Philadelphia Eagles Play Gritty Against Atlanta Falcons 24-15

After losing a tough game against the New York Giants, the Eagles were looking to go home and regroup. A lot of questions surrounded the Eagles play calling as Doug Pederson called the game way too aggressively the week before. Everyone knew that the Eagles were a good team at home, but the Falcons were probably one of the best offenses in the game with Matt Ryan at quarterback, Julio Jones at wide Receiver and a great duo at running back. The Eagles would have their hands full as the Falcons had a three game winning streak all time against the Eagles.

However, this was a whole different team with a whole different coaching staff. After kicking the ball to the Falcons and stopping them in their own territory, the Eagles put the ball on the ground and moved the ball 81 yards for over seven minutes and forty-one seconds to cap off the drive with a Ryan Mathews rushing touchdown. After Mathews had been put in the doghouse by the fan base with two previous fumbles, one costing the Eagles the game against the Lions, it was good to see the Eagles premiering the savvy vet. Not to mention, Carson Wentz also completed four passes for four attempts to help the Eagles get down the field mistake free.

After the Eagles forced the Falcons to punt, the Eagles marched down the field with the signature play being a twenty yard screen pass to Ryan Mathews, but the even bigger problem with the drive was the fact that Caleb Sturgis missed a pretty simple 44 yard field goal. Caleb Sturgis had been pretty good thus far, but that was a pretty bad miss because the Falcons would end up going down the field after a long pass to Julio Jones. However, the drive stalled and Matt Bryant ended up kicking a field goal. After a three and out by the Eagles, the Falcons got the ball and went down the field again thanks to Julio Jones, but the Eagles stopped the Falcons in the red zone and Matt Bryant kicked yet another field goal.

After a long Ryan Mathews run, Carson Wentz got sacked and he fumbled with the ball being recovered by the Falcons and got the ball into Eagles territory. It really seemed like the Falcons were going to do something with the ball, but the only problem was the fact that Matt Ryan missed a 53 yard field goal. With 22 seconds left to go in the half, the Eagles had the ball in good field position, but very few time outs. With eight seconds left to go in the half, Pederson elected to call a play on 4th down, but none of the receivers got open and Wentz threw an incomplete pass on 4th down with two seconds left to go. I was really worried that the Eagles handed the Falcons a hail mary pass, but everything was okay because nothing came out of it.

After halftime, the Eagles were able to get the ball down the field quite easily. They did this mostly using the running game. However, once the Eagles got into the red zone, they seemed to freeze as the Eagles got a holding penalty with the ball deep in Falcons territory and were unable to convert. This series ended in a field goal that put the Eagles up 10-6. With the ensuing kick off, Matt Ryan was able to air mail a pass to Julio Jones and Matt Bryant was able to kick another field goal. After another drive of Ryan Mathews driving the ball on the ground, the Eagles had the ball on 3rd an 1 at the Falcons one yard line. However, instead of calling a quarterback keeper up the middle with his 6'5" quarterback, Doug Pederson elected to call a stretch play. I was really mad at that point because this was a point in time where the Eagles could have gone up by a touchdown, but that didn't happen.

After Caleb Sturgis kicked the short field goal, Matt Ryan was able to target Taylor Gabriel going up against Leodis McKelvin for a deep touchdown. The Falcons would take their first lead and the Falcons gained another victory after forcing the Eagles to miss a 55 yard field goal that was outside of Sturgis' range. This really pissed me off because on the previous kick off, Kenjon Barner was able to bring the ball back 52 yards on the kick off so the Eagles appeared to waste a good return. The other problem with this drive was the fact that Wentz was able to hit Jordan Matthews on a mid-ranged pass, he was popped in the face and dropped the ball. All of the Eagles fans around me were pissed off because we all thought it was hitting a defenseless receiver, but of course, the referees weren't watching because they wear a blind fold when it comes to calling penalties for the Eagles. Luckily, the Eagles were able to stop the Falcons on the next drive and they forced them to punt.

With the ensuing drive, Wentz was able to shine by passing the ball to Zach Ertz and by finally getting a pass interference call on a deep pass to Jordan Matthews. The Eagles were then hooked up with 1st and goal at the five and Ryan Mathews took the run from the shotgun and get the ball into the end zone. The score was 19-15 as the Eagles decided to go for two. After there was a hold penalty called on the first attempt, the ball was moved to the one and the ball was handed to Mathews for a successful conversion to go up by six. After trading punts, the Eagles were able to pin the Falcons deep in their own territory, but this was dashed as Najee Goode hit the return man out of bounds unnecessarily and 15 yards were tacked on to the play. At this point in time I thought the game was over but the Falcons only gained 5 yards. So on 4th and 5, Matt Ryan threw to an open Julio Jones in the zone, but the pass was miraculously dropped.

So the Eagles had the ball at the Falcons 40 yard line and were able to get eight yards, but that wasn't enough for a first down. However, it was enough for Sturgis to hit a 48 yard field goal right down the pipes. With a nine point lead I felt very comfortable, but there was still one minute, 57 seconds left. The Falcons were able to get sixteen yards, but Matt Ryan made the fatal mistake of throwing an interception to Leodis McKelvin for the walk off interception. The man was able to redeem himself for giving up the long touchdown and the Eagles were victorious. The Eagles did great running the football and really cut down on the mistakes. While Julio Jones had a lot of yards receiving, he didn't scorch the Eagles for a touchdown. While the play calling was bad at times, Wentz really wasn't getting much help from Nelson Agholor and Dorial Green-Beckham, but Darren Sproles continued to be the unsung hero with 8 receptions for 57 total yards. The officiating was also terrible, but that is no surprise to me, I am totally used to that, but I know the officiating will get worse when the Eagles play the Seahawks next week. They are the one team that seems to be immune to penalties as they rarely get called for anything and referees strangely keep their hands in their pockets when they commit penalties, should be an interesting one, but I was content to get the win.

Ryan Mathews scoring his second rushing touchdown of the game