No practice for the Eagles today. The team is traveling to Foxboro to play the New England Patriots. It won’t be a normal preseason game for these two clubs. There will be a little more snap, crackle and pop in the air tomorrow night at Gillette Stadium.
The last time the Eagles saw Tom Brady, he hung a Super Bowl-record 505 passing yards on them and nearly broke the hearts of Eagles fans everywhere with a hail mary pass to tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Tomorrow night in Foxboro, the Eagles will see a completely different Patriots offense. Same old Brady – he just turned 41 years old – but Nate Solder is no longer at left tackle. He signed a big free agent deal to protect Eli Manning’s blindside in New York. Gone, too, are wide receivers Brandin Cooks and Danny Amendola.
Brady is expected to play – in fact, says he’s ready to play tomorrow night. Same goes for Gronkowski.
It will be interesting to see how the Patriots defense attacks Nick Foles. With former defensive coordinator Matt Patricia now the head coach in Detroit, longtime Bill Belichick acolyte Brian Flores has taken over the Patriots defense, but he was not given the coordinator’s title. He’s basically on double secret probation, which means it’s Belichick’s defense and he’ll be dictating the defensive game plan and in-game calls.
Perhaps the Patriots will blitz more this year. Perhaps the Eagles will see some of that new approach tomorrow night.
Get Sal Pal’s daily Training Camp updates here!