EAGLES WEEK 2 RECAP

Monday night was the official season opener for the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field in South Philly. Superbowl XLII MVP Nick Foles was officially welcomed into the Eagles Legends Community to take his rightful place in the Eagles franchise hall of fame. 

 

Outside of a few flashes from Saquon Barkley , the 1st quarter was uneventful. With Barkley averaging 13 yds a carry, confusing why the Eagles would force pass plays with AJ brown out due to injury. I'd be willing to bet that If Andy Ried was watching this game, even he would have said 'run the damn ball'. Eagles head coach Nick Siriani's decision to go for it for a 4th down in the red zone early instead of taking the 3 points on an easy field goal proved to be costly. 

 

Jalen Hurts connected with Devonte Smith for a big 1st down in the 2nd quarter. Hurts also had a long run negated by a costly delay of game penalty as the boos rained down upon the field. 

 

(Side Note; Over the last 2 games, the Eagles offense have been making too many debilitating, sloppy mistakes on offense & making things more difficult from themselves in the process.)

 

Unphased, Jalen took over & did it again, setting up the offense in the red zone. Hurts then connected with Smith in the back of the endzone for the 1st Eagles touchdown of the game to make it 7- 3 Eagles with 5.15 left in the 2nd quarter. 

 

Eagles offense stalled in the 3rd qtr , settling for a field goal on a drive they should have scored a touchdown on but couldn't get it done. Poor tackling & the absence of a pass rush from the Eagles defense kept drives alive for Kirk Cousins & the Falcons. Cousins linked up with Darnell Rooney for a 22 yard TD late in the 3rd but was unable to convert on the 2 point attempt as the pass plays was broken up by Eagles DB Quinyon Mitchell. 

 

After putting up over 100 yards in total offense , Saquon Barkley had a critical goal line drop that he catches 99 put of 100 times. With one last chance to win the game Jalen Hurts was flushed out of the pocket & under pressure, made a terrible decision with a throw across his body into the arms of Falcons DB Jesse Bates III for the interception to seal the win for Atlanta 22 to 21. 

 

The combination of poor coaching , a non existent pass rush , crucial drops , too many penalties & a giant interception to close it out, The Eagles have a lot more work to do in order to start stacking some Ws in this division.