For a second straight week, the Eagles came from behind and won their second preseason game, beating the New England Patriots 14-13 Thursday night at Gillette Stadium.
Two of the most notable storylines in this contest were Tanner McKee’s impressive performance, highlighted by the way he moved the Eagles down the field for the go-ahead touchdown drive and Tyler Steen being carted off the field with an ankle injury as he battles to be the starting right guard come Week 1.
The Eagles offense didn’t look too impressive with Kenny Pickett under center as he continued to get reps to try and ward off McKee for the backup spot on the depth chart. Pickett and the offense went three-and-out on its first offensive series.
The Eagles had primarily their second-team defense in the game and once again they bent, but did not break for most of the first half. With New England driving and inside the 10-yard line of the Eagles, Avonte Maddox picked off a Jacoby Brissett pass intended for tight end Austin Hooper and flipped the field, returning it for 47 yards to highlight the defense in the first half.
Pickett would drive the offense just outside of the red zone before the drive stalled at the 25-yard line, setting up a 42-yard field goal for Jake Elliott to give Philadelphia a 3-0 lead with 3:04 left in the first quarter.
New England answered with a 51-yard field goal from Josh Slye to tie the game at 3-3 with 11:01 left in the first half. Pickett and the Eagles turned it over on downs near midfield after he was sacked for a nine-yard loss on fourth down. Rookie quarterback Drake Maye led the Patriots to a touchdown scoring drive, marching 49 yards on eight plays in under four minutes to make it 10-3 deficit for the Eagles with under two minutes left before the half.
Pickett finished his night going 11-for-13 for 67 yards and was sacked four times to go with a passer rating of 88.1. It was yet another less than average performance for the former starting Pittsburgh quarterback.
The second half didn’t see a whole lot of offense from either side. McKee played most of the third quarter, coming out with about two minutes left for Will Grier to make his Eagles debut. Grier looked solid in his first game action, completing three of his five passes for 35 yards. The drive stalled due to penalties and Elliott kicked a 38-yard field goal to make it 10-6 with 13:01 left in the third quarter.
In the middle of the third quarter, Nakobe Dean and Nolan Smith made back-to-back impressive plays. Dean made a strong, high, open tackle to stop New England’s second-round pick Ja’lynn Polk in the open field to make it 3rd and 10 before Dean ended the drive thanks to this sack.
The Patriots would get back on the board on their next possession with a field goal of their own to extend their lead 13-6 with a little over 10 minutes left in the quarter. McKee came back into the game and after a quick three-and-out, the second-year QB and the offense got into rhythm on their next possession. McKee marched the offense 70 yards on seven plays, ending with a one-yard touchdown run from Kendall Milton. The Eagles converted the two-point conversion as McKee connected with Ainias Smith on a short pass to give the Eagles a 14-13 lead with 4:18 to go.
The Eagles put the game on ice when an errant snap zipped passed Bailey Zappe and Brandon Smith pounced on the football to seal the victory.
Eagles Players of the Game
McKee had an impressive game and has now looked solid through the first two weeks of the preseason. He’s certainly not making it easy for the Eagles to determine who will be the backup quarterback to Jalen Hurts heading into the regular season. It’s hard to believe that the second-year Stanford product hasn’t leapfrogged Pickett for the time being on the depth chart after this performance.
McKee finished 15-for-19, throwing for 140 yards and the touchdown, was not sacked and posted a 97.4 passer rating.
Joseph Ngata
Ngata was targeted often, tied for the team lead with five targets and catching all five passes thrown his way for 88 yards, including a couple of impressive grabs that were in traffic. The undrafted free agent out of Clemson has a long list of wideouts in front of him on the depth chart, but he’ll look to build off this strong showing and maybe find some playing time on special teams.
Nakobe Dean
Dean led the defense with five total tackles on the night with four solo tackles and had a strong showing which was much needed for the third-year linebacker.
The Eagles will wrap up the preseason with a battle with the Minnesota Vikings on Saturday, August 24 at 1 p.m. at Lincoln Financial Field.
Mandatory Credit: Brian Fluharty-USA TODAY Sports
