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I'll be interested to see Max Jean Gilles get the start tonite at G, replacing Andrews.

Also lookin fwd to seeing Celek run with the 1st team offense, as reported.

Want to see Sheppard in LIMITED action, just wanna see him out there.

Want to see the run being stopped, vs a team who's installed the zone blocking system thats caught on like wildfire this offseason. Panthers have quality backs and this should be a decent indication if last wks errors really were just "Mental" as JJ maintained, or if they're still a ways away from suring that up.

Also anxious (ugh) to see Sav punt again- he'll punt in the 1st half and hold as well for Akers.

Of course, I'll watch the LBs, Bunkley, and hopefully Hunt- as Reid said he is speciffically going to put him in for short ydg situations to see how he does.

Time's yours.

Jean Gilles is going to be key, since they might be looking for a replacement at that spot.

The defense will have a huge microscope on it all the way around.

Looking for Sav to win the battle outright (I'm thinking a tie or anything close will go to Dirk).

Looking closely at Bloom again (mainly showing speed and durability).

Hoping Akers doesn't go "headcase" again without his life partner, Koy.

Obviously, looking to see McNabb in game action, but not expecting much now or early in the season.

The panthers looked pretty good in there first pre-season game, so tonight could be a good measuring tool to see how this team is.

Gotta see more from the D-Line. Plain and simple.

Want to see Gocong get A LOT more work.

Great game for TOny Hunt to show more of what he can do. I was a little "ify" on the guy last week.

I hope that Celek has another good game.

I hope Westbrook doesn't even get to smell the field.

Gotta see more from almost all the DB's. THis mainly means you WIll James.

times yours.......

Don't you fools every doubt my wonderful son's QB ability again.

I told you he would be back.

For all you haters out there Peace Out Baby.

My son is Beautiful.


God Bless

Love to all,
Momma McNabb

At this point, the out-of-towners are really appreciating the updates, fellas...

Pregame on the Carolina Panthers Radio Network with a 24 oz miller lite as I sit on the bumper of the car in the driveway (South Carolina Tailgating)..... Merril Reese interview Priceless. Been many moons since I have heard his voice live.....

Some dude by the name of Bunkley..... Involved in some plays early on.... Oh yeah... Mr. holdout, missed a charter flight last year....... Had some weight issues too... Now that name rings a bell!

Iggs look good tonight.. Preseason yes... But in the first half... They look good!

Carryon

Oh yeah... That "cat" Hunt???? Looks pretty good in goal line situations as well..

The Aussie??? Interesting.....

First time seeing the iggs since the debacle in New Orleans...

"Starved in the Palmetto State"

why was Kearse not playing???? That was a total surprise.

A+ for Akers
A For 5
A for 1st team D
A Rocca

Lito did AW IGHT T D

Over in the desert that everyone's always talking about. Ridiculously hot.

So I read the synopsis of the first two quarters on PE.com, and I need a reality check. Questions:

Is this Celek guy for real? Seems like he catches everything; in camp, in the 1st game, in the 2nd game...what's the story? Be nice to have that solid TE presence back, not the once-every-three-games-flash-in-the-pan LJ style.

How'd the Andrewsless O-Line fare against that Carolina D-line (and were all their starters playing at any point)? Were they better playing pass or run? Are Thomas and Runyan looking old yet?

Did McNabb look comfortable in the pocket?

Kevin Curtis always struck me as a guy with some speed who could catch in traffic, sorta like Donald Driver. On 4th down in St Louis in 2001, would he have gotten past Aeneas Williams and kept the drive going? Is he playing as well as I'd like to think?

Seems like Considine is a liability. Got beat in the 1st game a couple times, including for a TD. Then he goes out in this one with a pseudo-injury. Anyone missing Michael Lewis?

NFC East--are the Birds good enough to beat Dallas? 'Skins are dead worst in the division and the Giants aren't going to replace Tiki.

Throw me a freakin' bone here.

OK, early stuff:

McNabb- even FD couldnt have forseen this performance. Dont expect him to be available at a discount price this wknd if you're drafting a FF team.

