In a game that was stupidly long, the Philadelphia Eagles fell short to the Atlanta Falcons by a score of 24-20.
The good:
Carson Wentz: Let’s get one thing out of the way right now: Wentz played some truly awful football in the first half. He held the ball too long, panicked under pressure and made poor decisions. There were times where he missed wide open receivers because he was looking for the big play. The stat line for Wentz doesn’t look great, as he completed just 58% of his passes for 231 yards and one lone touchdown. Wentz also had two poorly placed throws that resulted in interceptions.
Now, with all that said, Wentz may have played one of the grittiest games I’ve ever seen from a quarterback. Despite losing Alshon Jeffery and DeSean Jackson early in the game, Wentz was able to make this a close game. Down 17-6 early in the third quarter, Wentz fired a dart to Nelson Agholor for a touchdown on 4th-and-goal:
In the fourth quarter, Wentz made some truly magical plays. On 3rd-and-9, Wentz pulled this out of his right ear:
Wentz followed this up with a quarterback sneak touchdown, as well as an emphatic spike celebration. Later in the fourth quarter, Wentz threw a perfect pass that should have given the Philadelphia the win were it not for a BLATANT Agholor drop:
Nevertheless, Wentz bailed out his team once more. With pressure in his face, on 4th and 14, made a ridiculous throw 40 yards down the field:
Unfortunately, due to someone running their route one yard short of the first down AGAIN (looking at you, Ertz), the Eagles were not able to escape Atlanta with a win. As previously mentioned, Wentz kept the team in this game without Jeffery and Jackson, an impressive enough feat on its own. The way he went about it makes it that much more remarkable. This game is exactly why Howie Roseman and Jeff Lurie gave Wentz a huge extension this offseason.
Jim Schwartz: Regardless of how many points this team should have given up (coming up in a second), Schwartz kept the defense in this game time and time again with his blitzes. Though the Eagles had just one sack, Schwartz sending pressure forced Falcons’ quarterback Matt Ryan to make some really bad throws, resulting in key takeaways for the Eagles. Some disagree with the decision to send the house on 4th-and-3 down on the Falcons’ final possession. And while it did not work out, credit must go to Matt Ryan on that play. Ryan clearly saw the blitz coming, and as a result audibled to a great play call.
The bad:
The Eagles swiss cheese of a defense pt. 2: As much as Schwartz kept the defense afloat, poor execution could have resulted in a lot more than 24 points allowed by this seemingly flawed Eagles defense. One of the strengths of the defense the past few years was that they didn’t need to blitz in order to get to the quarterback. Rather, the front four generated enough pressure, allowing for more defenders in coverage. This has not been the case through the first two weeks of the season.
In regards to the secondary, the defense did have three takeaways. But Matt Ryan may have been the best defensive player for the Eagles tonight solely based off of his poor performance at the quarterback position. Ryan overthrew Calvin Ridley in the end zone, resulting in an incompletion instead of a touchdown. Ryan also forced a ball to Julio Jones in the end zone, resulting in a Nate Gerry interception instead of a touchdown.
The offensive line: This is a rare occurrence for them. Normally, the line is one of the steadiest parts of this team. It’s a big reason as to why they won the Super Bowl two seasons ago. But tonight, the O-Line performed very poorly. They did not give Wentz the amount of time in the pocket needed. They also didn’t generate very many holes for the running game. Hopefully this is just a fluke.
The I don’t knows:
Doug Pederson: Pederson’s game plan was sub par for the second week in a row. Again, he was able to pull this team together and go down fighting. He was aggressive on 4th down again however, and hasn’t been the biggest reason for this team’s failures in the first two games of the season.
Nelson Agholor: While Agholor debatably deserves to be up a bit more in the article due to a brutal drop, he did make some plays throughout this game too. He sort of made up for his drop with a huge catch on 4th-and-14. He caught a touchdown pass in a tight window to close the gap in the third quarter. He finished the game with eight receptions for 107 yards. Though his inexcusable drop may have cost the Eagles to win the game, he did make plenty of other plays throughout to keep the Eagles in this game.
Overall: Atlanta looks like a playoff caliber team. The Eagles went down and gave them a fight, which is all you can ask for, especially with the amount of injuries that occurred. Eagles fans should not be upset with this loss. At full strength, this team should have won this game, and should win many more games in the future.
All statistics came from ESPN and Pro Football Reference
Daily Sports Blogger 