Monday Night Football: Overlooked Meets Overhyped
The Philadelphia Eagles and the Atlanta Falcons were the first game of the double header on Monday Night Football.
Head Coach Chip Kelly and the Eagles organization made many acquisitions, trades, and dropped players from the team to become a more improved time.
It was Chip Kelly’s experiment — and everyone wondered if his experiment would work.
With the loss of a top 5 leading rusher last year, LeSean McCoy, to the Buffalo Bills and their starting quarterback, Nick Foles, who was becoming of himself, to the St. Louis Rams, it was hard to picture how the Eagles would turn out.
With a new defense from scratch and new players on offense, how would the they do in their first game of the season?
On the other side of ball the they faced the home team the Atlanta Falcons who were listed as underdogs going against the newly revamped and improved Eagles.
The Falcons themselves went through some changes themselves more so in int he coaching staff and some defense and minor offensive changes.
After failing to make the playoffs in 2014, the Falcons fired Head Coach Mike Smith.
The offensive and defensive coordinator found new jobs as well.
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The organization hired the 2014 Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator as their 2015 Head Coach.
He brought his own staff to the organization The new offensive coordinator is Kyle Shannahan and the new defensive coordinator is Richard Smith.
The question for the Falcons with the same team and some minor improvements from 2014 how would they do in their home opener after not making the playoffs since 2012.
These teams are former playoff contenders and both not making the playoffs this past year so this game was bound to be exciting.
The game lived up to the hype.
What was surprising is that not Philadelphia but Atlanta jumped out to an early halftime lead of 20-3.
The Eagles rushing game wasn’t producing in the first half while the Falcons passing game was intact.
A similar theme during week one of the regular season is that the team who had the lead in the first lead blew it in the second half and lost the game or blew the lead and then regained the lead and held on to win the game.
For example the Eagles shut out the Falcons in the 3rd quarter scoring two touchdowns in the process trimming the lead to 20-17.
Both offenses did well and with the off season I thought it would be a defensive battle. In the beginning of the game it seemed like neither defense could get anything going.
The good news for both teams and fans is there is a second half of the game to play.
The Eagles came out firing on all cylinders in the second half looking like a different team.
The Eagles were held to 63 rushing yards the whole game.
Their leading rusher was not one of their two new backs Demarco Murray or Ryan Matthews but the team veteran Darren Sproles with 50 rushing yards.
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Did the new backs receive too much hype and attention or did they under perform?
Good news for Eagles fans — you did find a big set back who can find the end zone in goal line situations…in Ryan Matthews.
However the Eagles passing game was good with new quarterback Sam Bradford.
The concern is can he stay healthy through the season.
At his last team he had a decent line.
With the Eagles the offensive line is good hence in why last night he did not get sacked with a defense full of pass rushers.
He was able to throw short quick or screen passes to his receivers.
He threw the ball 18 more times than Ryan.
He has not looked this good since his days at Oklahoma.
My other concern is when he faces a better quality defense and gets sacked how will he fair?
The Eagles had more passing yards than the Falcons but less rushing yards yet the falcons had more rushing yards and almost the same amount of passing yards.
Ryan and the Falcons passed the ball 34 times but were able to establish a running game as well.
They rushed for a total of 105 yards led by rookie running back out of Indiana Tevin Coleman. The Falcons receivers burned the Eagles corners.
Each team had two interceptions.
The difference between them is Ryan threw his early in the game and Bradford threw his in the end of the game when the game matters.
Was the interception because of naming rookie Jordan Matthews the number one receiver, Coach Kelly’s quick tempo offense, or the Falcons defense making a play when it matters most and be opportunists?
The irony of this game is Kelly is known for his quick tempo offense however Quinn is known for his quick fast paced defense which can keep up with the offense.
Was Kelly his own worst enemy?
Some takeaways from this game are that both teams with improvement are playoff contenders.
The Eagles offense can be dangerous even to themselves.
The Eagles have a shot with Bradford to compete in their division and make the playoffs as a wild card.
The Falcons offense just needed the off-season to recover and be healthy and look good even with a new offensive line as well. Julio Jones shows how dangerous he is when healthy.
Him and veteran Roddy white both cant be double covered which makes room fro one of them and pens up the running game for the rookie running and full backs.
The defense is full of new people and some rookies.
The difference with their defense is that it gets to learn from their Super Bowl-winning coach who came from Seattle.
He has changed the culture of the defense to help compete on the NFC south and even possibly win the title.
Bottom Line: Both teams looked strong.
They will have to go through the saints who look better than last year as well after both teams had a losing record and still could have made the playoffs winning their division.
This year it looks like both teams will have a winning record and with the division champs panthers struggling these two teams will be competing for the division crown and may both may make the playoffs.
Both teams are young energized and improved and have fighting chances because of their coaches.