Hall of Fame Game thread

[The BIGSTUD]

I hate when people say come with. If you are going to take the "me" out of that sentence, then why not just take with "with" out of it too, and say are you going to come?

[QB Eagles]

Some friends of mine were heading out to a birthday party and one of the girls turned to me and said "we're fixin' to leave now, you comin' with?"

You shoulda said something like "I reckon."

[The BIGSTUD]

Some more thoughts:

It's hard to make out  Matt McCoy's performance because he got blown up on some plays, but other times he made solid tackles and made plays.

Also, I wouldn't worry about the RBs just yet. If Bruce Perry isn't messed up too bad and is ready for the regular season, then he should run just fine behind the first team offensive line. He had no holes to run through. The 3rd team line was just awful. But those fumbles have got to go. He's worse than LJ Smith. This isn't a new thing either, he did it last year too.

We do need help at receiver though, not like this is breaking news. It tells you something when Andy takes Baskett out with the first team. I think Lelie or some other receiver will be here by the end of this week.

[Magical_Retard]

actually i liked what collinsworth had to say. he did say that we have too much talent and we are too well coached to not turn it around and he thinks we are going to be fine. i didnt catch the whole thing he was saying but overall he was very positive on the eagles but yeah our reserves looked terrible, esp at qb.

[BigEd76]

ESPN headline:   

Eagles extend Dawkins  | Lose to Raiders; pick hurt

a pick from 2 years ago, yeah

[Rome]

You obviously missed the last bit of his comments.

Anyone can see that the Eagles are loaded with talent on both sides of the ball.  But he just had to turn around and backhand them with the depth comment.

Like I said... he's a fricken douchebag.

[rjs246]

I wish I felt confident in Westbrook lasting an entire season without injury, because he looked rather good out there.

Also, am I the only one who roots for backups to knock themselves out with gruesome, NC-17, injuries in preseason games? I mean, something's got to spice up the shteinfest that comes with watching untalented people play football...

[PhillyPhreak54]

Phreak is fixin for a decent RB

I already have a headache. Some of the nitwits are already crying for Stephen Davis to be signed. Or to trade for Travis Henry.

[MDS]

Most importantly, how big of a doofus did Morningweig look like tonight?

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Blocking or no blocking, the backup QB and RB situation might be even worse than the WR's.

[MadMarchHare]

For all the hype, McDougle looked like shtein out there.  He was getting blown off the line by a chipping TE every time I watched.  Ugh.

[Diomedes]

No one has said anything about Gaither.  He seems to have lead the team in tackles and had a couple for a loss..was he playing well?

[MadMarchHare]

CANTON, Ohio - NBC probably was hoping for more than one series of Donovan McNabb and the Eagles' first-team offense when it slotted the Birds for last night's Hall of Fame game against the Oakland Raiders, which the Raiders won, 16-10.

But it turned out Andy Reid wasn't issuing a solid commitment when he said his first-teamers would play the first quarter. McNabb and his re-energized, Terrell Owensless teammates moved 61 yards in nine plays for a touchdown the first time they had the ball, and Reid, as he has done before in preseason games, decided that was all he needed to see, the rest of the nation be darned.

"I thought the 'ones' did a nice job, the limited time they were in," Reid said afterward. Asked about the early end of the evening for the offensive starters, Reid said: "Well, they got nine plays. I wasn't going to let 'em go a quarter. If it was two series, it was two series."

Reid does mean some things he says - six of those nine plays were runs, all by Brian Westbrook for 32 yards and the TD, scored on a 1-yard plunge through the right side. Reid has vowed to rediscover running. We'll go out on a limb and predict last night's mix of two-thirds running and one-third passing for the starters won't hold up throughout the season.

"It felt great," Westbrook said. "Coach told us early that he wanted to kind of set the tone with the running game, and that's what we did. The offensive line was out there early, opening up holes. I thought, really, on a couple of runs, I could have scored. I tripped up a little bit... but the offensive line did a great job, and hopefully, that's how it will be. We've certainly committed a lot of practice time to the running game, and we did it out there in the first preseason game."

You don't want to ascribe too much importance to the opening drive of a preseason game, but the Eagles definitely looked sharp and showed a sense of purpose.

"This is something that's serious for us," McNabb said after completing all three of his passes, for 29 yards. "We were prepared to come out and have a good showing."

McNabb's longest completion went for 14 yards, to Westbrook. And no, there were no long or even medium-length throws attempted, but we are just talking about one series here.

The first-team defense played just two series, and was equally dominant, giving up no first downs. New defensive-end acquisition Darren Howard moved to tackle on third down, with Trent Cole taking Howard's spot, and Cole ended the second series by sacking Aaron Brooks on third-and-5.

"It was exciting and it was exhilarating to get out there and get that fresh start," said Howard, who played his first six NFL seasons in New Orleans. "It was important for us to set the tone, and I think we did that. It went fast, but we did what we had to do when we were in there."

The rest of the game was much more of a mixed bag, as might be expected when you're playing rookies and deep subs against someone else's rookies and deep subs.

"I saw some things from our young guys that we need to work on," Reid said. He obviously did not like his team's two interceptions and three lost fumbles.

Fifth-round rookie linebacker Omar Gaither exemplified those ups and downs. Gaither entered the game in the second quarter for Mark Simoneau and went flying through the middle on his first snap, upending Raiders runner Justin Fargas for a 1-yard loss. Nice debut. But later, Gaither gave up a 27-yard gain on a swing pass when he unwisely abandoned his coverage to chase the quarterback, who hadn't crossed the line of scrimmage.
Linebacker Matt McCoy played a strong game but took a bad unnecessary-roughness penalty, hitting Raiders QB Marques Tuiasosopo well out of bounds. Later in that drive, the Raiders tied the game, 10-10, with a 51-yard Sebastian Janikowski field goal. Janikowski hit two more field goals to give Oakland its final margin.

There were some comforting, familiar sights, as well: David Akers blasted a Hall of Fame game-record 55-yard field goal in the second quarter. Reno Mahe hustled and bustled and showed why he is so hard to cut. J.R. Reed ran around and hit hard and returned kicks on a straight line, just as he did 2 years ago, before suffering a career-threatening injury to his left peroneal nerve.

Birdseed

Suddenly, the Eagles are a whirlwind of activity. They signed Brodrick Bunkley and extended Brian Dawkins this weekend, and last night, the NFL rumor mill was churning again with reports that the Birds were involved with Denver in a possible trade for wide receiver Ashley Lelie. An Eagles source confirmed the Birds have talked to Denver about Lelie, but denied that anything was imminent. Eagles sources say there is no chance the Birds will trade for Oakland's Jerry Porter...

[General_Failure]

His name was never mentioned during the circle jerk of a broadcast, and I never saw his name on a jersey. So, maybe.

[Diomedes]

Thanks MMH, that spells it out nicely.