Bowen: Eagles' wideouts coming off awful game

THEY MANAGED to tiptoe away from the scene without attracting a lot of notice, in all the hubbub over Carson Wentz breaking a rib and Lane Johnson facing a possible 10-game PED suspension, but the Eagles' wide receivers were awful in last Thursday's preseason opener.

The longest reception by a wideout went for 10 yards. It belonged to Paul Turner, an undrafted rookie from Louisiana Tech, who also was the team's leading receiver for the evening, with six catches for 34 yards.

The two longest receptions went to tight ends - 19 yards to Zach Ertz and 16 to M.J. McFarland. With Jordan Matthews sidelined by a knee injury, the field was wide open for 2015 No. 1 pick Nelson Agholor, 2014 third-round pick Josh Huff, former Giants second-round pick Rueben Randle, or former Rams and Ravens starter Chris Givens to step up and make a case. None of them did. Turner was the lone bright spot. Eagles quarterbacks passed for 114 yards, with several drops.

On TV, analyst Mike Mayock noted over and over again how the wideouts weren't getting separation. The second- and third-team offensive lines fell all over themselves, meaning neither Chase Daniel nor Carson Wentz had a lot of time to track slow-developing routes, but as Mayock noted, some of the pressure developed after an NFL QB would reasonably have been expected to get rid of the ball.

Offensive coordinator Frank Reich was preaching "consistency" when he spoke with reporters on Monday, after an offensive output of 187 net yards and a dozen first downs in a 17-9 victory over Tampa set up by a couple of early short-field touchdowns. The Bucs turned the ball over five times; the Eagles didn't score a point that wasn't set up by a turnover.

Actually, Reich's group seemed pretty consistently dull and ineffective Thursday, but in the grand NFL preseason tradition, the Eagles weren't really running their new Doug Pederson offense, they stayed intentionally "vanilla" to keep from putting innovations on film. And of course, many of the starters were taken out after three plays, wideouts excepted.

"I think we're where we need to be," Reich said. "You need to have a sense of urgency, but understand it is a process, and that's the maturity and the perspective that it takes. You can't get caught up in one bad play, but you've gotta be accountable for one bad play . . . If we're fighting and pushing to get better, then that process works itself out over time."

Pederson's take was a little more pungent, when he was asked over the weekend about dropped passes in the opener.

"Well, it's something, obviously, they've got to continue to work on," he said. "We set the JUGS (ball machine) up after practice and we just keep firing away. We keep firing away. It's a pride thing."

Randle, 6-2, 208, wasn't offered a second contract by the Giants after catching 128 passes for 1,735 yards and 11 touchdowns the past two seasons. This was not because the Giants are opposed to having good players; it was because Randle's work habits raised a lot of questions. When he came here, Randle, 25, vowed to put those questions behind him, but Thursday's low-energy, one-catch-for-3-yards effort, in 32 snaps, did exactly the opposite.

"Not good," Randle said Monday. "It just wasn't a good day for me."

Randle said he realized Thursday night that the training-camp grind had taken a toll.

"Get my body right," Randle said, when asked what he thinks he needs to do to make a better showing this Thursday in Pittsburgh. "I wasn't at all" feeling sharp physically in the opener.

There were a number of Randle misadventures. He dropped a third-down pass, and then there was his casual swat out of bounds of a Huff fumble, incurring a penalty for "illegal batting."

"I didn't know that rule. That's why I thought it was the right thing to do. We learn from it and move on from it," Randle said.

Asked about Randle, Reich said: "It's a preseason game, there's plays we can all improve. Coaches, players, we all can improve. There's flashes of stuff, but the whole goal for our offense is consistency."

Agholor also played 32 snaps. He was targeted twice, didn't catch a pass, certainly should have snagged the first ball thrown by Wentz, memorably waved at a defender while trying to block for a screen. Huff managed two catches for 8 yards in his 16 snaps, including the play where he fumbled.

Givens, 26, was brought in with the hope he could be the deep threat the Eagles haven't had since they discarded DeSean Jackson. He got only five snaps Thursday, was targeted once, didn't catch the pass. In practices Givens has had moments, but not nearly enough of them to project him as any kind of difference-maker.

"I think we did some good things and some bad things" against the Bucs, Givens said. "I think we've got to be more consistent doing the things that we're supposed to do, like catching the ball and getting open. I feel like if we just focus on the little things every day and stop making excuses and come out here and do our job, we'll be OK."

Givens said the emphasis wasn't on the long ball Thursday.

"I don't think it's necessary to go out there and just go 'bombs away' in the first preseason game," he said. "When the opportunity comes, I'm sure we'll take advantage of it."

Turner played a team-high 47 snaps. He isn't big (5-10, 193) or exceptionally fast (4.55 40 on his pro day), and he wasn't even La. Tech's top receiver last season, but he never seems to miss anything thrown anywhere near him, which makes him stand out in this camp, for sure.

Turner said wide receivers coach Greg Lewis also pushed the "consistency" message in reviewing the game with his players. "Do a better job of getting in and out of your breaks, be physical, just little things," Turner said. "For me, it's just attacking the ball more, being more physical at the line of scrimmage."

Reich said Monday that Turner "is a good route runner. He's got good feet, he's got good hands. I think that's really a big part of playing consistently . . . The quarterback has to know where you're going to be. Quarterbacks want to have the confidence to know that we're going to make the play when we come to him. Paul has done a pretty nice job."

He could use some company there.

@LesBowen

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