No reason for Birds to be under criticism
The Eagles trudged into the locker room the other night at the Linc, sweaty but smiling, their bodies bruised but not their senses.
They had just played a preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, doing about everything they thought their fans would have wanted to see. Unlike his two predecessors, the rookie head coach was prepared, in command, in control of the clock and the tempo and his timeouts and his play calls. The rookie quarterback, who’d arrived at the cost of years of draft promises, was bouncy and willing and strong. Their starting quarterback led one drive, a brief one, good for a touchdown. Their special teams were aggressive and effective. Their defense, which was tortured by Jameis Winston and the Bucs in a 28-point loss last season, this time had Winston under control.
They won, the Eagles did, 17-9, but as in any preseason game, winning is only a bonus. Yet that was better than not having the bonus. Give them that. Trouble is, the Eagles were given … nothing.
Though there will always be multiple views of any sporting event, something odd, something wrong seeped from Doug Pederson’s first game as an NFL head coach: The Eagles were publicly blistered, criticzed for everything, from how short their passes were to how long their second-string quarterback played.
Had they just won the Rose Bowl? Not exactly. But were they a useful, presentable, successful football team? Yes.
“Overall there’s a lot of areas we can continue to improve on,” Pederson said. “Obviously to start the game with the special teams turnover and then to score offensively was a positive. And the way I think our first defense kind of got after them a little bit, too, was very, very pleasing.”
Perhaps it is because fans have been teased and ultimately embarrassed for so long that they are prepared, for once, for disaster. Many have been disrupting basketball and baseball games for a generation with E-A-G-L-E-S boasts, only to realize that the usual training-camp chatter was cheap, the gold-standard, dreamteam stuff. But the rampaging sense of doom about the 2016 Eagles is just as misplaced.
That Lane Johnson became the first consumer in history to buy something online that was not precisely as advertised has contributed to the fans’ depression. Johnson, 26, was the No. 4 overall pick in a draft, as important to the Birds’ rebuilding as Jahlil Okafor will be to the Sixers. If he misses 10 games due to a failed drug test, he will be tough to replace, his absence causing waves of trouble along the offensive line. But every team has an issue – an injury, a failed player, a suspension, something. It’s early. The Eagles can figure it out.
“I think we are where we need to be,” offensive coordinator Frank Reich said after practice Monday at the NewsControl Compound. “You have to balance it as a coach. You’re never happy. You walk off the practice field every day remembering the plays that didn’t go well. You walk away from a preseason game remembering the plays that didn’t go well. But you have to keep balance.
“The whole goal is if we are fighting and pushing to get better, then that process works itself out over time.”
If the offensive line crumbles, the Eagles will too. But if it can give him some time, Sam Bradford can be a top-tier quarterback. Not that his one mini-series Thursday proved much, but had Bradford been intercepted, or sacked, or had he fumbled, the fans would have been demanding he surrender his car keys, passport and Linc parking pass. Instead, he completed a pass and watched Ryan Mathews score a touchdown.
“I think we’ve had a really good camp and a really good spring session during OTAs,” Bradford said. “I feel like we’ve really built on that this summer. Obviously next week and the following week will really tell more in terms of where we’re at. But as far as the way practice has gone, I think we’ve really made a lot of improvement.
“I’m not saying that we’re clicking on all cylinders, because there still a lot of work for us to do. But I think in that time, we’ve come a long way.”
They have been fine. They are in a creaky division race that could be won with a .500 record. They have a coach who is operating in a sensible way, not by some goofy set-to-music tempo-setting scam. And their defense, which was said to have the potential to be suffocating, was excellent in its first game.
“I don’t know if you get any points for progress,” coordinator Jim Schwartz said. “That’s our mission. We have to accomplish it. I think you saw it at times. One player complements another.”
The Eagles have had a good camp, with a sensible tempo, with a preseason victory, with a veteran quarterback hitting his prime and an improving defense. As their head coach said, that should be very, very pleasing. And it should be to anyone not too quickly influenced by critics.
To contact Jack McCaffery, email him at jmccaffery@21st-centurymedia.com; follow him on Twitter @JackMcCaffery