It was a good night for the Philadelphia Eagles after taking down the Cincinnati Bengals 34-27 in the preseason opener. Still, head coach Nick Sirianni might have a problem that his team will have to answer for quickly.
Cincinnati decided to play the starters for over a quarter so the team could get off to a fast start. The Eagles went in a different direction and rested most of the starters for the game. That left Bengals star receiver Ja'Marr Chase going up against Eagles cornerbacks Kelee Ringo and Adoree' Jackson, who are currently in a position battle for the CB2 job. Man, Chase and the Bengals' offense made them look bad.
On the first drive alone, Chase converted a third-down catch for a first with soft coverage from Jackson. Later in the same drive, Chase caught a deep pass he had to come back for and tiptoed on the sideline to make the catch with Ringo in coverage. It got worse on the second drive, where Ringo whiffed on a tackle he was trying to make on Chase, and that resulted in a 36-yard touchdown pass for the Bengals.
Jackson and Ringo finished with a combined seven tackles. No pass deflections, no interceptions, just tackles in soft coverage (and a missed one for a touchdown).
Eagles have a massive problem in the secondary trying to find another outside corner
Let's get one thing out of the way: yes, this was the Eagles' backups against the Bengals' starters. Fans would like to see the Eagles' pass rush do better than just two quarterback hits and one sack and they could have done a better job with stopping the run more efficiently.
Ringo and Jackson are competing for a starting job, so it's not far off to think they will face the best receivers in the league. Thursday night's game showed they are not ready, and that's a major problem.
It felt like there were multiple times throughout the first half that the Eagles were playing very soft coverage, allowing easy completions, so the Bengals didn't burn them down the field. That didn't matter as there were still missed tackles and too much room for receivers to pick up extra yards.
Eagles fans can't help but feel like they're scratching their heads more than ever with now some significant concerns that Quinyon Mitchell might not have as reliable of a partner on the outside as he did with Darius Slay last year. The Eagles will need to go back to the drawing board and figure something out.
If there is one of the two that might be given the edge, it's probably Jackson, but only a very slight edge. Jackson was at least good with making open field tackles. Ringo was just all over the place on the field.
Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is looking a lot better with that cornerback Jakorian Bennett trade earlier in the week with the Las Vegas Raiders, as Bennett put himself in the conversation to start. Even Eli Ricks, who had two pass deflections in the game, might also have a chance to win the starting job.
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The CB2 job is wide open, and that's a significant problem for the Eagles. It only got worse with more players about to compete for it. Sirianni and defensive coordinator Vic Fangio will have to scramble over the next two weeks and figure something out.