August 27, 2021
After some hairy moments prior to its start, the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Jets held their traditional final preseason game at MetLife Stadium. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.
Leading up to the start of this game, a severe storm hit North Jersey, with extreme rainfall. It was all fun and games initially, as Jason Kelce went for stroll around the field in his socks, and even slid head first (it was more like a belly flop) on the rain-soaked turf.
Jason Kelce brave man sliding in the rain on the field at MetLife Stadium 🔥🔥
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) August 27, 2021
Wait for it…..
OIinemem are just different pic.twitter.com/4EvuX0CYbL
But as the rain accumulated on the field for more than an hour, about a half-dozen mounds formed around the field, which Jets employees inspected closely.
Joe Douglas and some other Jets dudes are checking out a big turf mound that formed because of the extreme rain. There are about a half dozen such mounds that have formed around the field. pic.twitter.com/8Zu1JlC1zm
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) August 27, 2021
A closer look at the mounds:
The turf at MetLife stadium has pitching mounds popping up everywhere
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) August 27, 2021
Zach Ertz has never seen this before pic.twitter.com/vdPZhepaxp
To underscore the severity of the storm, fellow beat writer Dave Zangaro of NBC Philly had his car struck by lightning on the way to game. Like, for real. And he still covered the game!
Ultimately, the game was delayed by about 20 minutes, but they got it in.
Defensively, no starters played. Offensively, Jalen Reagor, Quez Watkins, and Greg Ward started at WR, which was the only position in which a likely starter played. Otherwise, no offensive starters played.
And so, the Eagles achieved their easiest goal for the night, which was to keep their most important players healthy.
13 of 16 for 188, 2 TD, 0 INT, 155.3 rating. Elite!
In two seasons with the Eagles, Boston Scott has saved his best moments for games against the Giants. Maybe it's just New Jersey teams in general that Scott kills, and not exclusively the Giants. On the Eagles' first drive, Scott caught a little dump down and took it 49 yards to the house.
You cannot touch Boston Scott. 49 yards for the touchdown! #PHIvsNYJ @BostonScott2 pic.twitter.com/V9WmiMqFdI
— NFL (@NFL) August 28, 2021
By law, poor No. 49 has to retire after getting juked that badly. My condolences to him and his family.
The highlight of Arcega-Whiteside's professional career was a preseason game against the Baltimore Ravens in 2019, when he had 8 catches for 104 yards and a TD.
Fighting for a roster spot against the Jets, Arcega-Whiteside had a big game, particularly at the end of the first half, when he had a 15-yard reception on a 3rd and long, followed by a 42-yard TD with only seconds remaining. He made a contested catch, then got away from a defender and ran it in for the score.
What a way to close out the half!#PHIvsNYJ | #FlyEaglesFly
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 28, 2021
📺: NBC10 pic.twitter.com/HQPF1iaJzA
And then he made the tackle on the ensuing kickoff! Could JJAW survive final cuts?
McGill has consistently made plays all throughout camp, and against the Jets he had two sacks. It feels like he cemented his roster spot with one last solid performance.
On his first catch of the preseason, Fulgham was stripped of the ball near the goal line, and the ball squirted out the back of the end zone for a Jets touchback. He also saw his first action in this game late in the first half, after four other receivers — Reagor, Watkins, Ward, and John Hightower — got playing time before him.
After a lackluster camp, Fulgham had a good day in the first of two joint practices with the Jets on Tuesday, but is that enough? Fulgham entered training camp competing for a starting job. A month later he'll be sweating out final cuts.
Gainwell got off to a slow start in camp, but he's done some nice things in the preseason games. Against the Jets, he had 5 carries for 32 yards and a TD, to go along with 4 catches for 27 yards. Gainwell has a chance to to contribute immediately as a rookie.
We should probably mention that this game ended in a tie, after a Jets Hail Mary, followed by a two-point conversion.
MORGAN TO YEBOAH FOR THE HAIL MARY WITH 0:00 ON THE CLOCK
— Jets Videos (@snyjets) August 28, 2021
(via @nyjets)pic.twitter.com/i5M65rQNU4
Better for that to happen in a preseason game than in the Super Bowl, I guess?
The Eagles have to cut down to 53 players by Tuesday. Final 53-man roster projection coming soon.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
