If you weren’t sure football was back, an electric Lincoln Financial Field would change your mind very quickly. When the Eagle’s stepped through the tunnel Thursday night, they did so with a mission. That mission can’t be completed until February, but the entire team’s locker room knows that the journey starts now.
Eagles’ Defense Dominates in Preseason Win
As the defense took the field a dull roar echoed down to the playing field and the Eagles responded starting the pre-season off right with a huge hit on Joe Flacco. After a swing pass to Ray Rice brought the Ravens into field goal range, they knotted a 53-yarder to take the lead three to nothing.
The Jersey native threw two passes, one to Rice and the other to tight end, Dennis Pitta. On the first drive of the game, the Ravens made no attempt to pass anywhere near Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Cromartie Rodgers.
As Michael Vick trotted onto the field, Lincoln Financial exploded. The Hokie came through on his first play from scrimmage when he delivered a laser to Jason Avant for a 21-yard pass. Five plays later, Vick would give the Philadelphia faithful something to cheer about. After evading pressure, the 31-year-old found Riley Cooper who put the Eagles inside the five-yard line with a circus catch. Brent Celek caught a perfect pass in traffic to give the “Dream Team” their only touchdown of the game.
Vick’s day was done after driving 80-yards in ten plays. Despite Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin being sidelined by injuries, the gunslinger had four completions to four different players. Andy Reid’s quarterback showed great vision and poise delivering passes from sideline to sideline in the bird’s quick pursuit downfield.
The Eagles defensive-line chased Flacco relentlessly and eventually ended his day after a third down sack by Trent Cole forced a punt. After two drives, the Ravens sent zero passes to either of the Eagle’s star corner backs.
Vince Young entered the game and was elusive right off the bat. With his feet moving a mile a minute, the Longhorn found Ronnie Brown on a screen pass for his first completion of the day. The former Dolphin would be the focal point of the Eagle’s second drive 
and after eight runs, the guys in green settled for a field goal. Even though Reid’s offense couldn’t find the end zone, their speed was crucial in wearing down the Raven’s dangerous defense.
Philadelphia added another field goal after Mike Kafka completed a 22-yard pass to Chad Hall to put the birds in the red zone. The Ravens would kick a field goal in the fourth but were never able to stick with the Eagles. Andy Reid’s guys would win the game by a score of 13-3.
Other Notable Performances:
-Darryl Tapp: The former Seahawk led Juan Castillo’s defensive line with two sacks. The line would total six sacks, but wrecked havoc in the backfield on nearly every down. This defense may be on its way back to Philly because the Eagles defensive line has the potential to be the best this city has seen since the early 2000s.
-Riley Cooper: The second year wide receiver found room against Ed Reed and made an acrobatic catch to put the Eagles at the two yard line. Vick’s strike with the former Gator was Cooper’s first pass since the interception against Green Bay that eliminated the Eagles from the playoffs…After seeing the 42-yard reception; I’d say Vick and Cooper’s chemistry is just fine.
-Chad Hall: The undersized wide receiver is the Philadelphia’s best story since Vince Papale. Weighing in at 180 lbs., the 25-year-old served in the American Air Force before being picked up by the birds last year. The gritty slot receiver had five receptions for 82-yards but the most impressive part of his game was his ability to fill any role in Marty Mornhinweg’s offense.
-Mike Kafka: After throwing a pick on his first drive, the Wild Cat would pass for 132-yards. Despite being unable to convert in the red zone, the Chicago native threw some solid passes for short gains.
-Dion Lewis: The 20-year-old running back didn’t do anything spectacular during his ten carries for 26 yards, but he played just as solid as Ronnie Brown. Now I’m not saying the Pitt Panther is going to overcome the former No. 2 pick, but the undersized kid is going to make the Eagles’ secondary back field competition a little more interesting to watch this preseason.
Vince Young has alot of work ahead of him. He needs to be with the Reid and Marty for two full seasons to fix all of his flaws. Plus you cannot fix his IQ, he is as dumb as a box of rocks. Vick is somewhat inteligent and the Eagles transformed him into a great QB. I think they should pray V. Young has a good presean showing and trade him for a pick or a LB.
Anyone else feeling Jake Delhomme as the #2 Back-up..Still has a big arm to throw the deep pass.. delhomme played with the Browns last Seasons so he knows the Holmgem/Reid style of WCO and would probably pick-up the Offense in 2 weeks time where Young it will most likley take a 1/2 of Season or longer
no thanks pman- you can keep your panthers out of here. Young stays. He has a deep throw and he can run. Thats why he’s here and i hope we dont need him this season but he will be fine.
id like to give a “notable performance” to Pman for NOT writting 12 page long pile on every friggin snap. ataboy pauly
Somebody has to be the Jerk, the Villian and play Devil’s Advocate..
These are probably my best attributes so I will continue to call them as I see them..
