What did we learn from the "Dream Team's" first preseason game?

1. Jim Washburn is Amaz-ridic-unbelievable

Yeah thats right, he is so good we had to invent a new word just for him.

The most important thing that we learned on Thursday was that Jim Washburn’s capabilities as a defensive line coach may have been underestimated. Yes, you read it right UNDERESTIMATED, because as much as we talked about him in the offseason, the defensive line played so well that they made him look better than we could have ever imagined. From the very first defensive snap, you could see everyone on the line getting into their man and getting into the backfield. All 6 sacks were by our defensive line, but that stat doesn’t tell the whole story. The only way you could see the whole story is if you watched the game and saw how dominant this line was on every snap so its pointless to talk about it, watch the replay of the game Sunday at 3:00 PM on CSN and see how amazing it truly was. All we can say is, if this continues, you will see multiple Eagles’ D-linemen on the Pro Bowl squad and a defense in general that can dominate any offense, especially the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

2. Casey Matthews still needs a little work

"Owen, will you let me go already? Im trying to go make a play on the ball."

I think Matthews still has time to get sharp before the season, but he definitely showed some glaring weaknesses on Thursday. He did seem comfortable as a leader out there, which is a good sign, but the biggest thing I saw that needed help was his run stopping capability. On a lot of the running plays, you could visibly see Casey having a tough time shedding the block to get to the next level. He was staying engaged with the lineman so long that its easy to believe that if that continues, we could see some long runs breaking through the line. While this would be good because we could see some monster hits from Jaiquawn Jarrett on the RBs, it may lead to a lot of long touchdowns. We still firmly believe Casey is going to be a good MLB for the Eagles eventually, he just needs a litte more work with the coaches. But, don’t be surprised that if this part of his game does not improve, you will see some more of Jamar Chaney and other LB’s mixing in there. This is an all or nothing season, so don’t expect the management or coaches to wait too long for the kid to come around.

3. No Maclin, No Jackson, No problem?

"I derive most of my strength from my beautiful golden locks."

Let’s be honest, everyone wants Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin in the game, but did you see how good we were without our two superstar receivers? In that first drive alone, we had big plays by Avant, Chad Hall, and Riley Cooper. Cooper only had one catch, but he jumped up out of his seat like someone was about to cut his gorgeous golden locks. Avant made a solid catch in some traffic, which is what Philly phans have come to expect from him. Chad Hall is once again doing things that a guy his size maybe shouldn’t be able to do. He caught the ball in some tight spots and took a couple big hits. Vick did a great job of showing his inner Donovan McNabb by taking a lot of nobody receivers and still looking like an all-star quarterback. Of course we all want the two explosive superstars back in the lineup, but if for some reason we can’t get them back… we have a feeling we can survive without them.

4. Do we have a legitimate 3-headed monster in the backfield?

The middle one is Lesean and his right head man is Ronnie Brown. Dion Lewis is the third string guy on his left.

Okay, I know a couple people may call us crazy, but we think there is a legitmate chance that the three runningbacks that we have back there may be a new age trifecta of power. On Thursday, we didn’t see much from Shady McCoy, but we all know what he can do. The real things we saw were from Ronnie Brown and Dion Lewis. Ronnie looked like a healthy, explosive, between the tackles runner. He showed his speed and strength are still there and got pretty elusive on a couple plays. On the other hand, Dion Lewis was kind of a pleasant surprise. He showed good vision on the field, and for being a small guy, did a pretty nice job of picking up the blitz. He is the type of guy that can turn a broken play into a big gainer with his speed and athleticism. Now, we don’t anticipate Lewis getting too many carries this season, with a majority of the carries going to McCoy and Brown, but if there is a big change of pace needed, he might get a couple touches a game. If these three runningbacks all play up to the level they did on Thursday, look for a well-balanced offense that will scare opposing defenses in so many ways for the upcoming season.

5. New right side of the offensive line getting it done.

"I didn't realize how bad everyone else in the NFL was besides me."

