What To Expect From The Eagles "Dress Rehearsal" Tonight
What to Expect from Tonight’s “Dress Rehearsal”.
Lights, Camera, Traction! Hopefully we can get some kind of grip of what the Eagles’ starters will look like in what players and coaches like to call the “Dress Rehearsal” on Thursday night against the Miami Dolphins.
The starters will play the full first half, maybe a drive or two in the second half, give or take. (The two teams have held joint practices all this week as well.)
Two weeks ago, all eyes were on the Eagles’ cornerbacks. What happened? Did they get THAT MUCH better with the addition of Ronald Darby or do we have a new position with problems? Runningback? No way! We have Lagarrete Blount, the leader in rushing touchdowns from 2016. We drafted a couple rookies who were absolutely unstoppable in college, what can possibly be the problem?
The biggest thing I see in preseason the majority of the time is deception. Yes, the Eagles running game has been a flop the first two preseason games but Eagle fans should have nothing to worry about. We kept hearing about the possibility of bringing back the Eagles all-time leading rusher LeSean McCoy via trade from Buffalo. Why should we feel so desperate after two preseason games? Maybe it’s not the preseason games but the trophy case with no Lombardi Trophies which Eagle fans covet.
The running game will be fine. A lot of teams go through the preseason and look very bad and end up winning 10, 11 games. I still believe this team will surprise a lot of people, but if the Eagles play a very solid first half against a very good Miami Dolphins team, sure it will be exciting. But as I’ve stated, the preseason is so deceptive. I want to know what this team will look like on September 10 against the Washington Redskins.
As for the defense, we are starting to love ourselves some Derek Barnett and are feeling a little better about the corner situation with the addition of Ronald Darby. Fletcher Cox, who signed a huge contract last offseason has been seeing a lot of double teams. I don’t care if Cox goes the whole season being double teamed and ends up without one sack if that’s what it takes for this pass rush to get lanes to the quarterback.
I would say his contract was money well spent if that were the case. The expectations of this game are to try to get into a rhythm and build team chemistry and momentum heading into the season opener. Oh, yeah, and don’t get any big injuries. Stay healthy going into the opener.
Doug Pederson will certainly open the playbook up a little more tonight, but if he’s smart, he will salvage those big plays for the regular season.
