Eagles comeback falls short, lose to Falcons, 26-24

Well that sure was disappointing for the Philadelphia Eagles. After mounting an improbable comeback to put themselves in position to win the game, they shot themselves in the foot…once again. Monday night against the Atlanta Falcons was the definition of the saying “a tale of two halves.”

The first half was just embarrassing for the Eagles and head coach Chip Kelly. Their new-look secondary couldn’t stop the Falcons’ passing attack, especially Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones. Philadelphia’s $63 million man, cornerback Byron Maxwell, couldn’t have been more disappointing throughout the night. Maxwell was far from the player we all saw in a Seattle last year.

But the secondary wasn’t the only disappointment for the Eagles in the first half, the entire offense was equally as horrific. Both on the ground and through the air, there was just nothing going for Kelly’s uptempo attack. The offensive line couldn’t give Sam Bradford any time and he just looked off when he did actually have a chance to throw to a wide receiver. Through the first two quarters, the highly feared Eagles’ offense managed to put up a whopping 3 points…THREE!

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Heading into the second half, the Eagles trailed 20-3 and it looked like the game was basically over. But then the offense started clicking, Bradford finally had time to throw and he lit up the Falcons in the second half. Although the running game continued to struggle, Bradford was killing the middle of Atlanta’s defense with throws to Jordan Matthews, Zach Ertz and the MVP of the game on this disappointing night, Darren Sproles.

The Eagles put up 14 points in the third quarter while shutting out the Falcons, we finally had ourselves a ball game. But that didn’t last long. Just when it looked like Kelly and the Eagles had the Falcons figured out (which they did), they made two costly mistakes. First it was Kelly electing to kick a 44-yard field goal on 4th and 1 to take the lead. That sounds like a decent call, right?

Except it wasn’t. Philadelphia’s offense was unstoppable in the second half and Kelly indecisively elected to go for the field goal. Not only did he seem unsure about the decision, Kelly rushed Parkey and the field goal unit on to the field with just 15 seconds left in the play cock. Parkey jogged on to the field, rushed through his pre-kick routine and shanked the field goal, as some of us expected. Kelly made his fair share of mistakes throughout the game but this was just the cherry on top that ultimately spelled the Eagles’ demise.

Then came the game sealing play, Bradford threw a slightly high but catchable pass across the middle to Jordan Matthews, who caught basically everything thrown in his direction throughout the night. But this time the story was different, the ball went right through Matthews’ hands and into Falcons safety Ricardo Allen‘s hands. It was an unlikely ending to an unpredictable game. Many believed the Eagles would blowout the Falcons but they lost because of their own mistakes.

While a 26-24 loss to the non-divisional opponent Atlanta Falcons in Week 1 isn’t the end of the world, it certainly wasn’t a good way to start the season. Hopefully the Eagles can use the tape from this game and learn from their many, many mistakes. Philadelphia looked like a completely different team in the second half, outscoring the Falcons 21-6, hopefully that team shows up in next week’s crucial matchup in their home opener against the Dallas Cowboys.

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