Andy Reid said this week that he planned for his first team offense to play the first quarter. But after Michael Vick led them straight down the field for a TD on the first series, Reid had decided he had seen enough. Vick connected on four of his six passes, including a nice 42 yarder to Riley Cooper and a three yard TD pass to Brent Celek.
Vick was crisp with his passes, the offensive lane gave him all the time in the world… overall you probably could not have asked for more out of the first team in the first preseason game of the year. Vick said during the game that he was just happy to face another defense for once...
"Just to get back out for a preseason game after not having the OTA's and the minicamps and the offseason strength and conditioning programs, it was good to get back and to get out there to have an opportunity to just play against another defense." Vick said on the sideline, "We play against our defense every day in practice, they blitz us every day and we just wanted to play against somebody else."
When the second team came in, we saw some good things from some of the playmakers as well. Ronnie Brown especially was impressive despite getting very little blocking. I thought generally Vince Young did good things despite being under pretty heavy pressure for most of the game.
Other offensive performances of note would be Chad Hall, who caught five passes for 82 yards. Dion Lewis only ran for 26 yards on 10 carries, but looked pretty impressive when he had holes.
The Eagles defense was really the story of the night registering six sacks and picking off two passes. The effect of Jim Washburn on the front seven could be seen almost immediately as the Eagles constantly brought pressure. Ravens’ backup Tyrod Taylor was able to avoid some of that pressure with his athleticism, but he was also in a bit over his head in the passing game and the Eagles certainly took advantage of that. Rookie second round pick Jaiquwan Jarrett and Jarrad Page both got picks in their Eagle debuts.
All in all a solid preseason debut. As with any preseason game there’s only so much you can take from it, but more than anything you just don’t want to see injuries or poor play from your starters. King Dunlap did walk off with a knee injury, but nothing seemed serious and the first team offense and defense played well. Eagles take the win 13-6.