The numbers? The numbers weren’t particularly impressive. The performance? It really wasn’t a bad night for Tanner McKee.
Playing with a few deep-backup receivers behind a bunch of offensive men you’ve never heard of in a painfully boring offense, McKee looked poised and composed in the Eagles’ season opener in Baltimore.
He played in the Eagles’ last four offensive series – one that resulted in a 17-play touchdown, one that was a disaster, one that resulted in a 14-play missed field goal, and one that resulted in the game-winning two-play field goal.
McKee completed just six passes for 39 yards, but he dropped the ball at least twice, and when he had to make plays, he did, completing 3 of 5 passes with three third down conversions.
“It was pretty fun,” McKee said. “It was just about competing. Going out there and doing your best. I feel like when you’re out there, you don’t think it’s a warm-up game. You’re out there to win the game. That’s just how we are as competitors.”
“Coach is big on knowing the details of the situation we’re in. Are we two minutes? Four minutes? What yard line do we need to get to so the kicker feels comfortable kicking the field goal? So I just talk to the O-line about what’s going to happen. I tell the receivers to do a wide split or just little details like that. I think we executed that pretty well and ultimately our guys just made some great plays.”
McKee’s best moment was a seven-meter-long 1st-down completion to rookie Ainias Smith with a 3rd-and-6 with 4 ½ minutes left, helping the Eagles run down the clock for a late field goal attempt (and then another).
“I thought Tanner did a good job of getting through some checks and really controlling the operation,” Nick Sirianni said. “The pass from Tanner to Ainias on third down got the chains going and put them in a (tough) position, and when they got the ball back they only had 16 seconds left. That was a great play.”
Kenny Pickett seems to be stuck at No. 2, and he wasn’t bad on Friday night given the circumstances. Neither quarterback had to move the ball down the field or do anything else we would have seen in the regular season.
But McKee is an impressive kid who is having a really nice summer, and you can’t ask for much more from a young sixth-round pick entering his second year.
“I’m a lot more comfortable with the offense,” McKee said. “I talk a lot about just being able to play without thinking. I feel like that’s when players perform at their best. Last year I was a little more methodical in terms of learning what was going on and trying to make sure I had the right checks. Now I feel like I can go out there and things just happen and checks get made.
“There are just different things like that that I’m more comfortable with. There are a lot of things I can improve on. There were a couple times in this game where I missed the point or thought the intent of the play was different, so I took the ball out of my hand and threw a pass that I probably should have just kept going, but I just thought we were going to snap the ball.
“There are definitely things I can improve this way. I would say overall I feel more comfortable when I can just play without thinking so much.”
For the record, McKee was out there throwing for Joseph Ngata, Austin Watkins, Jacob Harris, Kevin Foelsch and EJ Jenkins.
“I thought it went pretty smoothly,” McKee said. “The new offense is great. I think our guys did a good job on the details inside and out, especially in our first preseason game.”
“We knew they were going to apply a lot of pressure, especially through exotic attacks. … I think part of our game strategy was to take the ball away from us and play hot that way.”
As for Pickett, he’s been OK without DeVonta Smith, AJ Brown, Dallas Goedert and Saquon Barkley. He still holds the ball too long sometimes, but he’s getting better.
His touchdown pass to rookie Will Shipley was a highlight, but with the Ravens applying a lot of pressure and following a boring game plan, none of the quarterbacks managed to complete a pass longer than 11 yards.
“I think it was a solid night,” said the former Steelers 1st-round pick said: “They do a lot of good things defensively, which they showed early in this preseason (game), which makes you want to be as prepared as you can with a day or two of preparation.”
“We just took what they gave us. When it’s open, you just have to take it and keep methodically moving down the field, which I think we did.
“It was great to get into the end zone and get ‘Ship’ into the end zone on our longest drive there. I thought it was a great drive. Obviously we want to make explosive plays, but at the same time you just want to take what’s there.”
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