Eagles leave Lehigh, Reid to play starters first half vs. Patriots

The Eagles said good-bye to the plush campus of Lehigh University. The team will resume training camp tomorrow in South Philadelphia.

For the most part, the Eagles — especially the first-team offense — sleep-walked though their first preseason game last week. Still, coach Andy Reid praised the overall energy he has seen over the past few weeks.

“They busted their tail. People weren’t trying to get out of practice or look for the easy way out of a drill,” Reid said. “Do we have a long way [to go]? Absolutely. We need the rest of this preseason to get ourselves right for the season. But at least there’s a foundation there to build on.”

Quarterback Mike Vick shared Reid’s optimism.

“I know that we are very tough. We are a very tough football team,” Vick said. “I know we have guys on this team who care and who want to win. We’ll go the extra mile to make sure that we have a great chance of having success.”

Reid confirmed the starters will play “at least” the first half in Monday’s game against New England. NFL teams tend to play their starters the longest in the third preseason game, but with an unusual schedule — the Eagles have just three days off before taking on Cleveland Thursday night — the coach is switching it up.

“They [the starters] probably won’t play quite as much against the Browns,” Reid said.

Lip service

As usual, Andy Reid started his press conference with an injury report …

There was only one injury to report yesterday as the Birds left Lehigh. CB Nnamdi Asomugha, who collided with S Nate Allen while trying to break up a pass Monday, passed concussion testing. Asomugha has “whiplash.”

“He was completely conscious the whole time. But he did get a pretty good laceration to his lip and the back of his neck is a little bit sore,” Reid said.