How Tanner McKee played better than his numbers look in preseason opener

How Tanner McKee played better than his numbers look in preseason opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The numbers? The numbers weren’t particularly impressive. The performance? It really wasn’t a bad night for Tanner McKee.

Playing with some deep backup receivers behind a bunch of offensive linemen you’ve never heard of in a painfully vanilla offense, McKee looked comfortable and in command in the Eagles’ preseason opener in Baltimore.

He played the Eagles’ last four offensive series – one went 17 plays for a touchdown, one was a disaster, one went 14 plays for a missed field goal and one went two plays for the game-winning field goal.

McKee completed only six passes for 39 yards, but he was victimized by at least two drops, and when he had to make plays, he made them. He was 3-for-5 with three conversions on third down.

“That was pretty fun,” McKee said. “It was just compete. Go out, play your best. I feel like when you’re out there, you’re not thinking this is a preseason game. You’re out there to win the game. That’s just who we are as competitors.

“Coach is huge on having the details of what situation we’re in. Are we in a two-minute? Four-minute? What yard-line do we have to get to, to have the kicker feel comfortable kicking the field goal? So, I’m just talking to the O-line with what’s going to come up. I’m telling the receivers to get a wide split or just little details like that. I thought we executed pretty well and, ultimately, just had our guys just go make some amazing plays.”

McKee’s best moment was a seven-yard 1st-down completion to rookie Ainias Smith on a 3rd-and-6 with 4 ½ minutes left that helped the Eagles to run the clock down for a late field goal attempt (and then another one).

“I thought Tanner did a good job on getting some checks and really being in control of the operation,” Nick Sirianni said. “The one on third down that Tanner made to Ainias got the chains going and put them…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/tanner-mckee-played-better-numbers-140336095.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2024-08-10 14:03:36

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.