Preseason Game One Breakdown: Eagles vs. Packers

By Tyler Morales, Sports Talk Philly staff

 The first game is finally in the books and in typical preseason fashion, the game was sloppy. The first-team offense and defense were not on the field often, but made an impact when they were. Sadly, NFL Game pass does not have All-22 film for preseason games, but we were able to use the broadcast version. I won't be able to write about the secondary because with the broadcast angle you simply can't see what the corners are doing but that will change during the regular season. It is tough to highlight the starters in this game since they do not play much for us to go off of. A bunch of backups and players fighting for a spot really caught my eye, let's take a closer look at who stood out. 

1. The Defensive Line

One thing we can all agree on after watching this game is that the Eagles have a plethora of talented players on the defensive line. Players like Justin Hamilton, Derek Barnett, Steven Means and Alex McCalister flashed some impressive ability that can't go unnoticed. 24-year-old Justin Hamilton has bounced around the league so far in his career, but this game was encouraging to see from a guy that has not been getting too much press: 

Hamilton, who wears N0. 90, was lined up at the 3 technique for the majority of this game. When he was one-on-one, he was able to make his impact felt. On this play, he bull rushes the Packers left guard, which forces an errant throw that gets intercepted by Mychal Kendricks. When Hamilton was able to get low, he was a force and tough to stop for these Packers linemen. 

On this play, Hamilton gets pinned inside by the center before he goes out to pick up Joe Walker. Hamilton was able to avoid getting fully engaged with the left guard and makes the play while getting held. Hamilton showed that he can create pressure from the interior and stop the run. It will be interesting to see how well Hamilton plays throughout this preseason, because adding more depth on the line can only be beneficial. The duo of Hamilton and Barnett was solid throughout the game. 

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One guy that really surprised me was Steven Means and his ability to get in the backfield constantly during this game. After the game, Pro Football Focus gave Steven Means a "game ball" for his play against the Packers. PFF logged Means with nine QB pressures and a 83.5 game grade for his performance.

Steven Means was a pass-rushing machine for the Eagles on Thursday night: https://t.co/EgQrETzlmU pic.twitter.com/LxQr1lZtbJ

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) August 11, 2017

I could point out five or more instances that show Means disrupting the backfield and forcing either a bad throw or a sack. I saw means line up at both LDE and RDE and even saw stunt with the DT and create pressure from inside. He was truly dominant throughout this game and it is nice to see so much depth from the Eagles defensive line. 

2. Bryce Treggs and Mack Hollins

I was not the biggest fan of Mack Hollins coming out of North Carolina, but it looks like he is making me eat my words. In college, Hollins underachieved and always left me wanting more when I watched him. Hollins caught every catchable ball out of his six targets and even had the play of the game in the first quarter. Hollins gets an inside release on Kevin King, Hollins leans into King at the top of the route and breaks off to create the separation he needed on the route. King gets confused with the coverage Green Bay is in and leaves Hollins wide open on the dig route. He shows his yards after catch skills and stiff arms a poor Green Bay defensive back.

With it unclear whether the team will get anything out of Nelson Agholor and Shelton Gibson struggling, the Eagles will need some depth in their WR core. Hopefully Hollins can provide a little something this season. 

Bryce Treggs was a guy that we have not heard much about in training camp despite being on the active roster for games last season. Treggs may bring to this team what I thought Shelton Gibson would and that's a deep threat who can beat you underneath in zone coverage. Treggs caught seven of eight targets for 91 yards and led the Eagles in receiving.

Treggs lined up at X, Y and Z in this game and caught a pass lined up in all those spots on the field. On this play, Treggs is lined up against Kevin King and flat out just outruns King, who ran a 4.43 40-yard dash at the combine. Matt McGloin isn't exactly an elite quarterback, so it would have been nice to see what Treggs could have done with a better quarterback. Treggs was the best offensive player on the field and hopefully he caught the eye of the Eagles front office. 

3. The Offensive Line

Granted, it was the first preseason game, but goodness was it ugly early on. It isn't the most encouraging thing to see your first team offensive line struggle so mightily on the simple things. The Eagles running backs had no lanes to run through and the quarterbacks were running for their lives out there. Philadelphia was without Brandon Brooks, so mistakes like ones we saw in this game were expected. 

This play above stood out to me for a multiple of reasons. Warmack and Lane Johnson have a double team on Green Bay's best defensive linemen, Kenny Clark. They have Clark where they want him, but he was able to go outside and get away from the double with ease. Kelce lets the delayed blitzer cross his face and enter the backfield. Ertz had the best block out of the bunch with his cross block to get Clay Matthews out of the picture. 

This was not just a rare occurrence, this happened early and often. Obviously we expect this offensive line to get it together because they showed last year that they can be an excellent bunch. 

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The first preseason game was a sloppy one that really was not encouraging outside of a few players. Thank goodness this is the first game and they get three more to clear all of this up.