The second Monday Night Football game of season was a battle of the birds with the Philadelphia Eagles at home against the Atlanta Falcons.
The first quarter was pretty uneventful with a lot of 3 and outs and stalled out drives. The second quarter is where the scoring started, with the Falcons putting up the first points of the ball game with a Younghoe Koo field goal. The Eagles struck back with a touchdown drive fueled by Jalen Hurts, who had runs of 23 and 15 yards to setup a touchdown pass to DeVonta Smith. Hurts was great on that drive, looking like vintage Hurts the way he used his legs. When closing out the first half, it was the Bijan Robinson show who had runs of 15 and 14 yards to setup at field goal to end the half making the halftime score Eagles 7, Falcons 6.
The second half of this game was a little more entertaining than the first. The Eagles got on the board first in the second half with a field goal by Jake Elliott. Only for the Falcons to come back with a big 41 yard passing touchdown from Kirk Cousins to Darnell Mooney to take the lead 15-10. The Eagles got the ball back and Hurts continued his excellent play by leading the Eagles on a 17 play, 70-yard touchdown drive that lasted 9:34 and ended with a Saquon Barkley 2-point conversion that gave the Eagles a 18-15 lead. The game looked all but over until an incomplete pass to Saquon Barkley on 3rd down stopped the clock, forcing the Eagles to kick a field goal which left the Falcons with 1:42 left on the clock. The Falcons swiftly went down the field with chunk play after chunk play to score the game winning touchdown with a 70-yard drive in just 60 seconds, securing a 22-21 victory in incredible fashion.
The Eagles completely blew a game that was right there in the palm of their hands. The incomplete pass to Saquon Barkley that left the door open for the Falcons was a disaster of a play. The one thing the Eagles couldn’t afford on that play was and incomplete pass to stop the clock and that’s exactly what happened. The Eagles defense in turn did something I hate by playing soft coverage late in games when you have the lead. This does nothing but give the opposing team free chunk plays and the Falcons definitely took advantage of that by going down the field in the blink of an eye to win the game.
The Eagles will now go on the road next to face the New Orleans Saints and you have to think they would want to avenge this terrible prime time loss.