The Eagles pick up their first win of the preseason with a 24-13 come from behind win that saw the Eagles score all 24 of their points in the 4th quarter. This was kind of a weird game to evaluate with the 58 minute lightning delay in the middle of the first quarter. Both first team offenses looked pretty out of sorts when they came back from the delay. The Eagles first team was held scoreless and Carolina's first offense managed just 3 points. I was encouraged by the play of our reserves, who I thought got outplayed last week in Pittsburgh. They made the difference tonight.
Stock Up
Sav Rocca - Although he was the guy who shoveled that pass straight into the Carolina player's arms on that comically bad fake FG try... I thought Sav had a nice night. With a wet ball on a soggy field he put two punts inside the 10 and pinned the Panthers back deep. Another punt he booted 58 yards. Rocca ended up putting 5 of his 7 punts inside the 20.
Brian Dawkins - Laid a masive hit on Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone to knock loose a pass that would have been an easy TD. Vintage Dawkins.
Desean Jackson - If not for his play, his stock goes up just for the sheer amount of work he put in tonight. Jackson played the whole game! He had a few drops in the first half but his game leading 7 catches for 71 yards made up for those early drops. Once again he got open with ease, made catches all over the field, and showed an uncanny ability to read zones and find space in the middle of the field. Desean even did a nice job blocking downfield for Tony Hunt on that great TD run at the end of the game. He also had one really nice 27 yard punt return where he flashed some impressive moves... but unfortunately fumbled at the end.
Tony Hunt - The kid from Penn State looked good out there tonight. His spectacular 51 yard run at the end proved to be the winning score. He showed, vision, some moves, and did a nice job breaking a tackle on that a run. It was a big play for Tony and he certainly made a strong case that he deserves a roster spot. Before the big run he had a few nice, tough runs as well. He ended up with 5 rushes for 79 yards and caught one pass for 9 yards.
Kevin Kolb - Really bounced back from an up and down effort last week. Kolb's passes looked very nice, he looked composed, and his best throw of the night might have been ne where he hung in and took a big hit so he could make a beautiful pass down the middle of the field that could have been a TD had it not hit Hank Baskett in the head as he had trouble finding the ball. Kolb's 30 yard TD pass that hit Greg Lewis in stride in the corner of the end zone was a thing of beauty. He also did an impressive job running the no huddle offense on the last drive that was capped by the big Tony Hunt run. Kolb was the victim of a few bad drops from recievers but ended up 14 of 27 on the night for 155 yards, a TD and an INT.
Michael Phelps - 2 more golds. The guy is a freak.
Stock down
Max Jean Gilles - Did a great job filling in for Andrews in the first game, but he had a real rough night tonight. Four penalties on the night for Max. That's just unnacceptable.
Lorenzo Booker the KR - He fields two kickoffs and drops both. Combine his struggles tonight with his muffed kick in the Pitt game and Booker may just have lost himself the KR job. I know it was a rainy night and I'm sure th ball was slick, but I guarantee we'll play plenty of games this year where it's slippery and the ball is wet. Lorenzo Booker the RB had a nice night with 6 rushes for 25 yards.
Donovan McNabb - First, I have to say that the recievers were pretty poor in the first half tonight. I counted at least 5 or 6 clear drops, with a couple coming from Kevin Curtis. Overall though, McNabb was way off target tonight, especially after the delay. He was throwing balls high, low everywhere. Like I said, it was a wierd first half and the hour delay makes it hard to really evaluate... but it was clearly not a great night for McNabb. He finished 11 of 24 for just 98 yards.
Anyone related to special teams - The players, the coach... all of them. Really poor night especially in the first half. There was the silly fake FG that led to a TD. A couple penalties, poor blocking, several fumbles/bobbles, a missed 40+ yard FG by moustacheless Akers... It was just an all around bad night for the special teams.
Rookie Watch
Actually a pretty damn good night for the rookies. Desean Jackson as we said had a fantastic game. Quintin Demps' blitz and pass tip are what set up the big INT retirn at the end of the game. Speaking of that INT, kudos to rookie UDFA Justin Roland for picking that off taking 71 yards to the house. Roland also recovered a fumble, so it really was a nice night for him. Speaking of that fumble, it was none other than Andy Studebaker who forced that fumble and had another solid game. Bryan Smith looked very quick off the snap and made one particularly good tackle on special teams were he flew down the field and made an ankle tackle that held the return to no yards.