Tony Hunt in Short Ydg- well, 2 TDs, for what 7 yds on an estimated 4 carries total? The TDs are whats important here, he got few chances (unlike Illoa in the 2nd half who is C-U-T cos he is F-A-T and S-L-L-L-L-O-w) to run the ball but he did great in short ydg situations that Reid said in the paper this morning he wanted to see him perform in.

Another thing i said I was goin to look at tonite was Max Jean Gilles playin with the 1st team and he did VERY well IMO. Just like what i saw in camp, moved people well i thought and opened up the hole for the Hunt TD. Good job.

Real quick, speaking of OL, and someone i mentioned in the same sentence after returning from Lehigh this summer- They played Justice on BOTH sides oft he line tonite- guess they are hedgin their bets in case either aged starter goes down- be it Runyan or Tra. He did well also. OL is solid. Coulda been Superb had Andrews played tonite (or this season) but i'll settle for very good, all things considered.

Celek with the 1st unit is something else I noted i wanted to see early today and he did not disapoint. Hookin up with Schoebel for the long gainer only added fuel to the fire that IS "LJ WHO?" mania that if not sweepin thru the stands, you KNOW is resonating in Banners head when looking at offerin LJ his contract next summer, coming off injury.

I mentioned wanted to watch Bunk and the LBs- and I did. AGAIN, the starters tonite looked VERY good. Guys who messed up last wk., Spikes, Trotter- both did well tonite.
They got what they talked about- gettin off the field on 3rd down- Carolina was 0-5 on third down in the 1st half.
Sacks came and Juqua Thomas is a straight up player.
Was surprised how fast Darren Howard looked tonite. He looks lighter. Bunkley looked very quick also.

The D looked good tonite (Starters).

The N.D Rook, Abiamiri (Or Strahan Lite if you believed Ike last wk) looked decent tonite in both pass and run coverage.


Akers looked calm regardless who was under center.

And now for the not so hot:

I was AGAIN unimpressed with AJ. He wasnt horrible, but should McNabb go down, ...meh....

The running game in the 1st half, again, even with 36 in there- was brutally bad. WTF?

Rocca's 1st punt was not good. He was alrightg the rest of the way, averaged i THINK 50 yds a punt for the evenning, so yeah, if im right thats actually pretty damned good, but I guess I agree he needs to blow Dirk away or else he's sent packing.

Was glad he got up, but my heart was in my throat when in an obvious blitz situation in the 1st, McNabb was SMOTHERED by Panthers and they were on him QUICK and nobody could stop a single guy in Teal.
(all due respect to NEAG, who doesnt read the bleeds anyway- those players looked like Pole Smokin Meat Gazers in their Teal jerseys).

The DB barksdale I hope makes a practice squad spot. He is VERY raw but continues to show me something.

Unlike Illoa who can you tell, Im extremely disapointed in?

Grahmn, the DB, needs to turn his stinkin head around, just like last wk's review.

Some sloppy tackling on the outside when Williams would catch a pass out in the flat or a screen.

Davis the FB blew a great chance to impress on 4th and 1, and even tho A.R. challenged, CLEARLY on the replay we could all see that he had a wedge, or "seam" as Ike called it, and ducked in low to the right of it, halted ultimately by his own mens' bodies rather than pick up the 1st.

Speakin of Ike- major MAJOR improvement tonite. Not only were you listenable to, you were actually GOOD in spots. Still rush your words when excited, still talk too much sometimes and STILL SAY "WE" and "US" but i Guess its not SOOOO bad since you actually played at 1x in Eagle Green.
But after last wk , man, like 95% improvement.

Encouraging.
The whole damned telecast was, and hopefully that performance tonite against a good team (I think they're actually 1 of 5 teams who got a shot at the SB in the NFC- Carolina that is) The Eagles dominated. Nice to see.

Newbie 23- i think your answers are in my post that i just submitted before even knowing you had questions.

Curtis- didnt touch on him above- he looks VERY comfy both in the system and catchin the high velocity balls of 5, something he was concerned about when he went thru his 1st mini camp here.

