Bowen: Eagles' defense picky, but offense shows little

PITTSBURGH - Hard to say we learned a lot about the 2016 Eagles that we didn't already know, in Thursday night's 17-0 preseason victory over a group loosely representing the Pittsburgh Steelers.

With Carson Wentz sitting out with a rib fracture, the focus was on starting quarterback Sam Bradford and his offensive line, suddenly threatened by the looming suspension of right tackle Lane Johnson.

The conclusion there was "meh."

Not having Wentz to spice up the evening brought home how much this training camp and preseason have been about the second player taken in the draft, and how bland and tasteless the regular season might become if the rookie is buried on the bench, as currently is the plan of Eagles coach Doug Pederson.

The biggest development of the night might have been the first-half knee injury suffered by rookie middle linebacker Joe Walker, who was having a strong camp. More to the point, Walker and vet Najee Goode are the team's only backup linebackers of note. A source close to the situation said the injury is serious. This will revive the long-running rumors about the Birds' interest in free agent LB Stephen Tulloch. There have been talks there, but a source said nothing was immiment – before Walker went down.

Pederson gave Bradford and the first-team offense the entire first half, and it wasn't because they were so scintillating he couldn't stand to take them off the field.

Again, we saw why the Eagles made the Dorial Green-Beckham trade. There was nothing doing deep; Bradford wasn't getting manhandled, exactly, behind a starting line that featured Allen Barbre at right tackle and rookie Isaac Seumalo at left guard, but Bradford kept having to check down anyway.  The Eagles' running game – Ryan Mathews gained 18 yards on five first-half carries -- didn't force the Steelers to bring down a safety to help out or anything.

A Seumalo hold negated a 21-yard gain on a pass from Bradford to Darren Sproles.

"We gotta clean up the penalties and stuff," said Barbre, who moved from left guard to right tackle last weekend. "We were having some success, and a lot of those big plays were brought back by penalties."

The Eagles were flagged a dozen times, for 96 yards.

The Steelers, with backup Landry Jones starting in place of Ben Roethlisberger, had this odd habit of putting together long, relentless drives, only for Jones to throw an interception before they could put points on the board. Jones threw four first-half picks; the first, to Nolan Carroll, was returned for a touchdown and a 7-0 Eagles lead.

But with Bradford getting only four first-quarter snaps, because Pittsburgh always had the ball, the one or two second-quarter series Pederson had outlined for his first-team offense turned into the entire half.

Bradford ended his evening at halftime,14 for 19 for 115 yards, compiling an 88.7 passer rating, averaging 6.1 yards per attempt. Jones completed 12 of 20 for 111 – meaning half his incompletions were picks – and a 35.6 passer rating.

Bradford went out on a high note, authoring a six-play, 38-yard drive in the final 35 seconds of the half to set up a 40-yard Cody Parkey field goal. The Birds got the ball when Jones, hit by Stephen Means, tossed a balloon that Jaylen Watkins intercepted.

"I was pleased with how the offense was able to move the ball in the second quarter," Pederson said.

The first-team offense doesn't have a real drive for a TD yet.

"It's not the end of the world for me," Pederson said. "I know what they've been doing in practice. I know the type of reps that we've been giving our guys. Again, we don't put a lot of game-planning into games like this. We just want to see execution … We'll see more this next week – we'll treat next week a little bit differently, going into that third preseason game" a week from Saturday at Indianapolis.

"I'm really not concerned at all," Bradford said. "You want to score touchdowns, but it didn't happen. We did some really good things tonight. I don't think there is a lot of concern from me right now."

The Eagles entered halftime having forced nine turnovers in six preseason quarters. If they were to maintain that pace for the entire regular season, that would be 108 turnovers, which would be a lot.

"Nine turnovers in two games is pretty good," Pederson discerned.

Backup QB Chase Daniel washed away the bad taste from his ineffective outing in last week's preseason opener by leading a 15-play, 87-yard touchdown drive after the Eagles took the second-half kickoff. Those were the only points the Eagles have scored this preseason that weren't set up by a turnover.

Daniel could have really made it special – if a preseason scoring drive can be special – had he connected on a jump-ball pass to newest Eagle Green-Beckham, an end zone fade from the Steelers' 5. It was the first snap for DGB, the 6-5, 237-pound wideout fans hope will enliven their ordinary-at-best receiving group.

Pederson had said Green-Beckham wouldn't play, having not practiced with the team since Tuesday's trade from Tennessee, but DGB was not announced among the inactives, and there was pregame buzz that he might find his way onto the field in, say, a red zone situation, which doesn't require an intricate grasp of the offense. This indeed came to pass.

"We threw one or two (fades) in pregame warmup," Daniel said. "We felt like he was going to get in for that play. That's one I probably could have gotten a little bit higher and let him go get it … That route in particular is something you have to really work on to get your timing down, quite a bit."

Daniel finished 10 for 16 for 82 yards.

Green-Beckham, who wore Jeremy Maclin's old No. 18, said the time between the trade and Thursday's game went "fast – like the blink of an eye."

He said he had an idea he would get to try the fade. Now he will dive into learning Pederson's offense, after acquiring a reputation in Tennessee for not being studious and detail-oriented.

"You just gotta react to it … Things happen to anybody. I just gotta stay positive, gotta stay focused ... Just waking up and finding that (trade) out is tough on anybody," Green-Beckham said.

He said the Titans, who drafted him 40^th overall in 2015, told him they thought the trade "was best for both sides."

"I think this'll be a fresh start, a new start," he said.

Isn't that a kick in the teeth?

The kicking competition between Caleb Sturgis and his predecessor, Cody Parkey, took an unexpected turn in pregame warmups, when Sturgis was hit in the head by a punt and suffered a concussion. Sturgis was not wearing his helmet.

Parkey and Sturgis had been scheduled to split the job Thursday night. Parkey got all the reps; his 40-yard field goal with three seconds left set the halftime score at 10-0.

Parkey said he didn't see Sturgis get hit, but he heard someone yell "Cover up!" Parkey said Donnie Jones was the only person on the field punting at the time, so he figures it must have been a Jones punt.

"I talked to (Sturgis) afterward and he kicked a few, but obviously when you get hit in the head they make you (go through the concussion protocol)," Parkey said.

"It came as a surprise, but I love it, man – getting in a good rhythm, taking all the reps."

Birdseed

Eagles corner Aaron Grymes, who came up with a nice end-zone interception in the first half, left the game with a shoulder injury  that Grymes said wasn't serious … S Blake Countess was being evaluated for a head injury, the Eagles said … RB Wendell Smallwood practiced all week after returning from a quad injury, and was scheduled to play, but Smallwood did not … Ditto CB JaCorey Shepherd (hamstring) … Lane Johnson started the second half, with the second-team offense, as Johnson continues to await word on an anticipated PED suspension ... Undrafted rookie Paul Turner again was the Eagles' receiving standout, with three catches for 44 yards, most notably a 23-yarder along the sideline that was the visitors' longest play of the night. "He's really beginning to stand out," Doug Pederson said.

@LesBowen

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