Highlights and lowlights from the Eagles-Ravens preseason broadcast

We’re going to be keeping a close eye on the Eagles’ broadcasts this season. The Inquirer is always in the press box in person, taking in the game and providing expert analysis, but the majority of you are watching from home on Fox, NBC, or CBS. The fun stuff often happens on TV, as fans in the stands go viral and broadcaster calls and slipups become nightly memes. So we’re covering that, too.

Fans local to Philadelphia had a (relatively) easy time watching the Eagles’ first preseason game against the Ravens. Sure, if you don’t have cable, COZI might not have been accessible to you, but the game was available to stream on PhiladelphiaEagles.com for everyone in-market.

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: Linebackers and defensive backs earn high marks, backup quarterbacks struggle vs. Ravens

Thursday was my mom’s birthday, so I took in the game from my parents’ house in New York, well out of the Eagles’ TV market. I spent $6.99 to make sure I could watch the game on NFL+, the NFL’s streaming service, launched in 2022.

When the game finally began, to my horror, I was watching a Ravens production, dashing my plans to write a recap of the best moments of the preseason broadcast. The radio broadcast was available, but it was not synced up with the video broadcast, just a split screen featuring the Ravens’ and Eagles’ logos. The broadcast was sponsored by Wawa, which advertised on the score bug in place of the down marker, a small bit of Philly fair in a broadcast otherwise lacking it.

All things considered, this was a pretty small obstacle, impacting a minority of people watching the game. But one of MLB.tv’s best features is the ability to choose to watch the home or away streams. ESPN+ has a similar feature for the NHL. If one of NFL+’s primary products is going to be preseason streams, this feels like an obvious addition for 2025. So if you’re relying on NFL+ to watch the game, as I was, you’re likely stuck watching the home stream against the Patriots.

The radio did provide some signature moments. As Jake Elliott set up for his first extra-point attempt, Merrill Reese said the game featured perhaps the two best kickers in the game, Elliott and Baltimore’s Justin Tucker. Of course, before he could even finish his sentence, Elliott’s attempt missed.

“I think you jinxed it,” Mike Quick said.

Elliott later missed a field goal at the end of the fourth quarter, which would have clinched the preseason game for the Eagles, hitting the upright again.

“If it has to happen, let it happen in a preseason game,” Reese said. “He’s never missed one like that in a regular-season game. Never.”

» READ MORE: Jalen Hurts sat as Kenny Pickett started, and Jake Elliott’s do-over was the game-winner

Elliott then made the game-winner with no time left after the Eagles stripped Emory Jones on the next play after the miss.

Reese also shared his favorite movie, Everybody’s All-American, and the Eagles’ roster’s favorite movie — allegedly, in a survey of the entire training camp roster, the most-answered movie was Forrest Gump.

Howard Eskin also made his return to the broadcast despite his ban from Citizens Bank Park and Sixers’ facilities, reporting postgame that you’d “never know it was a preseason game,” given the energy on the Birds’ sideline.

The Ravens broadcast interviewed Maryland coach Mike Locksley, one of Jalen Hurts’ offensive coordinators at Alabama, who came to the game with his Maryland players, but of course did not ask about Hurts, who didn’t play in the game.

Other NFL+ games ran into broadcast issues, like this call on the Atlanta Falcons’ game, which sounded like a robot malfunctioning.