The Philadelphia Eagles advanced to 2-0 in the 2015 NFL preseason schedule with a win on Saturday evening. The Eagles defeated the Baltimore Ravens by a final score of 40-17.
There's a lot to talk from the game about so let's get right to it.
SAM BRADFORD (First team offense)
Sam Bradford received a standing ovation upon being announced at Lincoln Financial Field. His first drive was decent. He was off target on a few throws, but he didn't put the ball in harm's way. He also took a few shots, including a roughing the passer call from Terrell Suggs, and got back up. Bradford's best throw of the drive was a dart to Jordan Matthews to put the team into scoring position. Ryan Mathews capped off the drive with a nice touchdown run thanks to great blocking from Jason Peters and Brent Celek. Bradford was rusty, but there were some encouraging signs.
No Bradford on the second drive, but the rest of the first team stayed in. Mark Sanchez led the team into scoring position before DeMarco Murray capped off the drive with a touchdown run.
First team defense
The Eagles' secondary is already showing signs of improvement. After Baltimore moved the chains a few times, Joe Flacco was picked off on a deep pass in the end zone. Nolan Carroll deflected the underthrown ball and Walter Thurmond casually picked it off with one hand. No big deal.
Next series, Flacco overthrew one of his receivers and the ball got sent right to Byron Maxwell. Whoops!
Special teams
Bryan Braman's tackle on the opening kickoff was beastly.
Kenjon Barner returned punts. He returned one all the way for a touchdown. For the second straight week! Not bad.
Cody Parkey missed a 55-yard field goal, but otherwise he was solid.
Backup punter Kip Smith made a 30-yard attempt! And then a few others. They were not pretty.
The quarterbacks
Sam Bradford: 3 for 5 (60%), 35 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 82.1 Rating
Mark Sanchez: 14 for 20 (70%), 118 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 85.0 Rating
Matt Barkley: 6 for 14 (42.9%), 86 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 63.4 Rating
Tim Tebow: 1 for 3 (33.3%), 8 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 42.4 Rating
...
As noted earlier, Bradford looked rusty. He overthrew Riley Cooper a little bit on his first deep passing attempt. Thanks to some Baltimore penalties, however, he managed to lead the team to a touchdown drive. The most encouraging sign with Bradford was that he was able to take some hits and get back up.
Sanchez was Sanchez. He made a few ugly throws but did enough to move the chains at times. He definitely looked sharper last preseason than he does this year.
Barkley didn't really do anything to stand out.
Tebow looked rough once again, but he did have a nice 26-yard run on the read option keeper.
The big plays
Walter Thurmond's one-handed interception grab looked way too easy.
Byron Maxwell earned some of his big paycheck with this interception.
ANOTHER punt returned for a touchdown by Kenjon Barner. Ridiculous.
The refs
Lots and lots of flags, especially on the Ravens. Baltimore was penalized 17 times for 139 yards.
More observations
Bennie Logan still looked like a beast out there. He's become quite a force against the run.
Chris Maragos got a look as the third safety in a three safety package with the first team. Interesting.
Mark Sanchez had a touchdown thrown to Jordan Matthews in the red zone called back due to a holding penalty by Julian Vandervelde.
Brandon Bair did a nice job of batting down a Matt Schaub pass on third down. He almost picked it off, too.
Vinny Curry got some snaps at outside linebacker, as expected.
Andrew Gardner started at right guard and stayed in with the second team for a bit.
Najee Goode dropped an interception thrown to him. The drop actually ended up being better for the team since it was fourth down, but Goode needs to make that catch in any other situations.
Diaheem Watkins pushed an offensive lineman into Schaub to force a shock. Watkins had a decent game last week.
Rasheed Bailey made some nice catches. Nothing too flashy, but solid. He could be pushing for a practice squad spot.
Ed Reynolds dropped an interception off a batted pass late in the game.
Injuries
Riley Cooper left the game early to get x-rays on his thumb. The x-rays were negative, but the team held him out as a precaution.
Rasheed Bailey left the game early and had x-rays on his shoulder. He returned to the sideline.
Up next
The Philadelphia Eagles have off tomorrow on Sunday, Aug. 23 before returning to training camp practice on Mondayy, Aug. 24.
We'll have more in-depth coverage of Saturday's Eagles-Ravens game on Bleeding Green Nation coming shortly. Stay tuned.