Eagles fall to Patriots in preseason opener

SO, THE EAGLES were pretty much who we thought they were in the first dress rehearsal of the Chip Kelly … ow, sorry, had to stop typing there, hand cramped up. See, I try to keep play-by-play, with notes on who made the tackle, the formation, etc., and Chip kept hurrying the snap and, hey, let's not even talk about how I can't decipher my notes after the second drive. I'm typing hurt here.

Where were we?

Oh, yeah. Chip Kelly era. Dress rehearsal. New England won Kelly's first preseason game, 31-22. Anyhow, Michael Vick's opening statement was one of those drop-mic deals. Threw two passes, both were lasers, 22 yards down the middle to Jason Avant on third and 6 from the Eagles' 27, then play-action, 47 yards to the house, DeSean Jackson one-on-one with Aquib Talib, Kelly's hurry-up seeming to leave the New England Patriots in a setup that was not what they wanted. Jackson has been excellent all camp and Vick hit him in stride. So, first two passes, two completions for 69 yards and a touchdown.

"I'm trying to make a statement every day," Vick said afterward. "I promised myself that every snap I take, I would treat it like my last."

Despite what Kelly said about alternating series between Vick and Nick Foles, Vick came out for the next one. Maybe it was because the Patriots had scored touchdowns – knife-through-protein-smoothie easy touchdowns – on their first two series. First series of the game, after Kelly deferred upon winning the toss (so the third-stringers would get the ball first in the third quarter?), the Pats drove 80 yards in six plays, never even hinting at passing the ball. First snap, Fletcher Cox got bulldozed and Stevan Ridley ran forever, it seemed, 62 yards before Bradley Fletcher flagged him down.

The second series, New England decided to show it could score just as effortlessly through the air. Tom Brady completed seven of eight passes for 65 yards and a TD, looking pretty much as he looked during those 3 days of practice at NovaCare. The Eagles' defense looked pretty much as it looked during those 3 days – confused and hesitant.

"I think there was a couple of missed tackles out there," Kelly noted. The Eagles have tackled to the ground in only one training camp practice so far. Kelly indicated there would be more of that.

If you're wondering whether this is how the defense is going to look this season, well, maybe. The coordinator, Bill Davis, is still trying to figure out how to fit the Eagles' 4-3 personnel to his 3-4-based ideas. The secondary, a disaster area last season, might again be truly atrocious, because there were no quick fixes on the market, and after the Nnamdi Asomugha fiasco, the Eagles weren't really in the mood to look for quick fixes.

You might hear us carp from time to time this season about the Birds waiting until the fifth round to draft secondary help, though.

"This was our first game," cornerback Curtis Marsh said. "New coaches, new scheme. I think we're all pretty comfortable with the defense, but this was our first game."

Vick's second drive produced a completion to Riley Cooper – remember him? It went for 19 yards and didn't get a noticeably negative reaction from the Lincoln Financial Field crowd.

"I don't know," Cooper said afterward, when asked about the reaction. "I didn't pay any attention. I know I had that one catch, and people said it was a good reaction."

When Foles finally took the field, his first series ended with the offensive line collapsing on third-and-4. Foles tried to throw as he was hit, and did, but thanks to the NFL's unceasing drive to make simple stuff really complicated, video review revealed that he somehow threw the ball with an "empty hand." The ball was hit from behind before he shoveled it forward, which in the NFL of 2013 is a fumble.

At that point, the QB battle was an ugly mismatch. But Foles got another series, albeit against New England's second-team defense, and two things happened. One, Foles seemed to be running something read optionish, which was not at all what Vick had been doing. Two, he ran it well, moving the Eagles 66 yards in 10 plays, the last one an 8-yard touchdown run by Bryce Brown.

"I think they both played pretty well," Kelly said. "It gave me confidence in both of those guys. That's what you hope will happen, and both those guys rose to the occasion."

Kelly said that there was no grand plan at work there, that that was just the point in the game at which they wanted to use that package.

Foles said "it was huge" to be able to bounce back from a fumble to a touchdown drive.

"It's always a great feeling when adversity happens in the game and you're able to come back from it and score a touchdown," he said.

First-round rookie offensive tackle Lane Johnson, asked about playing up-tempo on a muggy August night, said: "Honestly, it hurts your lungs, but when you see the defense is coming and you know they're out of breath, you go for the throat, I guess."

Kelly's decision to start Chris Polk ahead of Brown, with LeSean McCoy sitting out the game because of a minor knee injury, might have gotten Brown's attention. He was better than he has been in practice, 22 yards on five carries and two catches for 19 yards.

Vick donned the visor after completing four of five passes for 94 yards and a TD, a perfect 158.3 passer rating. Foles completed five of six for 43 yards, a 96.5 passer rating. He also kept the ball on the option for a 10-yard gain and a first down. Yeah, he looked awkward doing it, but he did it.

The big injury news of the Eagles' night came in the second quarter, when long snapper Jon Dorenbos hustled downfield on a punt and took a big hit that left him stumbling toward the sideline. Dorenbos rode to the locker room on a cart with what the Eagles later confirmed was a concussion.

With Brent Celek long snapping, a 48-yard field goal attempt ended with holder Donnie Jones picking up the ball and scrambling to his right.

"I hadn't done much with field goals," Celek said. "Actually, I hadn't done any …. The snap was bad, the snap was horrible, but it was something I can easily fix."

Celek said he was proud of how he did on punts, will have to work on the field goals, especially If Dorenbos can't snap next Thursday against Carolina.

Rookie quarterback Matt Barkley got off to a rough second-quarter start, but wound up playing way more snaps than any other Eagles quarterback and led a touchdown drive. Barkley finished 11 of 22 for 103 yards and a TD.

"Matt has a great grasp of what we're doing," Kelly said. "Sometimes it's tough. There might be a protection breakdown, or a receiver isn't exactly where he's supposed to be. I thought he was high on a couple throws early, but once he settled down, he was pretty decisive. The third-and-long that he whipped it in to Clay Harbor [a 22-yarder] was kind of what I saw for a long time when I was on the opposite sideline," as the Oregon coach when Barkley quarterbacked USC.

Brandon Hughes started at cornerback in place of Cary Williams (hamstring), not Brandon Boykin, leaving open the possibility that there was a Brandon breakdown in communication between reporters and Chip Kelly when Kelly discussed the matter Thursday … Kelly's former Oregon star, LeGarrette Blount, reeled off a 51-yard run against the Eagles' defense, and particularly against Brandon Graham, who showed the responsiveness of an ocean liner when Blount cut back in front of him … Damaris Johnson returned a punt 62 yards … Undrafted rookie Eagles linebacker Jake Knott played a strong game against New England subs ... Wide receiver Greg Salas made a nifty one-handed grab of G.J. Kinne pass just before the end of the game ... The Patriots ran for 248 yards on 31 carries, 8.0 yards per carry … Linebacker Jamar Chaney suffered a shoulder injury.

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