Well, that sucked!

The Eagles lost backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld to a broken wrist just before halftime in preseason game number one, which means that depth behind Carson Wentz looks absolutely razor thin moving forward. Cody Kessler is probably not the guy and Clayton Thorson is definitely not the guy, so you’ll probably hear all kinds of suggestions for a new backup on social media and sports radio today.

Colin Kaepernick anybody? <ducks>

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So that’s the bad news.

The good news is that Sudfeld’s injury is not season-ending, according to Doug Pederson. Suds will undergo surgery this morning and we’ll get the future prognosis sooner rather than later. I’d also imagine that we don’t see Carson Wentz until the season opener as a result of last night’s events.

As for the other 80-some guys on the team, here’s who Doug singled out last night when asked:

“Offensively, I think Andre Dillard and Jordan Mailata both did some good things. Looking out there, Marken Michel had the big touchdown reception. Dallas (Goedert) in his second year, he did some good things early. Defensively, I thought Daeshon Hall came in there, once he settled in, made some plays on the D-Line. There were just enough guys that, you know, one of the biggest things I think for me, too, is just getting (Friday), just taking a look at this film and evaluating everybody. Wanted to get everybody in the game. I believe we did that. Those are just a couple of guys.”

Some observations of ours, after the jump:

Nate Sudfeld, pre-injury

I liked the deep shot to JJ Arcega-Whiteside on the second play. Just missed him.

In the second series, a nice easy seam to Dallas Goedert followed by a bit of no huddle offense, but then he threw behind Goedert on a short out route on 3rd down, the same play where Matt Pryor was flagged for illegal hands to the face.

On the first play of the third drive he had the nice dodge and scramble outside of the pocket to hit a moving target for a first down. That was a nice display of mobility. Unfortunately that drive ended with a 3rd down sack with an overload blitz coming from his right side.

Nice touch on the TD, which came against Adoree Jackson, who I thought could have probably played this much better defensively:

Overall I thought he looked comfortable enough inside the pocket, so it’s a bummer he’s gonna be out for a while.

Cody Kessler

He finished 3-6 and the Eagles had one first down during his time in the game, which game on a Tennessee penalty.

Clayton Thorson…

…not good, but it’s his first NFL action, ever.

His finished 2-9 for 7 yards with an interception and threw an all-time duck, one that would make Donovan McNabb proud.

Here’s the pick:

Andre Dillard

He looked good, pretty polished for a rookie.

Of course the juxtaposition of playing on the opposite side of Jordan Mailata is going to result in noticeable differences, but technique-wise he looks like he knows what he’s doing, and he every time I focused on him during a play, he just seemed very steady at left tackle. Perhaps he could have been a little better in run blocking, but I didn’t see anything negative that jumped out to me in pass protection.

Matt Pryor

Multiple penalties against him on Thursday night. Not a great outing for the second year left guard.

Jordan Mailata

Still has a ways to go. I’d like to go back and watch more of his performance on the all-22 film, but I also don’t want to watch the all-22 film of a terrible preseason game.

Dallas Goedert

If we did a “winners and losers” column he’d be the first guy listed in the “winners” column.

3 catches for 50 yards for the second-year player, who looked very “Zach Ertz-like” out there at times, hitting the seams and creating mismatches and looking difficult to cover. I’m really, very truly excited to see some 12-personnel in the red zone this year.

Daeshon Hall

Another winner.

He had a very solid second half, finishing with six tackles, three for loss, a sack, and two quarterback hits.

Well done, young man:

Miles Sanders and Jordan Howard

Selfishly, I need more and I want more, but I also don’t want to see either of these guys go down injured.

We only got 6 combined carries for 11 yards last night and unfortunately didn’t see anything interesting or explosive, but that’s okay, because it’s coming. Oh boy, is it coming.

Josh Adams

Fumble!

He probably wasn’t going to make the team anyway, but that didn’t help. He caught a few passes, which was a step forward, but I think we may have seen the end of the Josh Adams era.

Josh Sweat

People expected more from him. Jury is still out, for sure.

Linebackers

Nate Gerry and Zach Brown were the starters in nickel, which mirrors what the Birds did in the public practice. L.J. Fort was the third guy in there, and I thought he had a pretty nice game overall, just seemed to be around the ball on most plays.

On the touchdown pass where he got beat down centrally, the Eagles were playing in zone coverage and I’m pretty sure Johnathan Cyprien was supposed to playing deep middle on this toss:

 

Gerry:

I think he’s pretty mobile, seems okay in pass coverage as a former DB but seems to have trouble shedding blocks and his reactions could probably be better. I certainly think Fort and Brown stood out much more than he did.

Secondary

Rasul Douglas and Sidney Jones started on the outside with Avonte Maddox in slot, which I think is what was expected. They played one series before coming out of the game. Andrew Sendejo was in there as well, had a nice pass breakup and a good pressure early. I thought he looked pretty good.

Nobody else in the defensive backfield did anything interesting. Tre Sullivan looks like the same player he’s always been, which is not great.

Need to see more from:

I didn’t come out of this game with any sort of takeaways on –

  • Shareef Miller
  • Hassan Ridgeway
  • Treyvon Hester
  • Stef Wisniewski playing center
  • Big V at guard
  • most of the receivers, since Thorson and Kessler couldn’t really get them the ball

If I do put myself through the misery of watching the game again, I’d try to focus on the trenches and the ultimately fruitless route-running.

Ross Tucker

Poor guy has laryngitis! Can’t believe he still did the game. What a soldier, leaving it out there on the field. Or in the broadcast booth. He’s a Berks County guy and he will always have my support. I thought he did a really nice job, all things considered.

Dave Spadaro

Presented without commentary:

Time’s yours!

Happy Friday.