Bar a few mistakes and frustrating play in the red zone and it was a good performance, with Matt Ryan and Julio Jones moving the football well.
Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Julio Jones burned the Philadelphia Eagles secondary Monday night, catching nine passes for 141 yards and two touchdowns in a 26-24 victory.
Sam Bradford, in his first regular-season game in almost two years and making his debut for the Eagles, was 36 of 52 for 336 yards. Philadelphia had possession and were looking for points before halftime until Bradford was pressured up the middle and threw a pass that was intercepted by Falcons’ safety William Moore. They need to be more consistent, as the Eagles got on a roll in the third quarter. Penalties have been a sore point for this Philadelphia Eagles team under Chip Kelly and it continued in the first game of 2015. They sputtered, as if channeling ghosts of Falcons past, turned the ball over and allowed three straight touchdowns in the second half to fall behind, but this time didn’t fizzle. The Eagles came all the way back, eventually taking a 24-23 fourth quarter lead before Atlanta went back up with a field goal. We had some routes that were deep down the field that you have to cover for a long time, and we didn’t generate a good enough pass rush on some of those.
Matt Ryan shook off a pair of interceptions to throw for 298 yards on 23 of 34 passing. Atlanta rookie running back Tevin Coleman produced 80 yards on 20 carries. Alonso, acquired by the Eagles in a trade, had six tackles and made a highlight-reel, one-handed interception in the end zone to end an Atlanta scoring threat in the first half. Philadelphia managed only 8 yards on the ground before the break, and Bradford and his receivers rarely looked on the same page.
“I just felt we were playing behind the sticks all day”, Bradford told Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Paul Domowitch after the game. Philadelphia had just 125 yards of offense and just eight yards rushing in the first half.
Despite all the hype around his going against one of the NFL’s bottom pass defenses, Sam Bradford ended up with two costly interceptions in the close game despite a pretty good stat line. Flawless snap. ideal hold.
It seems there are a lot of things different in that Atlanta Falcons’ locker room in 2015 and one of those things could be a winning season after going 10-22 the past two years. For Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, it was another chance to prove that his up-tempo philosophy works. “The defense gave us opportunities to come back, and put the game in our hands”.
“You just trust the preparation, let it rip and have fun”, Quinn said.
No lead is safe in the Georgia Dome, even with this new regime in place (remember the 2012 NFC Championship?), and the Falcons can surely thank a strangely conservative Kelly late in the game.
Texans: Coach Bill O’Brien said he knows who will start at quarterback against Carolina this weekend but wouldn’t say whether it will be Brian Hoyer or Ryan Mallett. “Everything he does is about energy”.