The Eagles played a preseason game Saturday afternoon under conditions that can only be described as post card perfect conditions.
Sunny skies, temperatures in the low 80s...Norman Rockwell would pull out the paint brush and canvas if he was at Lincoln Financial Field.
The play of the players, especially the Eagles players didn't equal the beauty of the day. Backups or not, at this point of training camp, there should not be this many mistakes.
The Birds (2-1) reserves bungled their way to a 26-3 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
The home team played like the end zone had the words NO TRESSPASSING painted on it (the end zones were blank by the way).
Minnesota got the ball first and were given no real challenge moving the ball.
And when they did something positive, the Eagles subs literally handed it back to their opponents.
Vic Fangio's backups had a chance to make an impact play when Tristin McCollum intercepted Vikings quarterback Jaren Hall. McCollum returned the ball 36 yards to the Minnesota 28.
But the whole thing was called back because of an illegal contact penalty on second round pick Cooper DeJean.
While the Vikings drive ended up in the end zone, Minnesota was called for illegal motion and holding.
The Birds also committed a neutral zone infraction.
The Vikings scored on a three-yard pass from Hall to wide receiver Trishton Jackson.
The Eagles ran the ball well on its first drive, until a fumble by Tyrion Davis-Price killed the drive. Jalen Redmond recovered fumble for Vikings. Not pretty. Eagles backups did not get it done.
The Eagles quarterbacks did not play like they a job on the line.
Kenny Pickett, the Steelers 2022 first round pick who was traded to the Eagles on March 16, 2024, was 6 of 9 for 58 yards and obviously no touchdowns.
It was second consecutive game the 26-year-old failed to reach the end zone.
Tanner McKee was 13 of 21 for 115 yards. The second-year signal caller lost a fumble on the first play of the second half handing the ball to the Vikings on the Eagles 25-yard line. The turnover resulted in a 20-yard Will Reichard field goal.
The whole afternoon was like this...nothing went right.
Head coach Nick Sirianni was asked how he handles this game and how poorly it was played plus with cuts coming up.
“What I felt like is we didn't play to our detail that is our standard here,” Sirianni said. “So, it's a good example of that if you don't play with good fundamentals -- we missed some tackles.
"We fumbled the football. We didn't take the football away. We had a takeaway that had a penalty. We had some penalties. We had some drops in some critical areas that would have led to points and all those things led to points.
“So that's what you hope that doesn't happen, but that happened today. So, it's just a good example, you can have all the talent in the world, have all the best plays in the world. But if you don't play with good fundamentals, I don't care what level you are, it's going to affect if you win or lose the football game.
“That was the message to these guys of, ‘Hey, if you don't play’ -- just like I said. But also, the message after the game also was, that's the last time those 91 guys will be together. We're going to have to make some tough decisions.
"But it was a good camp. It was a camp that guys worked their butts off. We got better. And it took all 91 guys to get better. Not just the 53 that are going to make this team. It took all of us. But it is the last time those 91 guys will be Philadelphia Eagles together.”
Center Dylan McMahon, a sixth round pick out of NC State, who played every snap Saturday was asked what he thinks his status is with the coaches?
“I've got no idea,” McMahon said after the game. “All I know is I went out there and did the best I could do. I thought I played good football, had a good camp. All the guys around me helped me out. It was a great camp. Hopefully that was good enough.”
The game had gotten away from the Eagles by the third quarter. The coaches played McMahon the entire game. Obviously, they want to see as much of a player while the opportunity to play is available.
McMahon was asked how he keeps his head in the game when the offense is not finding the end zone.
The offense didn't put up great numbers, but only two sacks were given up the entire game.
“Yeah kinda...but you also have to be good at going on to the next play,” he said. “In this game, you're going to have bad things happen, good things happen. You can never be too high or too low.
“You need to be good at knowing you can do better next time, or if we did good that play...OK lets's go do it again.”
McMahon was asked about possibly suiting up to play against Atlanta on the home opener at the Linc?
“It's definitely exciting,” McMahon said. “I would say it's surreal to go out there for the first time and see all the fans. It's amazing, the atmosphere here in Philly.”
DeJean was asked about getting to finally play in a game for the Eagles. He also talked about the first-quarter penalty that changed the early momentum of the game.
“It was good to get back out there,” DeJean said. “It will be a good learning experience once I go watch this tape.”
He was called for illegal contact. DeJean was asked if he got any feed back from the refs after the call.
“I did not, no,” he said. “I think I just made contact with him too far down the field. “
He said it was the plan to play the whole first half.
DeJean was asked if he was nervous since it was his first game experience since November 2023 at Iowa.
“I wouldn't say nerves, it was more excitement,” DeJean said. There was a lot of adrenaline running through me. I was a little too excited going out there on that first drive...a lot of heavy breathing the adrenaline was running so much. It was good to get out there and hit people tonight and get the rust off a little bit.”
Veteran wide receiver Parris Campbell was asked if he mentors the younger players about what's going to be going on over the next 48 hours.
“Sure...I think it comes down to controlling what you can control,” Campbell said. “It was a long camp. I think everyone put their best foot forward. At the end of the day there has to be some maturity that has to happen about being OK with what the result is.
"I know I gave it all I had..it is what it is. At the end of the day it is a business. I think guys understand that. Obviously younger guys..it kind of hard to understand that. Having not been through it.” *
Email Al Thompson at al.thompson@footballstories.com
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