Defensive coordinator Bill Davis knows the film does not lie. In the Eagles' first preseason game on Friday night, the Patriots' first-team offense led by quarterback Tom Brady engineered touchdown drives on each of the team's first two possessions.

It wasn't the starting point Davis had wanted.

"We would have hoped that it would look better than it looked. I was hoping to be further along at this point, but the film is the truth," he said after Monday's practice. "The game tells you everything that you need to know about where we are."

Davis has the utmost respect for Tom Brady and the New England offense, which he called if not the best it's "at least the top three in the NFL." Davis had flashbacks of when he was in Arizona and his defense battled Kurt Warner every day in practice. Balls would never hit the ground in 7-on-7 drills.

"It was a heckuva challenge for us and in the game you saw the same thing. That's where we're going. We're striving to shut down that offense. And you saw the other night, we're not there. We're not close," he said. "We're going to strive to get there, but it was a great indicator against the top offense in the NFL of where we are and what we need to do to get there."

It wasn't all doom-and-gloom from Davis. He liked the defense's effort. The tackling, assignments and techniques certainly need to improve, but that's what the preseason is for.

"It's a starting point," Davis said. "It's not an ending point."

In the second half of the Patriots game, the Eagles witnessed a "schematic flop" from Brady, the quintessential pocket passer, to Tim Tebow, who specializes in the read-option. The Eagles expect to see more of the latter from Cam Newton and the Panthers in the second preseason game on Thursday night.

"We see it every day (in practice). We're getting pretty good at it," Davis said.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter @EaglesInsider