The Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots are practicing together this week ahead of their preseason match up Friday night. The highlight of their joint practice might have been Patriots quarterback Tom Brady’s performance.
watching Brady I think I heard the term "surgeon" at least 7 times today from Pats AND Eagles personnel in awe of how he can carve at will
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) August 7, 2013
Look camp practices everyone is optimistic but I'm telling y'all Brady was just ridiculous. Don't get to see things like that too often
— Jay Glazer (@JayGlazer) August 7, 2013
Brady ripping the Eagles defense apart again.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 7, 2013
Not everyone felt that way. Eagles cornerback Brandon Boykin told reporters that he felt like the Patriots were trying to bully them.
“I can speak for the whole team. I felt like (Tuesday), honestly they came out with this attitude to try to bully us,” Boykin said, per Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. “And even though it’s practice, it’s always still a game tempo. I think as a team — and obviously I can speak for myself — I wanted to try to set the tone on myself as an aggressive person (Wednesday) and just make plays.”
The Patriots have been known to run an up-tempo offense and apparently were trying to run the tempo up on the Eagles in practice as well. That might add some validation to Boykin’s comments.
Nuance that was raised to me today at Philly practice: Patriots (not the Eagles) had a ballboy rushing the ball to the line to quicken pace.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 7, 2013
Clubs raised Patriots' pace to refs last year ... Seems like NE tries to work at a faster-than-allowable pace in practice to prep for games.
— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) August 7, 2013