Does It Matter?

The Eagles were the better team in February, but there is no question that the Patriots were the superior team on Thursday night. A few people wanted to know if that mattered at all.

Yes.

And no.

The fact the Eagles lost doesn’t matter. Preseason results don’t mean a thing without a lot of context.

Remember when the Eagles went 4-0 in the preseason with Sam Bradford. Fun times. Amazing run.

— Time's Yours (@times_yours) August 17, 2018

The Eagles were so dominant that summer that I bought in hook, line and sinker. The Eagles looked like a machine and it was hard not to get pulled in. But I didn’t account enough for the fact that preseason opponents weren’t gameplanning for Chip Kelly’s no-huddle attack. That offense got defenses off-balance and made them look silly.

The regular season started and things were very different. Teams were ready for the no-huddle and the Eagles. Instead of going to the Super Bowl, the team went 7-9 and Chipster got fired.

It would be easy to just dismiss Thursday’s loss as a meaningless preseason game. I don’t think that is fully true.

We’re less than a month from the regular season starting. You don’t expect perfection, but want the team to show more good than bad. Thursday’s game was a slopfest. There were mental mistakes. There were physical mistakes. It wasn’t what you want to see in Week 2.

The other issue is that wasn’t a bunch of third stringers out there all game. The starters played a quarter or more. The backups played most of the game. Some third stringers were mixed into rotational situations. The third string O-line didn’t get on the field until there were two minutes left in the game.

Context is important. Nick Foles was rusty so that made the whole offense look rusty. Big V didn’t help matters by playing his worst game in a while. The Pats seemed to blitz a lot. That got the best of the backup O-line early on and led to some ugly drives. Tom Brady played the whole first half. Brady against backups is a huge advantage to the Pats.

This upcoming week will really give us an idea of where this team is. The third preseason game is a dress rehearsal for the regular season. The starters usually play into the third quarter. The Eagles will still be missing some key players, but there will be enough talent on the field that the team should look pretty good.

If we see another sloppy performance filled with bad blocking, poor tackling, penalties, turnovers and other assorted mistakes, it will be fair to wonder what’s going on.

If there is an upside to the bad game, it should have gotten the Eagles attention. We’ve heard all spring and summer about what a focused team this is and how they are looking forward and not in the rearview mirror. If there was any Super Bowl hangover, losing to the Pats like that should have cured it. Preseason or not, nobody wants to lose to Brady and his merry band of Patriots.

I’m not worried about the Eagles, but it sure would be nice to see them come out and play well this week. The opener against the Falcons is just around the corner.

*****

The #Seahawks cut former #Eagles first-round DE Marcus Smith, who has been out of practice for a couple days while dealing with a personal issue.

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 17, 2018

Smith showed promise last year. No idea what’s going on with him, but Seattle is trying to run a highly competitive camp this year so missing time for a personal issue wasn’t a good idea.

Some team will probably take a flyer on him. Teams are desperate for pass rushers.

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