Favoritism? family name? racism?
Is it ironic that the eagles had Omar Gaither at Linebacker in 2006 and 2007 and put up some pretty good number a couple of ints, sacks and around about a average of around 100 tackles those 2 years. Benched for his “size” and never really saw the field after that.
Then they bring in a undersized rookie casey matthews and automatically start him at MLB? who is unproven at the nfl level? I think thats kind of messed up on Gaithers behalf.
I would use Desean’s (in the near future) contract money to keep Delhomme away from Philly.
I would deal with an angry player/trading Desean and starting Maclin/Smith to keep Delhomme away from the region.
No to Jake, and I’d rather have the “Snake” Plummer instead.
Paulman – “HELLLLLLL NAHHHH” (Will Smith voice)
vricchini- r u kidding me? yikes
only seen the first two offensive series. eagles looked pretty good. something to build on for sure. what was everyones take on danny watkins? he got beat on the cooper catch but other than that the few snaps i did see i thought he was good, redding is no sloutch for the ravens. hope maclin and smith get health soon too.
I dipped into my Kid’s College Fund and am flying J Delhomme to Bethlehem where he will report to Camp Monday with a meeting and workout session with Coach AR adn MM and QB Coach to see if they want to bring him on board, then they will trade VY to the 1st team that has a Injury to one of their QB this pre-season and get a 2nd or 3rd Round pick in return for him… Genius…
1 thing they did that i liked…… spread the field wide wide wide and throw quick slants and such to guys like hall. We have LOTS of speed and talent… we should be able to get the ball out of Vicks hands fast. This will keep him safe.
how was phillip hunt last night?
phillip hunt was actually good but he was against 3rd stringers..He really stood out.
Redskins Punter Sav Rocca- 3 Punts for a 39 Yard average in case anyone is wondering..
SF 49ers Kicker DAvid Akers boots a 59 Yard FG…
Other Teams 1st Game perfomances in Pre-season so far that played tonight
Again, all teams mostly playing back-ups after 1-2 Series and some teams not even playing thier #1’s ..
Redskins 16 – Steelers 7
Lions 34 – Bungles 3
TB Bucs 25 – KC Chiefs 0
Dolphins 28- Falcons 23
NO SAints 17 – 49ers 3
Paul, does that really matter? Your doing what we call NIT PICKING, we got the W, our defense didnt allow a TD, and our offense is the last thing id be worrying about, sheesh…. We play the games in the preseason games for a few reasons, one being that teams can get a feel for game speed… im not worried about the birds offense at all… i look at what we did with the first team offense, they drove down the field and scored a TD on the ravens first team defense, a great defense at that…
I am just not going overboard and over-hyping the Eagles because they scored on their scored on 1st Drive.. ( I already stated that of 3 of 5 completed passes by Vick were fortunate and could have been picks or were not the best targets to go to when other Receivers were wide open…) TThey ran for a measley 2.8 Yard Average and failed on 2 Red-ZOne chances in the 1st HAlf which would have put the game away.. You let teams hang around, you end up losing..
Forgot to update some scores
Redskins 16 – Steelers 7
Lions 34 – Bungles 3
TB Bucs 25 – Chiefs 0
Saints 24 – 49ers 3
Dolphins 28 – FAlcons 23
Ravens obtain WR L Evans from the BIlls for a 4th Round Pick
Ravens WE Corps lost D Mason and TJ Houzamada and is currentlyvery think and inexperienced (outside of A Boldin who is not the player he was a few years ago..).. Evans is s good player and a good pick-up for them ..
Vrich – Gaither not starting had to do with his inability to pickup the scheme and call the defensive plays….in addition, he sucked covering tight ends or backs…..he was an average LB playing on a poor LB corp. The guy was known as “not bright” and didnt put in the effort needed to be a top LB on the Eagles…. lets just say he was LAZY
Of course there are areas to improve in for the birds, but there are more reasons to be very positive about this squad.. we can talk about if vick went elsewhere and this and that, which doesnt make any sense because he threw the ball on the money and i watched the game over and he made the right reads on all his passes, even on the TD pass, yea he could have thrown to avant or other but celek had a step on his defender who i think was ray lewis, he the previous play he threw to avant and he caught it and bobbled it, and in this offense they like to spread the ball around, they have weapons everywhere so they can do it… So great reads by Vick, he looked sharp, very accurate, i even watched to see if he was checking down and he was, he combed the entire field not just his first option… Great drive
Jott, i agree with everything except for the not bright part. The eagles always talked about how smart he was, and how instictive he was, but he lacked the size and speed to do anything impactful… he had the mind just not the intangibles…
O Gaither Eagles career basically ended the game vs the Ravens a few Seasons back where he shied away from contact and was not hitting/blowing up the gaps that he was repsonsible for. He never started a game since.