Eagles close out winless preseason with uneven 30-13 loss to Bengals; status of QB2 competition unclear
Andy Dalton was the sharpest of the quarterbacks to see action for the Eagles, but the team was again inconsistent offensively.
The preseason mercifully ends with a goose egg in the Eagles’ win column.
Andy Dalton led his first touchdown drive of the preseason, but the Eagles still fell to the Cincinnati Bengals, 30-13, at Lincoln Financial Field on Friday night.
Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ third and final game of the exhibition slate:
Meh-kee; Dalton shows (a little) life
The Eagles backup quarterback competition continued to underwhelm on the whole.
After displaying signs of progress in the second preseason game against the New England Patriots, Tanner McKee took a step back on Friday.
He started and played the entire first half. On 32 plays, McKee went 12-for-22 for 55 yards and an interception, good for a 41.1 passer rating. He was sacked twice.
Dalton, meanwhile, had his best single-game performance of the preseason on paper. He went 12-for-19 for 104 yards and a touchdown (95.1 quarterback rating) on 26 plays.
Still, aside from the scoring drive, Dalton amassed just 45 net yards on 15 plays. In total, the Eagles depth quarterbacks combined for four touchdown passes — two from McKee, one from Dalton, and one from rookie Cole Payton — through three preseason games.
While neither McKee nor Dalton seemed to definitively separate themselves in the competition, Nick Sirianni expressed confidence in both quarterbacks and their capabilities.
“I’ve been pleased with both those guys through camp,” Sirianni said after the game. “I feel we’re in a good spot there. We’ll go back and look at every throw they made from preseason games to practices to joint practices to operation practices and we’ll make our decision.
“I thought there were some good things. There were obviously always things you got to clean up at every position and in every game.”
McKee, the 2023 sixth-rounder out of Stanford struggled to push the ball downfield in Friday’s game. Most of his yardage came on short gains, namely checkdowns to the running backs. Running back Carson Steele was McKee’s most popular target in the first half, as he amassed five receptions on five targets for 32 yards. Steele had one long 17-yard catch-and-run gain, but he averaged 3.75 yards per reception on his other four.
The sacks that McKee took highlighted his inability to escape the pocket. Former Eagles defensive end Antwaun Powell-Ryland split a sack with Bengals defensive end Isaiah Foskey on the Eagles’ opening drive, collapsing on McKee from either side as he lingered too long in the pocket and eventually attempted to flee.
Right before the end of the first half, McKee took another sack from Foskey, who beat left tackle John Ojukwu. Again, McKee failed to get the ball out quickly, but this sack was less egregious than the first one.
McKee was nearly strip-sacked in the second quarter by Powell-Ryland after right tackle Cameron Williams gave up the pressure, but the play was eventually ruled an incomplete pass.
Despite his shaky performance in the preseason finale, McKee said he felt good about his overall showing in training camp.
“I feel a lot more comfortable just with the offense, calling the plays, [getting] guys in the right spots. I feel like at the beginning, you’re thinking a ton. ... Then by the end of training camp, you can get guys on the right page, and they have questions about their route stem or their depth or whatever it is. And as a quarterback, you’ve got to have all the answers.
“Felt like we’ve made a huge step, and we’re going to continue to grow in that way.”
Dalton, the former Bengals quarterback of nine seasons (2011-19), took over at the beginning of the second half. He wasn’t any more impressive than McKee was to start.
Dalton was handed favorable field position after Eagles receiver Jordan Mims, who signed with the team on Monday, forced a fumble on Bengals kick returner Tahj Brooks and Andre Sam came up with the recovery at the Bengals’ 43-yard line.
The 38-year-old quarterback didn’t do much with it. After a Steele five-yard run, Dalton threw two straight incomplete passes to Steele and Britain Covey. The Eagles settled for a 56-yard Jake Elliott field goal to pull within 9-6.s
But Dalton heated up on his second possession. He led an 11-play, 76-yard scoring drive, highlighted by a 26-yard play-action strike over the middle for Danny Gray that put the Eagles in the red zone. Steele continued his impressive preseason showing, as his five-yard touchdown reception made it 16-13, Bengals.
Overall, Dalton was pleased with his entire body of work throughout the summer.
“I think just being comfortable in everything that we’re doing,” Dalton said. “Having a good understanding of the little things that go into play in this position. I felt really comfortable out there, especially tonight. I felt like I was in a good place.”
What does the future hold for either quarterback, as the Eagles trim the roster down to 53 on Sunday at 6 p.m.?
“They haven’t given us a time frame [for a decision],” McKee said. “So, we’ll see.”
Lemon drop
After missing three weeks of training camp with a hamstring injury, rookie first-round receiver Makai Lemon made his preseason debut.
He was rusty. Lemon was on the field for the Eagles’ first four possessions on offense. He finished with three receptions on five targets for three yards.
McKee got Lemon involved right away. On the first play of the game, he completed a three-yard play-action bootleg pass to Lemon. His throw was a little low, but the 22-year-old receiver managed to adjust and snag the pass.
That three-yarder was Lemon’s longest reception of the night.
He was targeted again on the opening drive on another play-action pass, this time down the right sideline. McKee’s pass was nearly intercepted by Bengals rookie cornerback Tacario Davis, and it fell incomplete.
McKee wasn’t as lucky in the second quarter. On third-and-7 from the Bengals’ 25, the Eagles’ best field position at that point in the game, McKee was picked off by Davis after Lemon dropped a pass on an in-breaker. The pass was a bit high, but the ball deflected off both of Lemon’s hands.
“I’ve got to get the ball down,” McKee said. “I know it’s not fun as a receiver to put your hands over your head when you’re going across the middle, and so as a quarterback, I’ve got to get the ball down and make that an easier catch for him.”
The Bengals turned Davis’ 15-yard return to their own 36 into an eventual 34-yard field goal, going up 9-0.
He also took a rep at punt returner late in the third quarter. Bengals punter Ryan Rehkow shanked it, and while Lemon initially waved it off, he mishandled the ball when it bounced in his direction. Lemon ultimately managed to secure it, but he lost a yard on the return.
Seeing double
Two No. 10s in white Eagles jerseys shared the field on Friday.
Payton and Braden Mann are both wearing the number in camp, which is not uncommon, especially between players in different phases of the game. But it’s less common to see those two players on the field at the same time.
On a couple of Mann’s punts in the first half, Payton was on the field in punt coverage. As the Eagles mull whether to keep the rookie fifth-rounder out of North Dakota State on the initial 53-man roster, they’re getting a better sense of the ways he can contribute beyond the quarterback position.
Payton entered the game at quarterback with roughly four and a half minutes remaining in regulation. He did not complete either of his two pass attempts. He was sacked by Powell-Ryland.
Injury report
Safety Andre Sam went down late in the third quarter after attempting to make a tackle. He did not put any pressure on his left leg as he was lifted off the field and carted indoors.
Sam, the 2024 undrafted free agent out of LSU, had a strong outing prior to his injury. He recorded a pass breakup, a forced fumble, two fumble recoveries (one on defense, another on special teams), and three tackles.
Cornerback Isaiah Bolden was injured late in the fourth quarter. He did not return to the game.
The Eagles’ first-stringers get little to no action in exhibition games, annual joint practices with other teams become one of the few opportunities for starters to get preseason reps of consequence. This year, the Eagles traveled to New England for two days of live workouts with the Patriots. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jeff McLane and Boston Sports Journal’s Greg A. Bedard recap what they saw, and explain why, even after the joint practices, the Eagles still haven’t shown much of an identity. Listen here.
Listen to all episodes here or wherever you get your podcasts.
