always been one of those frustrating players to watch since he would always shine one week, only to look like a complete bust the next. And while the Buccaneers set him up in the best way possible to succeed on offense in the mean time, the chances of the team being able to get by without Winston seemed like a long shot.

After Sunday’s performance against the New Orleans Saints, Fitzpatrick (417 passing yards with five combined touchdowns) all of a sudden seems like he’s going to be more of a threat than originally expected for Philadelphia.

For obvious reasons, there wasn’t any concern over the approach the Eagles were going to take since they know wins in the NFL are far from a guarantee, but seeing Fitzpatrick perform the way he did will make them be extra cautious.

Thanks to a duo in Mike Evans and DeSean Jackson at receiver along with the defense coming off a better performance than expected against the Saints, the Buccaneers could certainly pull off the win in their home opener when taking on the Eagles.

Then again, when seeing how Philadelphia was able to keep Matt Ryan (21 of 43 for 251 yards with an interception) in check for the most part in Week 1, the defense has to feel confident about their chances in doing the same with Fitzpatrick.

Basically no one was giving Fitzpatrick that much of a chance to succeed against the Saints on Sunday, and now that he helped the Buccaneers pull off one of the most unexpected wins from Week 1, the pressure now comes to continue that success against the Eagles.

If this ends up being the case for Fitzpatrick, Philadelphia’s defense could be in for a surprise challenge during their second game of the 2018 season.