I dont know about Considine. I think if Dawk was back there he'd be playin more comfortable and within himself. He's definately forcin stuff.
He was in position tonite and he had some decent tackles, got hurt it seemed and dont recall seein him again.

Any help out there?

Um, dude, if you're sweatin Dallas with all the question marks they have, man, well, I dunno, tune into WIP.

good stuff, seth, and much appreciated by the out-of-towners...

sounded pretty good out there, and best of all, sounds like injuries (considine?) were pretty much avoided.

for any other "ot of towners" you can listen to Merril Reese for FREE over the internet at http://www.wmgm1037.com

I don't know how they get away with it, but this is where I have been listing to pre-season games for the last couple of years.

I really, really like Celek. Now if we could just get him to grow a bithin' 'stache and ride around with a cat named Higgins, we'd be in business.

Bunkley is looking better--very active, was around the ball alot and seemed to get decent pressure on the QB. I feel much better about him starting than I did a month ago. Mike Patterson also had a nice game.

McNabb looked very good. His pass to Schoboat along the sideline was one of the nicest touch passes I've seen him throw. I need to see more than one quarter out of him, but it was encouraging...btw, did anyone else see how much friggin ice he had on BOTH knees? Hopefully it is precautionary.

J. Thomas and Howard both looked pretty good and the rookie showed some quickness tracking down David Carr in the open field.

I actually thought Feeley was fine. He is what he is. I sorta wish that they would have played Holcomb a little bit. He isn't going to make the squd, but there are teams that might trade a 6th or 7th round pick for him. Showcase the guy a little bit.

Lito made a nice play getting into the endzone, but Delhomme has a Favre-esque way of throwing the ball to nobody. I think GGB could have taken that one back for a TD.

I think the goal line package with Hunt should be pretty effective. The dude does not have homerun speed, but he is built for those short-yardage situations. Hopefully they can work with him to get his pads lower, but I like him in those situations more than Buckhalter.

IMS,

Thanks for the info on catching Merril.

Seth,

I think AJ looked okay. I would be curious to see what Kolb can do with the first team offense. The kid has talent. He just needs to work on making the right plays. Kind of hard when you are spending most of the time running for your life.

Iloa is playing like he knows he does not have a shot at making the team.

Celek.... Can take a hit and still hold on to the ball...

With FB running maybe 12% of the entire offensive playbook if even that last night... I liked what I saw. There is some nice young talent on this team which might make some of the cuts a tough decision.

Is anyone else concerned that the difference in the Eagles's performance against the Panthers and Ravens has less to do with the Eagles and more to do with the competition?

Following up on what has already been said. Watched the entire game. Considine was back in two plays later. Looked liked he had the wind knocked out of him.

Tra Thomas looked really good. He was moving his feet well and looked really quick.

I was out of town for most of the weekend, so I'm a little late to the party. I'll try to put my thoughts together, but some of them may be redundant:

- Bunkley played well again...very, very good to see.

- Howard looks lively and I also thought he looked either lighter or just in better shape.

- I barely saw Gocong. I don't think that's an awful thing because that means he wasn't being exposed, but I was hoping to see some plays out of him too.

- What is it about Lito and returning picks? He's amazing in that category and I'm almost surprised when he doesn't have a huge return at this point.

- Juqua played his role well and I like that the D (as a unit) was going for turnovers. Juqua got his, but everyone was going for strips during their tackles.

- Patterson played better and got a sack, which was nice to see.

- McNabb was off the charts. I still have low to medium expectations for hi in the beginning of the year, but wow...what a start. For anyone who questions him as a QB or as a leader, I think that game should shut them up. He may not be a vocal leader, he may be a dork, and he may struggle with accuracy at times, but his talent is off the charts and his leadership pretty much shows up when you see an entire team instantly come alive when straps on the helmet. You could tell right off the bat that they were pumped he was back and he did a great job. Also, something to consider...he was playing with a new a starting group of WRs that included Reggie Brown, Kevin Curtis, Jason Avant, and Brent Celek. He has played a combined 10 or so games with those guys (all with Brown). I think that's a testament to both McNabb, those players, and the coaching staff because given the rust and the fact that these guys haven't really worked together they had every excuse in the world to lay an egg.

