Three Things to Watch at New England
Three things to watch in Monday night's Eagles at Patriots preseason game
Three Things to Watch at New England
Les Bowen
Three things to watch in Monday night’s Eagles at Patriots preseason game:
1. The Eagles’ defense on third down
A couple of series’ worth of the starters in the preseason opener against the Steelers included such lowlights as giving up a 1-yard fourth-down conversion after allowing 8 yards on third-and-9, 17 yards allowed on third and 11, and a third-and-16 conversion when Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie was called for unnecessary roughness on backup quarterback Byron Leftwich, the hit for which DRC was fined $21,000. This time, tackle, get off the field. The two concepts just might be related.
2. The King’s Reign
Eagles starters will play as much as three quarters, and one guy to watch is left tackle King Dunlap, elevated after Demetress Bell struggled in camp with Howard Mudd’s blocking concepts. I still think the idea was to motivate Bell, not to seriously entertain the King as a seasonlong replacement, but this begins Dunlap’s chance to change that perception.
3. The quarterback
Because the Eagles have gone 11 days between preseason games, you’ve seen a lot of examination of minutiae by all of us covering the team lately, including explorations of the state of Mike Kafka, Nick Foles and Trent Edwards. The only guy taking snaps who really matters remains Michael Vick. We came into camp hoping, with a full offseason of work behind him, to see the Vick of 2010 and not the Vick of 2011. In two series of work against the Steelers, it was the Vick of 2011, not recognizing pressure, holding the ball, not throwing in rhythm. The Patriots should give us a good indication of where Vick is right now.
Even if he's more like the 2011 version, as long as he can just HOLD ON TO THE BALL BETTER, the Iggles will still be better.— yobill626- In 2010, Vick looked terrible during the preseason, and no one expected him to breakout the way he did, especially considering the fact that the offense went through an entire training camp readying itself for a right-handed QB (Kolb). It's no small thing to change to a lefty. If for no other reason, the blind side is now on the right . I sure as hell didn't expect Vick to turn on the switch. He went from "Wildcat" to "Wildman." Everyone thought the Wildcat was hindering Kolb, but turned out that Kolb was hindering the Wildcat.
Until defenses adjusted, Vick was on fire, and I blame Reid for dousing that flame. In my opinion, Reid didn't re-adjust the way he should have.
Reid went max-protect, rather than going to the short, rhythmic passing game or the run game. Because Reid had fallen in love with Jackson going deep, he was determined to force the issue. Before it was all said and done, however, the Giants tied fire to Vick, and he ran for his life the rest of the season.
By overloading their defense on the right, the Giants forced Vick to his right, where he's not nearly as effective. As the season progressed, Vick improved going right, but not nearly enough.
Personally, I'm hoping the "switch" gets turned on again.
According to Reid, Vick's been doing the work for a a few years now. Either it will pay off or it won't, but one thing is certain. It's now or never. - I will be looking intently at the line play particularly Kelce amd to see how the wide 9 play of Ryan. These are my keys— JIM IAQUINTO
- Not convinced Vick is the answer never liked him as a QB hopefully he finally learned how to play QB read defenses etc etc our hopes are in his hands— william20
- Interested to see how the back 7 on defense play this week. All i heard from coach Juan is that they were just playing Vanilla. Well if they don't pick it up, it will be Rocky Road.— watsonmr
Three things I'm looking for: 1) An Andy Reid extension 2)a pass happy offense 3)the beginning of "I need to put my players in a better position" as we underachieve for the 15th consecutive year.- Give the ball to McCoy.— ej610
- Blocking from the offensive line, tackling from the back seven (7) and the game management skills from Foles with the second team.— Dexter
- It would be nice to see Clay Harbor and Bryce Brown get more touches. Fans for what ever really are never 'concerned' with the eagles offense and always place more of the blame towards the defense. Its just preseason but it would be nice to see 'whoever' the QB taking the snaps get the ball out quickly and receivers making plays (catching the ball)— Yes_General
- Seeing Demarcus Ryan make a tackle might be nice— yourdaddy!
- I suggest the Eagles tacklers stop slathering themselves with butter. This has been known to cause poor tackling.— p-diddy
- King Dunlap is not the left tackle on a playoff team.— dragoon6
- Ryans will never get back to the high level of play he exhibited in those two Pro Bowl seasons. NOBODY full recovers from that type injury, ever, so why would Ryans be any different?? He is not the answer at ML and never will be. I have been saying that from the beginning.— sedale
- I'm with Yes_General. I want to see Bryce Brown and Clay Harbor get some action with the Ones. Brown should be on the field this year, if only for four carries a game, even if he can't pass protect. This is a guy who can bust one all the way, and also get you a third and short. He can pass protect on a play-action fake: you fake the handoff to him, he draws defenders, and Vick rolls out.— armchairGM
