1. The offense looks really good, but can they punch it into the endzone? If there was one negative about the Eagles offense last week, it was the fact that they kicked so many field goals. Kevin Kolb moved the team down the field with ease it seemed, hitting a lot of short, quick passes and mixing in a couple downfield throws, which is what I expected to see. The run game looked good too, with Shady McCoy breaking off some decent gains. I'm still curious to see the Eagles first team in a red-zone situation; if they can be successful there and manage to put up six points more often than not, this offense could be outstanding, as they seem to have no problem moving the chains between the 20's. If not, that could be an Achilles' heel all season, as it has been in the past.
2. How will the team hold up against the run? The thing that worries me about our front seven is their small size and how they will fare against a big, nasty O-line. It didn't turn out so well against Dallas last year, and they really didn't get any bigger in the offseason, except for the return of Stewart Bradley, which will help. I understand that Andy Reid likes to go small and fast on defense, but I need to see the results against the run game before I can fully trust this unit. The Bengals average about 330 across their offensive line, and like to run the ball with Cedric Benson, so we'll have a good opportunity to see how the Birds hold up against a big, physical running team.
3. T.O. and Ochocinco. I mean, who doesn't want to watch these guys playing on the same team? T.O. always cracks me up (when he's not ruining the Eagles' season), and Ochocinco is an entertaining individual to say the least. It's true reality TV. But really, I'm interested to see how the Eagles secondary performs against a better receiving corps than the Jags last week. The secondary is still my biggest area of question, and we saw some good and bad things from them last week, though it was mostly good from the starters. The Bengals have a solid pass-catching unit with Ochocinco, Owens, and Antonio Bryant, and even though some may say Owens is aging, he's still a big-time threat in my book.
After Friday's game, I think we'll have a pretty good sense of what we're going to be working with this season. It's the only preseason game where the starters are going to play a full half against a good, playoff-caliber team (next week is the Chiefs, and the last game against the Jets I doubt the starters will see much time). Remember, the Eagles didn't beat a single playoff team in any of their eleven wins last year, which is something they obviously need to do to be a serious contender this year. Their 2010 schedule won't allow them to make it to the playoffs again if they don't beat some good teams.
Coming soon, we'll have our official 2010 season predictions here at C&H.
