Why Eagles players hate playing indoors

Why Eagles players hate playing indoors
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When Eagles wide recievers Torrey Smith and Nelson Agholor woke up Monday morning and saw shallow rivers of rain flowing down Philadelphia’s streets, they knew the rain had already ruined their days.

“I hate practicing inside if you can not tell,” Smith told reporters after he concluded practicing with the Birds on their indoor turf — a day that saw both the offense and defense look a little less polished than in their sessions outside. “On this turf, I hate it. It was a little sloppy day. I hate being inside. I hate being on turf.”

There appeared to be more drops than usual, and more than once a player looked to be limping — Smith himself looking uncomfortable on several plays. But it’s important to get at least a little bit of work indoors, under the bright lights and in the different environment presented from playing inside a dome.

“I hate it,” Agholor said. “It’s OK. It’s small man, it’s hard to do what you have to do. I feel like it’s such a small space, but it helps you with spatial awareness.”

That spatial awareness issue looked to bother Agholor at least once, when he dropped a wide open touchdown pass after burning an Eagles defensive back on a post route, with the ball bouncing off his pads.

“It’s going to happen though,” Agholor, always pragmatic, pontificated. “You’re going to be in stadiums with lights and indoor stadium, that’s why I work on tracking the ball and working on my eyes, things like that.”

The Eagles, luckily, have no indoor games scheduled this season — but with every playing surface and spatial set up different — it’s good to practice nonetheless.