August 12, 2021
The Eagles lost their preseason opener, 24-16, to the Steelers. Womp womp.
But it was the performances of a handful of players that will be the main takeaway for fans after Thursday night, not the meaningless scoreboard.
The starters got just about two series of work to get a feel for the speed of the game and live hitting. The backups got a chance to shine, and while some of them did improve their stock and chances of making the 53-man roster, we've decided to focus on players who almost definitely will be making an impact on Sundays in the fall.
Just in case you missed the game (and you can be forgiven, thanks for reading with us today), here's who played well.
Hurts didn't set the world on fire in his two series in Thursday's first quarter. In fact, he was a pretty non-impressive 3-for-7 throwing the football and his lone scramble went for just four yards. But he made quick decisions, which is nice to see from the second year pro.
He completed his first two passes, including a nice catch and run by Dallas Goedert. A Zach Ertz drop likely cost him a chance at pushing toward the end zone, and a second drop on a toss on the money also hurt his stats.
A few of his other incompletions were actually very good, as he was able to scramble out of harm's way and keep from taking a costly sack or turning the game over. Fans would no doubt be feeling pretty good about the presumed QB1 if their short memories weren't immediately infatuated with a Quez attack.
Is Watkins the second best wide receiver on the Eagles roster? After being a camp darling and earning praise as the most improved player so far, via Jimmy Kempski's media poll, the second year speedster was dazzling in the team's open practice at the Linc last week.
It wasn't a fluke. After breaking free and being under thrown by Hurts early, Joe Flacco hit him on the screen pass and the sixth round pick out of Southern Mississippi sprinted 79 yards for a score (to put the Eagles ahead 10-0 in the first).
Any Quez-tions???#PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/dyzmqSRyWl
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 13, 2021
If Hurts goes down, the offense might look different, because, you know, they're vastly different players. But the Eagles will probably be equally as competitive with Flacco playing as a game manager in 2021.
In just over a quarter, the Super Bowl winning veteran completed 10 of his 17 passes (including touchdown to Watkins) for 178 yards and a 114.3 QB rating. He was as good as you'd hope a backup would be in a preseason opener.
The Eagles kicker looks poised to bounce back after a pretty bad 2020. He made his first three attempts, from 47 yards, 47 yards and 50 yards respectively. It's nice to not have to worry about that part of the team.
The Birds' starting linebacker was all over the field Thursday during his brief time on the turf, making seven tackles and seemingly getting in on every play around the middle of the field. After coming out of nowhere to make the most of his playing time last season, it looks like that may not have been a fluke.
Gainwell appears to kind of be tailor made for the Darren Sproles role on this team (though yeah, he's bigger and yeah, Doug Pederson is gone). He is good in pass protection out of the back field and is able to catch the ball anywhere on the field while using some agility to make guys miss.
Thursday he had a pair of catches for 16 yards, and a pair of runs for 14 more.
He's not a player, obviously. But this technically was the first game he ever coached as "the guy" and he did well. The result, obviously leaves a bit to be desired, but he didn't get himself in any trouble, the team mostly looked disciplined as far as penalties go (particularly by the starters) and he mixed it up with the play calls — going deep a few times, mixing short and medium range passes, runs from the gun and under center, and so on. It got sloppy at the end with the third stringers in, but that's to be expected.
While this is surely a vanilla version of what the Eagles and their in-season schemes will be, his performance Thursday didn't give fans any reason to worry and that's definitely a big positive as the preseason continues.
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