Image courtesy of Philadelphia Inquirer
FOXBOROUGH – Preseason game No. 2 is in the books.
The Patriots and Eagles saw a lot of each other this week with two joint practices. None of the starters played on Saturday night in the last game at Gillette Stadium until Week 2 and it certainly showed at times.
In what was a snoozer that turned into a fairly entertaining preseason game by preseason standards, the Patriots ended up winning 24-21 on a Behren Morton 37-yard touchdown pass to Nick DeGennaro with under a minute remaining.
In the closing seconds, former BC EDGE Quintayvious Hutchins came up with a strip sack to seal the victory for New England.
While the win was nice, head coach Mike Vrabel is still looking for a whole lot more from his squad.
“It’s inconsistent. I think that there are some really good performances and then obviously some things that we do that hurt us, and we have to be able to eliminate those few things, those lulls or those naps that we talked about,” he said. “But I felt like we really competed. The guys that were there tonight in the game competed in the second half, and I think that’s probably the thing that I will take away for the last three or four days, was just the way that they competed and fed off each other and made some plays and gave up a few and then were able to come back there at the end and score and then obviously end the game on defense.
Tommy DeVito was impressive in the first half, going 8-15 for 151 yards with a 69-yard dime of a touchdown down the right sideline to Kyle Williams. He also showed off his wheels, putting up 44-yards rushing on three scrambles.
The game got off to a scary start when Philadelphia’s Ja’Quinden Jackson was knocked out on the opening kickoff. After an eight-minute delay where he was taken out by ambulance. The Eagles soon reported that he had movement and feeling in his extremities.
After a scoreless first quarter, Philly jumped ahead first eight seconds into the second on a five-yard TD run by Jordan Shipley. On the ensuing New England drive, a 36-yard run by DeVito ultimately set up a 41-yard field goal for Andy Borregales.
The DeVito drop-in-the-bucket to Williams came with just under three minutes left in the half. Williams beat his defender downfield and DeVito hit him in stride, with Williams hauling it in around the 20-yard line and rolling in from there to make it 10-7.
A personal foul call for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Mike Brown aided Philly in quickly getting downfield on its next drive and the Eagles took back the lead almost immediately. A Britain Covey quick screen quickly turned into a 14-yard scamper to the house, making it 14-10 Eagles.
The Pats quickly had to punt, but a sack in the final seconds for Amari Gainer kept the deficit at four heading into the break.
The Patriots defense opened the third quarter with a goal-to-go stand as rookie Namdi Obiazor came up with a PBU in the end zone on fourth down. Morton entered the game at QB – while handling some punting duties for the first time since high school – but New England’s offense couldn’t muster much.
Another fourth down stop for the defense came at its own 41 with 4:02 to go in the quarter. On that following drive, Lan Larison (9 carries, 33 yards, 3 catches, 41 yards) had a tough 4th-&-1 conversion to extend things at the Philly 48. Moments later, Morton (13/17, 129 yards) hit Tejhaun Palmer on a slant to pick up 3rd-&-4.
Two minutes into the fourth, Larison punched in a two-yard TD run to put the Pats back up 17-14. After Philly punted, JaMycal Hasty was stripped going out of bounds and the Eagles recovered at their 48.
Soon thereafter, Philly reclaimed the lead on a 20-yard TD catch, run and hurdle into the end zone from Carson Steele. That left Morton with 3:33 on the clock to engineer a game-winning drive.
Two big third down conversions by Larison and a 4th-&-1 catch by Kyle Dixon eventually set up the 37-yard winner to DeGennaro in what was almost an identical play to the Williams TD. Hutchins’ strip sack came moments later and Casey Rodgers fell on it for the win.
“It means a lot,” Hutchins said of making the game-sealing play. “I was still in my head after (messing up) on the last kickoff.”
Was it the biggest play of his life so far?
“Yeah, that’s No. 1 right now,” Hutchins added with a big smile.
Now, New England will get its first taste of a short week – something they’ll deal with a bunch in the second half of the season – when they travel to Cleveland for a Thursday night game.
Asked if starters will play in that game, Vrabel gave a rather surprising answer that may cause a bit of a stir on social media and the local airwaves for the next couple of days.
“I do not think we have a very deep team, Mike (Reiss), so I think we have to make sure that we are preparing our football team and that we are doing everything that we can to keep our best players available,” said Vrabel. “And if that means playing Thursday as part of preparation, then that is what we will do.
“I have not made that decision yet, but I would say that that is something that I am confident in with where we are set up currently.”