The reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles lost the second game of their 2018 preseason schedule on Thursday evening. The Eagles were defeated by the New England Patriots by a final score of 37 to 20.

FIRST TEAM OFFENSE

First series: Nick Foles overthrew Wendell Smallwood on the first play of the game. Then Jay Ajayi got tackled for a six yard loss. On 3rd-and-16, Foles overthrew a receiver over the middle and almost got picked off. Three-and-out.

Second series: Ajayi barrelled forward for seven yards. Then a false start by Stefen Wisniewski took five yards away. Kamar Aiken dropped a pass over the middle of the field. Ball was behind him but catchable Then Foles got sacked on 3rd-and-8. Ajayi got chucked by Patrick Chung in pass protection. Another three-and-out.

Third series: Foles overthrew an open Mike Wallace after feeling pressure with Halapoulivaati Vaitai getting beat. Then he completed a pass to Wallace out of bounds. Then he took a sack on 3rd-and-10. Another punt.

Fourth series: Foles completed his second pass of the game (!) to Ajayi short of the sticks. The running back made some defenders miss to pick up a first down. Then Ajayi turned a run for no yards into a run for four yards. Foles’ third completion went to an open Zach Ertz over the middle to put the Eagles in enemy territory. Then Foles got strip sacked and the Patriots recovered for a touchdown. The Patriots learned how to do that to the quarterback from watching Brandon Graham do it to Brady in the Super Bowl, obviously. The bad news is that Foles got hurt after that play. Yikes.

FIRST TEAM DEFENSE

First series: Rasul Douglas started at outside cornerback with Jalen Mills banged up. Sidney Jones, not Avonte Maddox, got the start at nickel cornerback. But then Maddox came in a few snaps into the game. Slot rotation!? Jordan Hicks had James White dead to rights in the backfield but got stiff-armed and the Patriots running back scampered for a first down. Woof. Then Rodney McLeod got flagged for that dumb new “lowering the helmet” penalty at the end of the run. Chris Hogan turned Maddox around in the end zone for the first touchdown of the game.

Second series: Ronald Darby dropped an underthrown ball from Brady down the field. If only he had hands. Then had a chance to pick another deep one but couldn’t bring it in. Good coverage by Darby, for sure, but would be nice to turn those into turnovers. At least he ultimately forced the Pats to punt.

Third series: Kamu Grugier-Hill received some first team WILL linebacker snaps. Nigel Bradham got called for “lowering the helmet.” Hicks missed another tackle on White. Then he made two really nice form tackles to bring up a Patriots punt.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Shelton Gibson returned the opening kickoff. Nothing special. His second return went for 46 yards. Nice! He ran his third one out of the end zone to about the 20-yard line.

Rashard Davis showed some wiggle to pick up 15 yards on the Eagles’ first punt return of the game. He also had a really bad return where he ran 11 yards backwards and pinned the Eagles deep in their own territory. Davis’ third return went for -3 yards.

Jake Elliott missed an extra point. Stop doing that, Jake.

THE QUARTERBACKS

Nick Foles: 3 of 9 for 44 yards (4.9 average), 0 TD, 0 INT, 50.2 passer rating (plus one lost fumble)

Nate Sudfeld: 22 of 39 for 312 yards (8.0 average), 3 TD, 1 INT, 97.4 passer rating

Joe Callahan: 2 of 3 for 7 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT, 70.1 passer rating

Christian Hackenberg: N/A.

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Really ugly night from Foles. The reigning Super Bowl MVP sure looked rusty out there. He also got banged up, which literally added injury to insult.

Sudfeld did a nice job of helping his receivers draw defensive pass interference penalties to get the Eagles into the red zone for the first time on Thursday night. Way to push the ball down the field. Did it again later on to connect with Dallas Goedert up the seam. Unfortunately, Goedert dropped a touchdown throw from Sudfeld. And then another one! Thankfully Richard Rodgers made up for it with a nice grab on a great throw. Sudfeld dropped another dime to Gibson deep down the field, right in the bucket. Then he hit Rashard Davis for another touchdown. Dude was on fire! Sudfeld looked much more comfortable and promising than he did last week against the Steelers. You can now see why the Eagles like him.

Callahan entered the game with a little over a minute to play.

We didn’t get to see any of Hackenberg tonight despite the fact NBC Sports Philadelphia reported the Eagles wanted to get him 15 plays.

MORE OBSERVATIONS

NOT a good game for Halapoulivaati Vaitai. The third-year blocker allowed a lot of pressure.

Destiny Vaeao showed up with a good pressure up the middle.

Wendell Smallwood had a nice 1-on-1 opportunity to show he could beat a guy in space. He got tackled instead. Just not real impressed with him.

Nate Gerry had a nice blitz up the middle to force Brady into an incompletion. Should have been intentional grounding.

Gibson has been really hard to cover in the red zone at times due to his ability to create separation with route-running. He did that on his touchdown reception.

Sidney Jones notched a nice tackle for loss. He also had a pass breakup while covering Cordarrelle Patterson. Later on, Patterson juked Jones out of his shoes en route to a touchdown. Really bad whiff from No. 22. He came back with another good breakup.

The Eagles had a chance to run the Philly Special on 4th-and-goal late in the second quarter but they didn’t do it. Fire Doug Pederson! (Joking.)

Pederson looked PISSED during his interview with Dave Spadaro before heading into the tunnel at halftime.

Maddox (5-9) knocked down a Brian Hoyer pass for Eric Decker (6-3).

Matt Jones had some decent runs. He did not look so good as a pass catcher. Jones dropped a pass while being wide open and then had another ball go through his hands and off his helmet to bounce into the hands of a Patriots defender. Bad. Jones proceeded to drop a third pass that was almost picked off.

DeAndre Carter had a nice night. Maybe he can catch on for the sixth receiver spot.

Tre Sullivan had another bad whiff tonight. Had multiple misses last week.

INJURY UPDATES

Nick Foles suffered a shoulder sprain and left the game but didn’t have to go back to the locker room. So that’s a good sign.

Richard Rodgers’s knee got banged up on his touchdown reception. He was carted off the field. Yikes.

Josh Perkins left early and was evaluated for a head injury.

For the second week in a row, Treggs got hurt during a preseason game. This time it was a hamstring injury. He was ruled out shortly after leaving the field.

Undrafted rookie free agent safety Stephen Roberts had to be carted off. Trainers were looking at his ankle.

Taylor Hart got carted off.

Kamar Aiken tweaked his hamstring.

Shelton Gibson got banged up after getting tackled awkwardly. He came back into the game and was productive, though.

The following Eagles players did not play (hat tip to Jeff McLane): WR Mack Hollins, QB Carson Wentz, WR Nelson Agholor, WR Alshon Jeffery, RB Corey Clement, RB Josh Adams, RB Donnel Pumphrey, S Chris Maragos, RB Darren Sproles, DE Brandon Graham, LB Asantay Brown, OT Jason Peters, DT Timmy Jernigan.

UP NEXT

The Eagles have off tomorrow on Friday, Aug. 17 before returning to practice on Saturday, Aug. 18. Note that practices are no longer open to the media at this point. Stay tuned to BGN for more Eagles coverage.