In the first amazing offensive series for the Philadelphia Eagles, we don’t know if anyone else noticed, but the Eagles ACTUALLY converted a 3^rd and 1. AND it wasn’t by throwing or running some trick play out of the backfield, we just ran it straight ahead with Owen Schmitt behind Ryan Harris and Danny Watkins. If this doesn’t shock you, then you don’t know Eagles football very well. For the past several years, we have had a lot of trouble converting short yardage type plays, and within one game with our newly constructed offensive line, we convert on our first attempt. Harris and Watkins, if they didn’t before, now have a ton of confidence from Howard Mudd and Andy Reid to get the job done when need be. They looked like veterans who were comfortable and dominant throughout their time in the game. The whole offensive line looked like they are going to be tough for opposing teams to deal with all season and that no doubt comes from the addition of two sturdy pieces like Harris and Watkins. They were incredibly impressive and that means that Michael Vick stays off the ground and keeps sprinting this offense towards a Super Bowl.

Please- Come, Sit, Stay for a Super Bowl.

 Todd passing the torch of greatness to Randy? Possibly...

Philadelphia is a beautiful place to be these days. It's attracting anyone and anything looking for a big, shiny ring. One of these things may be, the one, the only, the future hall of famer… BRETT FAVRE! No, we’re just kidding, not even Smokin’ Joe and HowiEmazing would add another quarterback to the depth chart, but there may be another veteran “retiree” making his way to Philadelphia. Randy Moss may be pulling a Brett Favre and coming out of retirement to try and make a difference for THE contender of the 2011 NFL season. And of course, I am not talking about the Packers or the Patriots; I am talking about the Birds. There were reports from the Boston Herald on Wednesday that after Moss had officially retired, the Eagles offered him a contract anyway to try and bring him to the Nest for a year deal, which would officially end any speculation that we wouldn’t win the Super Bowl this year. Then, after those reports on Wednesday, local sports talk radio stations in the Philadelphia area had rumors swirling that Moss was spotted in a downtown steak house getting a nice dinner (which no doubt was a result of signing a million dollar deal). These are exciting, and may turn out to be complete bullshit, but lets for a second just speculate and dream that this is true. What would that mean for the Eagles as an offense?

1.     Remember that shitty year that Brent Celek had last year? Yeah, well if we can sign Randy Moss, that year will be a repressed memory just like I do with my memories of the Phillies growing up. Moss will bring size and strength into the red zone. Brent will be free to be covered by some second rate run stuffing linebacker who will undoubtedly lose his jock strap on the field with Celek’s athleticism. That will increase our red zone efficiency and improve our amount of wins by a lot of the course of an entire year.

2.     A second thought would be hopefully giving some of our receivers a bit of a rest. Lets be honest, we have three really good receivers right now (Jackson, Maclin, Avant), but that is all we have for right now. After that, the talent drops off tremendously (with the exception of Riley Cooper who will turn into a nasty redzone receiver with some more experience). This will give us the availability to swap out the receivers and as the game goes on, we will be fresher than the dbacks forced to cover our plethora of talented receivers. This will also help with the question marks surrounding Jackson and Maclin. If Maclin continues to fight illness throughout the year, who knows how much he will actually be able to give on a game by game basis. Also, if Jackson holds out and comes into camp late, we won’t know if he is in game shape right away and could need some breathers throughout the season. This could be a huge help for us.

3.     Finally, at this stage in Randy’s career hopefully he would be a good teacher to some of the younger receivers on the team. In particular, I would hope Riley Cooper would learn a lot from the future hall of famer. They can essentially be the same receiver- big, physical in the redzone with some speed and strength. It would be huge if Riley could continue to grow and learn how to play that receiver position from one of the all-time greats.

Now that all that has been said, this is completely dependent on the fact that Moss doesn’t come on the team and act like a complete asshole, which he has been known to do in the past. He has shown that he can be a ticking time bomb to any team, even one with as good a core as we have in Philly. As long as he doesn’t come on the team and yell at coaches or at the quarterback or at the nice man who brought free food to the team post game, than he could be a huge asset on a team that already has a ton of talent. If the rumors are true (and I did hear it from a reliable source, my buddy Matt who I work with), then we could be in for an exciting rollercoaster ride of an NFL season.