Mikell, Samuel, and Cole were bright spots for the defense tonight.


Well, as expected, the first thing on everyone's mind is how Vick did in his first NFL action in almost two years. Honestly, he was okay. That's it, just okay. He did a couple things that I liked, and a few things that have me on the worried side.

First off, the only real pass he threw was a short comeback to Hank Baskett for about seven or eight yards. This play shows some potential in Michael Vick as a quarterback. Even on such a short and seemingly insignificant play, he showed a lot if you were paying attention.

The best part about this play was his patience. He held the ball for between three and four seconds, allowing the route to develop before simply abandoning the pocket and just trying to run. He stayed in the pocket, allowed Baskett to run off the corner before making his cut and catching a well-thrown ball from Vick.

This shows that Vick is at least making a conscious effort to stay in the pocket, and wants to at least give this whole "being a real quarterback" a try.

The negative of this play was the fact that Vick made no effort to go through his progressions. From the second he took control of the ball he stared holes through Baskett. Really, this makes the completion all that more impressive. However, it's a little bit of luck to make a throw like that. If he tries that against a better defense in the regular season he'll get to showcase his speed by chasing down a defender.

As expected, Vick seemed a bit hesitant and a little gun-shy. It's his first game in nearly two years (has that been mentioned anywhere yet?), so I'm definitely not worried about it. Reid showed just enough to make a few defensive coordinators lose some sleep over Vick.

Sticking with the quarterback theme, Donovan McNabb was a bit inconsistent, but had an overall good night. My first impression was that he looks very quick, and very agile. He did a nice job, especially in the beginning, of avoiding pressure and keeping plays alive. Winston Justice and Jason Peters struggled a bit at the beginning, but McNabb was able to compensate.

McNabb's number one target tonight, outside of the hands of the Jaguars' defensive linemen, was Jason Avant who showed that he can be a target in this passing game. Even with the speed surrounding him, his ability to run precise and sharp patterns, along with his strong hands will allow him to make some big-time plays for the Eagles this season.

The offensive line was decent. As said before, Justice and Peters struggled a bit in the first quarter with outside pressure, but they seemed to get it under control and helped an offensive line missing two starters play fairly well. It wasn't great, but there's still time.

Even Brent Celek stepped it up tonight as a blocker, doing a pretty decent job of sealing the edge on a LeSean McCoy touchdown run where he tried to take the ball up the middle, got stuffed, and immediately bounced it to the outside and ran for the pylon. For those of you who didn't see it, think Reggie Bush circa 2006 playoff game.

All of the receivers played well, expect for Kevin Curtis who couldn't seem to throw a block if his life depended on it. None of these receivers are guaranteed any time, and if he can't block his reps are going to get a significant cut. That being said, I think Brandon Gibson is the real deal. He made a play where he planted his feet and made a falling catch to stay in-bounds. That's a real NFL-caliber play.

Outside of a couple costly fumbles by McNabb/McCoy and Kyle Eckel, the offense looked good. McNabb did throw a bad interception where he was behind Jackson on a flag pattern and didn't account for a roaming safety, but he understood the mistake and moved on. That's what the preseason is for.

Westbrook was a healthy scratch which was a fantastic decision. He's 30 years old and isn't going to show you anything new. He's an injury concern already, so let him sit and rest up for the season. If something were to happen to Westbrook in the preseason it would be an absolute disaster for this team.

The defense was decent, and again, nothing special. Brodrick Bunkley, Mike Patterson, and even Trevor Laws all looked very good tonight. They, at the very worst, created a stalemate on the line and didn't allow much room for Maurice Jones-Drew. Patterson had a sack, Laws had a beautiful tackle in the backfield, and Bunkley was a brick wall all night.

Trent Cole was very fast off the edge and created a lot of problems for the Jaguars. He didn't spare his former teammate Tra Thomas any of his moves, and was constantly in David Garrard's face throughout the course of the game.

Sheldon Brown didn't play, so Ellis Hobbs got the start. He was flying all around the field making plays in the passing and running game. He was able to shed any blocking receiver and made very nice plays all night long.

For anyone who watched the game, to say Asante Samuel had a good night would be an understatement. He hit, and he hit hard. At one point he hit a Jaguars receiver so hard that he knocked him out cold for a couple minutes. He'll probably be getting a fine because he connected with his head, but it was still a great hit and a great thing to see from Samuel.

Not surprisingly, he was also able to come up with a pick tonight as he broke on Torry Holt's pattern even before Holt did and snatched Garrard's pass right out of the air. He nearly had a second interception, but it skipped into him as he dived for it. Overall, he and Hobbs were very good in coverage, and incredibly physical in run support.

Hanson had a decent night as well, but allowed a touchdown because he was playing with outside leverage, which of course allowed to quick pop to the receiver. The play, however, was not a touchdown as the receiver never had possession and Quintin Mikell tore the ball from his hands, but no challenge means it was a touchdown...technically.

So why was the defense only "decent" when the defensive line and the secondary played so well? Quite obviously, it's the linebackers. While they weren't terrible, they certainly weren't very good.

Akeem Jordan was by far the best of the bunch tonight as Chris Gocong wasn't heard from, and Joe Mays looked lost again tonight. He's no longer playing with that reckless abandon that made him so much fun to watch last year, but instead he's locking himself up mentally and it's leading to some really poor outings for the second-year linebacker.

Moise Fukou played well, but it was mainly against backups. I'd love to see him get some time against starters, but the only way to see that now would be to throw him in during the regular season. That's not something I envision the Eagles trying at this point, barring a complete Joe Mays meltdown.

As for Quintin Demps... expect Demps to receive his own scathing review very soon.