- What is up with the running game? It's just terrible. I'm glad Hunt got that goal line TD, but he's leading the team in carries and has a 0.6 yards per carry average. Westbrook is at 2.2, "Fatsi" is at 1.6, and Buck is at 1.8 so they have all been stifled. Hunt is particularly disappointing after two games, but the offensive line is clearly the issue. Both of these teams have good run D's and I know they are in the vanilla O, but it would be nice if they could start getting the running going just a little bit.

- I thought Justice did a good job, but he looked completely gassed.

- I thought Montae Reagor looked really good. He didn't look tired and while he was playing against 2nd and 3rd team guys, but was blowing by them and disrupting plays. It was a good sign to me.

- Abiamiri looked good. He looks bigger than 270 to me.

- Gaither played better, but McCoy played a lot worse and Tank Daniels must be in witness protection.

- Barksdale got a gift, but he took advantage of it and had a nice return after the pick.

- Bloom looked pretty bad in the return game. I don't know if it was his fault or the return unit's fault, but he looks indecisive and unsure of what he wants to do. Because he seems to be able to make people miss I'm guessing it's the special teams unit that's failing to open things up for him, but I have no clue. Also, about 6 guys got highlight reel shots on him...never good.

- Kolb looked pretty good and pretty bad. It's already clearly obvious what they like about him and it's also seems pretty obvious that he doesn't have the tools McNabb has. That's not a knock, but the arm strength is average. He can squeeze it in there if he steps into his throw, but when he has throw off the back foot you can really see his he can't put anything on it and looks a little Koy-ish. It was just very obvious seeing he and McNabb in the same game. Even watching Carr throw off his back foot with authority accentuated the fact that Kolb doesn't have a very strong arm. That's perfectly okay...arm strength is overrated. Just pointing it out.

It would also be nice to see Kolb out there with the first unit just for a couple series so they can actually see what he's capable of when he isn't running for his life.

- Pat McCoy...die.

I guess that's it.

Ok been busy and haven't had a chance to get on in a while...

First of everyone pour a glass of koolaide... now drink...

OK now that that's out of the way, you can look at that game and see either the Eagles are incredible (possible) or the Panthers will be a 3-13 team this year (also very possible) or a mix of the two(but it IMO has to lean one way or the other)

The Eagles D was dam near perfect through the first half, and Carolinas 1st team just SUCKS (and yes virginia they played the entire 1st half) after the 1st quarter the Eagles started rotating the starters off the field and it was almost entirly the 2nd-3rd string playing agianst the Panthers 1st team O and they still shut them down...

I'd heard a training camp review from someone hear that the D looked fired up and that they hadn't seen them that intense since the days of Buddy and that was without Dawkins suited up...

I have never really thought much of Delhome as a QB and their RB's don't really scare anyone anymore so I think it leans to the Carolina Kittens will most likely suck ass this year... but the Eagles D will be much better than last year.


A few things I really liked:

Celek this goofy looking guy seems to really know how to play...

Roc, the idea of bringing in a 34-35 year old punter made me laugh, at first, but after watching him punt and seeing him bounce back up and the way Dirk seems to have alomst given up makes me think he might actually make the team.

Barksdale(I think it's him) the guy with one year of college football then gets drafted, nice... I like the flashes. I will make a bet right now that he goes on the IR right after the Pittsburgh game... Why the same reason Bloom went on he has the potential but need time to get into football shape and polish his game...

Bloom looked good IMO I like the straight up the field running he may break one or two this year.

and finally #5 I thought he looked good, and considering this was I think the first time he's been in live action and been hit I liked what he did I believe he will pickup where he left off last year and with the better D this could be the most fun year to be an Eagles fan in a while.

bloom appears to make the first guy miss, but gets little blocking help thereafter. they need to do a better job blocking for the return game