Eagles-Steelers - 2nd Half Impressions

Bloom took the second-half K.O. and looked tentative. As Madden said after remarking about Bloom's toe injury: He looked like a guy that shouldn't have been out there.

Offense:
Kolb led a good opening drive. Until someone jumped offsides on 2nd and 7. That opening up the floodgates for 2nd and 3rd and long and Steelers poured the pressure on. Settled for a 44-yard FG by David Akers after having the ball on about the Steelers 20....again, penalties kill a chance to score more. DAMMIT.
- Kolb's second drive ends at mid-field on a QB sneak....I guess my only thought on that one. Its preseason - sneaks SHOULD WORK, but these are the Eagles 2s going against the Steelers first team D, and Kolb isn't going to be the starter, but Tony Hunt COULD see some game action this year. Why not see what Hunt's got in a key situation like that? I mean 3rd down and the FB runs it, 4th down - QB sneak....seems like it was good opportunity
- Kolb engineers a great scoring drive, hooking up with 4th string TE Lee Vickers about a dozen times and ending with a good TD toss. Score 20-13 Pitt
- Kolb is engineering another great drive. Oh fuck....goddamn rookie WR fumbles the ball and it goes the other way for a TD...what the frig....So long Zac Collie....
The good news - Kolb looked pretty damn good. He made the throws he needed to make. Hell me made BETTER throws than one might expect from a rookie. He didn't get much assistance. He got some....they dialed up a LOT of different rookie/2nd year WRs during his drives. I mean Gasperson, Collie, J.J. Outlaw, Jamison, Vickers, Bloom all got their shot. None were impressive. Certainly no one made the sort of OOO or AAH play that made you consider that the guy might be potential replacement for WR like Greg Lewis (who is probably our 5th string possession guy right now).


Defense:
Ole defense to start the second half...whew...they didn't do much and while they didn't give up points after Charlie Batch's initial quick TD drive, that's not really all that indicative of success or progress. Following that: Second half D was unspectacular - no one got injured which was good. They did their jobs and got the ball back for Kolb and the Offense. If the young wideouts hadn't fucked up, Kolb might've engineered an entertaining (though ultimately meaningless) 4th quarter comeback.

Summation: Andy Reid did his usual preseason routine - complete vanilla. He got McNabb some work and then let Kolb strut his stuff. No work tonight for A.J. - though I imagine he'll see extensive action on Thursday night. And perhaps that's the key. The Eagles have a very quick turn around to their next game, so perhaps AR figured to keep him fresh because he'll probably play the first half in just a few days.
All-in-all, no complaints because the Eagles appear to escaped unscathed, injury-wise.