Sudfeld Soars, But Eagles Crash

Posted: August 17th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Sudfeld Soars, But Eagles Crash

So, that was one ugly game. Errant passes, bad drops, bad blocking, missed tackles, sloppy coverage, too many penalties and too many turnovers. Aside from that, it was a splendid evening in Foxboro.

Nick Foles stunk. Good Nick can be really good. Bad Nick can really bad. History shows that he needs the right circumstances to succeed. Missing key receivers, having a vanilla gameplan and being rusty himself…that’s a formula for crappy play, which is what we saw. Foles got hurt and left the game with a shoulder injury.

This performance isn’t a big deal. Foles struggled last year against the Raiders and the Cowboys when the Eagles did more resting than practicing. He needs good practice reps to help bring out the best in him. Foles got some time this week, but was still taking it slow after dealing with an injury. He was rusty tonight and it showed.

My biggest focus is the struggles of Big V. The young LT had a really bad game. He gave up pressure on a regular basis. Without studying the tape, he seemed to take deep pass sets a lot and got bull-rushed right into the QB. He didn’t remind me at all of the guy from last year’s playoffs.

There were a couple of major positives. Nate Sudfeld had some great moments. He was up and down at times so you can’t say he had a great game, but his highlights were impressive. He made a spectacular throw to Shelton Gibson for a gain of 57.

Sudfeld hit Rashard Davis, Richard Rodgers and Gibson with TD passes. Sudfeld dealt with heavy pressure at times. He got the ball out as best he could and gave his receivers a chance to make plays for him. That’s what you want in a backup QB. You need a guy who can make things happen. Sudfeld needs to be more consistent, but there is no denying his talent.

Gibson had the best game of his young career, going 5-90-1. He caught the deep ball, showing good speed and hands. Gibson worked the middle effectively on some underneath routes. The TD came when he ran a great route to get wide open. Gibson averaged 30.3 yards per KOR, including one that went for 46 yards.

It would appear the light has gone on for Gibson. He’s always had talent. He’s now figuring out how to use it.

Ronald Darby was the one defensive player who really stood out. He had a couple of passes thrown his way and he could have picked both of them off. Darby still doesn’t have good hands so we had to settle for pass break-ups. Darby looks ready to have a big year.

Sidney Jones was up and down. He was credited with 4 solo tackles, 2 PBUs and a TFL. His lowlight came when Cordarrelle Patterson caught a short pass in front of Jones, gave him a hard fake and then had an easy 10-yard path to the end zone. Jones was on the ground, completely faked out. Overall, I liked the way he competed and felt pretty good about him.

Cameron Johnston averaged 48.7 yards on seven punts. I thought he had a pretty good night.

The Eagles coaches have a lot to clean up. Forget about winning and losing. This is the preseason. A team’s record can be deceiving. I do think the coaches have to be a bit ticked off at the sloppy play. There are just too many mistakes. That’s something Doug Pederson and his staff must work on.

Quick Hits

  • Matt Jones was terrible. You only keep him around so he can eat up reps in the preseason finale.
  • Dallas Goedert had a terrible block on a goal line run that got blown up. He had another good night of catching the ball.
  • Bryce Treggs did some good things. He’s making another run at a roster spot.
  • DeAndre Carter has caught my eye a few times.
  • Rashard Davis is an awful punt returner and should be taken off that job ASAP. They are flushing those reps down the toilet by giving them to him. On the bright side, he did have a nice TD catch.
  • I didn’t notice any wild snaps from Isaac Seumalo.
  • Jordan Mailata and the #3 OL only played the last 2 minutes. Very odd. I thought he did look better than last week.
  • The Pats were throwing some heavy blitzes at the backup OL. That can give you misleading results for both sides.
  • Michael Bennett seemed more active and disruptive.
  • Bruce Hector played a fair amount and caught my eye a few times. Encouraging performance.
  • Destiny Vaeao had some good pass rushes.
  • Jordan Hicks was sloppy as a tackler.
  • Elijah Qualls moved down the depth chart and didn’t seem to play well.
  • Winston Craig continues to catch my eye.
  • The Eagles run defense was not good (140 yards). I don’t know who is at fault. Part of that was tackling.
  • Avante Maddox did some good things, but he was burned for a TD.

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