Pittsburgh Steelers 31, Philadelphia Eagles 14: Instant Reaction From the Eagles Preseason Opening Loss
The Philadelphia Eagles began their Super Bowl defense, sort of, with a loss to a potential Super Bowl 53 opponent. It was an exciting roller coaster game filled with turnovers, sacks and long touchdowns. The first preseason game is usually pretty sloppy. The first stringers will play maybe two series, while the rest of the game is dominated by second and third stringers.
Here are a few players that stood out to me, good or bad:
Nate Sudfeld-
It was about what I expected from him. His arm is outstanding, but mentally he isn’t quite there. yet. He got baited into an early interception, but threw a perfect deep ball to Shelton Gibson for a 63 yard touchdown in the second quarter.
He moved well in the pocket, spread the ball around and never looked rattled. I don’t think anyone is going to trade for him to be their starter this season, but he definitely showed the ability to be Carson Wentz’s backup in the very near future.
Corey Clement-
I live in Big Ten country so I saw a ton of Clement at Wisconsin. I don’t think college Clement and Eagles Clement are the same person. In college, he was a power back who wasn’t viewed as a receiver. Now he looks like an all-around back with a devastating, yet subtle cut. He’s going to split carries with Jay Ajayi this season, but he’s going to have a huge breakout season in 2019. It’s only a matter of time before he is a 1,000 yard back in this league.
Josh Adams-
He caught both of his targets tonight, which is impressive considering he had the worst hands of any running backs I scouted from the 2018 draft class. He also ran with authority when he got the chance in the fourth quarter. He definitely earned more playing time next week.
Shelton Gibson-
Eagles radio announcer and former wide receiver Mike Quick made a good point with Gibson during tonight’s broadcast. When he was at West Virginia, he really only ran 3 or 4 routes. As a rookie he was trying to learn an entire route tree and never really stood a chance at making a major impact. He looks ready to be that guy this season, even if they really don’t need him to be. He ran good routes, only had one drop(which was high, so maybe not a clear cut drop) and made good catches in traffic. He looks natural, not so much like a track star trying to play football. I thought some of the other wide outs like Markus Wheaton, Bryce Treggs or Rashard Davis could push him for the number five wide receiver spot, but right now Gibson looks like a lock to make the team again.
Dallas Goedert-
I love it when a draft prospect comes into the league and backs up what their tape showed. He was handed a great opportunity tonight with Zach Ertz resting an injury and he really ran with it. He went for over 60 yards and a touchdown and he made it look easy. He had one bad drop, but he was smooth on every other target. He’s such a natural route runner already. I don’t know what kind of numbers he can really put up on an offense that already features Ertz, Alshon Jeffery, Mike Wallace and Nelson Agholor, but he’s going to have a really productive rookie season.
Jordan Mailata-
He gave up an early strip sack that gave the Steelers points, but after that play and a quick chat with Jason Peters and Halapoulivaati Vaitai, he really settled down and played pretty well for it being his first every football game. I thought he would be pretty up and down considering how raw he is, but outside of that one sack he allowed, he was pretty solid. I’ll go back and look at the tape to see if I’m just being too easy on him, but he was really impressive.
Isaac Seumalo-
I think it’s time to end the Seumalo project and just move on. He was the second draft pick made during the Doug Pederson era, but he clearly holds little value on a 53 man roster. Yes he can play guard, center and even some right tackle, but his snaps are erratic, he gets beat inside a ton and he really doesn’t offer anything more than being a decent extra blocker.
The Second String Defense Attempting to Make Open Field Tackles-
The backups on defense allowed a ton of extra yards because of really sloppy open field tackling. Tre Sullivan, Sidney Jones, Nate Gerry and Stephen Roberts really stood out to me with their poor efforts in the open field. Rasul Douglas and Kamu Grugier-Hill were the only backups who I thought did a decent job of tackling in this game.
Kamu Grugier-Hill-
Speaking of Kamuuuuuuuuuuuuuu, he looks the part of a base defense WILL linebacker. Cory Nelson was brought in to be that guy, but he barely played tonight and may have fallen out of favor with the coaches. Nate Gerry also got a ton of snaps, but he was all over the place. KGH seemed to always be around the ball and nearly blew up a couple of plays in the backfield. He just needs to learn to finish better as a tackler and hitter.
Rasul Douglas-
He gave up two touchdowns tonight, but both were 50/50 balls he just missed and he had a nice interception on a play where he broke off his man to pick the pass off. More and more I think he’ll eventually move to safety. He doesn’t have the change of direction ability you’d like a safety to have, but he has length and anticipation for days and he’s a reliable open field tackler as well. For now he’s a solid backup outside corner, but I see safety in his future.
Cameron Johnston-
I really just want to talk about his 76 yard punt(80 yards in the air from where he kicked it) that didn’t count because of a penalty. You’re not supposed to punt the ball from your own 5 and have it land on your opponents 15 yard line. It would be great if he was also deadly accurate at pinning opponents inside their own 10 yard line, but I’ll always take power over accuracy with punters. Coach Pederson doesn’t really go for it inside the opponents 45 yard line anyway.
