Eagles-Patriots Notebook: Offense Clicking
PHILADELPHIA – Little by little, you can see this Eagles offense coming together.
It clicked a bit in Thursday night’s preseason opener and took another step forward against the Patriots on Monday, with Quez Watkins continuing to impress and Jalen Reagor asserting himself against a Patriots defense that didn’t quite win the day.
“The more reps you get with everything that you do, that brings confidence and I think his confidence every day it’s going up and that’s what we need,” said Jalen Hurts, who also enjoyed a nice morning against New England. “We need that with everybody, so when a person’s number is called, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind they’ll make the play. You climb this mountain, it takes time. We value every rep we have, and we’ll continue to work to get to where we want to be.”
Reagor is without a doubt a player who thrives on confidence. Getting him involved and keeping him involved even after a mistake – such as a dropped pass or poor route – is key for him.
Hurts knows that.
“It’s always an uphill climb and we just want to continue to take those steps every day,” said the QB.
Having the entire offense installed in eight practices has no doubt helped the Eagles fine-tune the finer points of it. They know what they are doing, and they seem to be crisp in doing it.
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What they are doing well and showing a lot of are wide receiver screens and quick-hitting plays to running backs out of the backfield.
The more intricate pieces to the offense are no doubt being kept under wraps, including the RPO stuff.
“We try to challenge ourselves every day to do it right, play at a high level,” said Hurts. “We’re obviously getting new looks, different looks, a different opponent, so we just wanted to execute. I felt today was good.”
CAM A FAN
Patriots QB Cam Newton was asked what he had seen out of Hurts during the practice.
“Hurts was rolling,” said the veteran quarterback. “There are a lot of guys that I have admired from afar and just to see the state of the NFL that has so much athleticism at the quarterback position is something to smile about. Jalen is a person I followed all through college. Hearing so much about him, really from high school, from Houston. To see him out here, he was fluid and will always be competing.”
CALL IT A WIN
Nick Sirianni hasn’t released his running total for the winner of Monday’s practice, but it certainly looked like it was a good day for the Eagles, both offensively and defensively, especially in 11-on-11 work.
On defense, it started along the line.
It’s not always easy to tell sacks or when a play is blown dead, but it was easy to tell one sack from Fletcher Cox when he burst through the line and wrapped his arms around Newton before Newton could get rid of the ball.
There was probably another Cox sack along the away and Javon Hargrave sure looked like he was on the other side of the line of scrimmage more often than not.
Now comes the hard part, winning Day 2.
“When we played the Ravens (in a 2019 joint practice) I feel like we did really good that first day, then the next day I won’t know what happened, but they came out ready to play,” said DE Brandon Graham. “So, it’s how you respond.”
TRADE PROPOSAL
Given the struggles of the Patriots offensive line, my deal would look like this: OT Andre Dillard to New England in exchange for WR N’Keal Harry.
Neither player has been what their respective teams had hoped they would be when the Eagles took Dillard No. 22 in the 2019 draft and the Patriots took Harry 10 picks later.
Andre Dillard (left) and Zach Ertz take the field prior to Monday's practice against the Patriots
Ed Kracz/SI.com Eagle Maven
Harry’s unhappy in New England and Jordan Mailata has taken the left tackle job by the horns and Matt Pryor – yes, Matt Pryor – has done well at the tackle spot these past few days.
Harry would likely mean the end of Travis Fulgham’s time on the roster, but Fulgham’s camp has been mostly uneven and Harry looked awfully good on Monday.
JOE COOL
Bill Belichick may have been tempted to mutter under his breath, “why didn’t we sign Joe Flacco?”
Flacco looked like a better quarterback on Monday than either Newton, rookie Mac Jones, or veteran Brian Hoyer.
Flacco’s pass to Andre Patton from just inside the 10-yard line for a touchdown during team drills was a masterpiece and the QB was on the money with a lot of his timing throws to backs and tight ends.
Newton, meanwhile, nearly had to have his tight end Matt LaCosse taken to the hospital with an errant throw that led him right into Derek Barnett for a crunching collision. LaCosse took a while to get up then walked slowly with the trainers into the medical tent never to be seen again for the rest of the practice.
“No one wants to see their teammate carted off or laying down on the ground after a play,” said Newton. “By no means did I intend to have any type of disaster on that play.”
From the perspective of Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon, he thought it could have been worse.
“I saw it was bang-bang,” sad Gannon. “I thought (Barnett) did a good job of pulling off of him. I know it's unfortunate the guy went down. We talked about it. Nick (Sirianni) did a really good job (Sunday) night with the team. ‘Here are our expectations, this is how we are going to practice.’
“We had a meeting with the Patriots coaches, ‘This is the expectations, here’s how we are keeping guys healthy, keeping guys up.’ I think he really – it was unfortunate because it was bang-bang; I don't think the quarterback even saw him. I thought he did a good job of keeping up and not making that a huge collision.”
WILSON PICK
Newton also threw an interception in the end zone to linebacker Eric Wilson that thwarted a drive. Newton explained the situation the teams were practicing, saying that it was third-and goal from the 4-yard line, the Patriots were down four and there were seven seconds left.
“Rather than taking a sack, you have to give somebody a chance and that’s all it pretty much was - a chance in the end zone,” he said. “I know our job is to protect the football but given the circumstances of the play, … of course I’m going to give my guy a chance.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Any time in training camp, you can get embarrassed on any play, and I’m not trying to get embarrassed, put on Twitter, making memes and all that stuff. That’s just how it is in training camp, but other than that, I was happy (with my play today).”
– Eagles RT Lane Johnson when asked if he was more intense practicing against other players than usual when going against teammates.
Lane Johnson showing intensity as he takes the field on Monday
Ed Kracz/SI.com Eagle Maven
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
