Knee-Jerk Reactions: Colts vs. Eagles
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- No Sam Bradford, no Kiko Alonso, no DeMeco Ryans, no Zach Ertz, no DeMarco Murray, but still, no shortage of compelling story lines.
After all, it was football, and thanks to a seven month Birds drought, Philadelphia was starving for it.
Sunday's Eagles preseason opener against the Colts, a little appetizer, was quite delicious.
Defensively:
- Fletcher Cox, Cedric Thorton, and especially Bennie Logan were in midseason form.
- This front-seven is elite.
- The Colts had 28 rushing yards on 12 carries with 13:07 left in the second quarter, granted Zurlon Tipton was running the ball for Indy.
- Brandon Graham was buzzing out there, as he was a rare starting linebacker who saw some playing time (Kiko Alonso, DeMeco Ryans, and Mychal Kendricks did not play).
- Monster season coming for BG.
- Marcus Smith was on the field doing positive things! I think many have unfairly written him off too early.
- Jaylen Watkins, who I thought looked excellent in the few practices I watched this summer, started in the slot for the Birds.
- In third quarter, he gave up a 16-yard slant and got decked out of his show on a nine-yard TD run by Josh Robinson.
- The Eagles' secondary was pretty solid in coverage early on. The linebackers however, struggled in the first quarter against the Colts' talented first unit.
- Thankfully, that was mostly Eagle backups: Najee Goode and Jordan Hicks.
- Eric Rowe got beat multiple times and was out of position a couple of other times, but made an impressive punch-out, strip tackle to force a fumble early in the second quarter.
- E.J. Biggers showed off his speed, going stride for stride with Colts burner Phillip Dorsett on a deep pass that Dorsett actually caught out-of-bounds.
- Biggers also had a third-down diving pass breakout late in the first half, forcing a punt...
- ...which led to a 92-yard punt return touchdown by Barner!
- Oh, and safety Ed Reynolds had two second half picks. Good for Ed, although not sure it means much.
Offensively:
- Mark Sanchez was horrendous. He didn't make one accurate throw.
- However, he had all day to throw the ball and Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor bailed him out, once each.
- Agholor scored on a ridiculous catch and run for six. Phew, kid can move a little.
- However, he did have a bad drop in second quarter, something he has been prone to do in practice.
- Miles Austin caught a 39-yard pass from Matt Barkley late in the first quarter, and seemed comfortable in offense. Don't sleep on Miles this season!
- Josh Huff and Riley Cooper were invisible, although neither played very much. Zero combined catches, just one target for Huff and none for Coop.
- Del Val product Rasheed Bailey can snag.
- Speaking of Barkley, he had a near perfect first drive that resulted in a Kenjon Barner TD run, but then he quickly turned back into the blah backup QB that he is.
- OK, to be fair he was a tiny bit better than blah. 12-20, 190 yards, one pick.
- Andrew Gardner did a really nice job at right-guard. Think he's the front-runner to win the starting spot there.
- Tebow mania! Tebow entered the game midway through the third, looked comfortable for a bit and had the offense moving, but his inaccuracy was evident. Can run, fun to watch, but he can't throw.
Special Teams:
- Missed PAT from Cody Parkey and a missed 34-yard FG.
- We just assume Parkey is a reliable kicker after one good season. But...what if he's not?
- Having said that, it's preseason game one. Not really worried.
