Andy Reid Expecting A Sharper Performance From The Eagles Monday Night

The Eagles will have their "dress rehearsal" game this Monday night against the Patriots with the starters scheduled to go up to three quarters. Andy Reid says he's just looking for a sharper performance than we saw in the opener.

"You want to sharpen yourself up from the last game is what you want to do," he said. "We understand we're still in the preseason, but you want to play good football and we have an opportunity to play a good football team. So, I think if you talk to both coaches, we'd probably tell you the same thing; that we want to play better than we did last week and improve and, at the same time, get the young guys in and that second group in for the latter part of the game."

Mike Kafka (hand), Jason Babin (calf), Riley Cooper (collarbone) and Casey Matthews (ankle) have been ruled out. Otherwise, its all hands on deck. Nnamdi Asomugha will play following his practice collision with Nate Allen (who make his preseason debut) and King Dunlap will take all the snaps at first team LT.

For the defense, New England will provide a great test to see where they're at. The Eagles will face some good TEs this year, but none on the level of the Patriots dual threat of Rob Gronkowski & Aaron Hernandez. That pair will make for quite a challenge for the Eagles starting safeties as well as rookie LB Mychal Kendricks.

"Well, they're good players," said Reid. "So your safeties and your linebackers, that's a big challenge. That's the primary part of their offense, pass-game. They use combinations with those guys and you've got to be disciplined. It will be great for Kendricks. He's a young guy and it'll be a great experience for him."

The game will be seen nationally on ESPN's Monday Night Football.