I got my first extended look at the Eagles last night in a rain-drench preseason contest with the Carolina Panthers and my first impression was the more things change, the more they stay the same.

The first half was littered with dropped passes. McNabb looked better physically than he did last year, but after the rain delay, his accuracy was way off. He had one costly mistake, crossing the LOS before throwing a deep pass when he could've tiptoed for a third-down conversion. He also threw into quadruple coverage at the end of the half, not a good sign. Special teams were atrocious with a couple of muffed kickoffs, a fumble on a punt return, a missed field goal and a disaster of a fake field goal which resulted in a touchdown for the Panthers.

After halftime, however, things really started looking up. Kolb was impressive, very impressive. The guy has a presence in the pocket, a rocket for an arm, and he's mobile. Maybe Andy knew what he was doing with that 2nd round pick after all?

DeSean Jackson opened my eyes. Apparently no corner is capable of covering him because he seemed to be wide open all night long. He finished with 7 catches for 71 yards and a really nice 27-yard punt return, although he fumbled at the end.

Typically, the final score doesn't mean anything at all in a preseason game. When I watch, I just want to see the first team looking crisp. They're working on their timing, getting their legs under them. Last night, I didn't see much crispness out of the first team. Let's hope the rain had a lot to do with that. What I did see, however, was a couple of young guys who could be huge parts of this team on offense, this year and in the future. With the injury to Reggie Brown, you have to wonder how far up the ladder DeSean Jackson will climb. And with Kolb progressing nicely, the distant future looks bright in Philly.