Hold the line: Philadelphia Eagles and Falcons injuries affect Week 2 gameplan
Both the Philadelphia Eagles and Falcons need to adjust their game plans after losing starters for the entire 2019 season.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons will square off on Sunday Night Football this week, and both will be down a key member from their starting lineup. The injury bug has bitten both teams hard, and those losses could be crucial to the end result.
When the Falcons selected offensive guard Chris Lindstrom fourteenth overall in this past year’s NFL Draft. That was done with the implicit goal to build protection for quarterback Matt Ryan.
Why? It’s quite simple. The Falcons signal-caller was sacked forty-two times in 2018. That was a dramatic increase from the twenty-four sacks Ryan fell victim to in 2017, and that pressure led to a 7-9 record after going 10-6 the year prior.
That kind of spike didn’t prevent Ryan from posting an impressive touchdown-to-interception ratio of 35 to seven on the year. Still, given the fact that the Falcons invested a first-round selection on Lindstrom, it’s clear that Atlanta had clear goals for strengthening their offensive line. This is a major loss for them.
Lindstrom appears to be headed to the team’s IR.
For the Eagles, it’s a loss on the opposite side of the football that could threaten their chance at victory on Sunday night. Big free-agent signing Malik Jackson left Sunday’s contest against the Washington Redskins with an undisclosed foot injury that has since been revealed to be a Lisfranc fracture.
That’s generally caused by the displacement of the bones in the middle of someone’s foot. The injury is significant enough that we’ve now learned that Jackson’s 2019 season is over after just one game in Philadelphia. Here’s more on that from the NFL Network‘s Mike Garafolo.
From @nflnetwork: A teammate asked #Eagles DT Malik Jackson how he was in the postgame locker room. He eyed reporters in front of him and said, “I’ll talk to you outside.“ That was one of many early indications it was a bad foot injury for Jackson, who will miss the season. pic.twitter.com/sxVFLFhrFH
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) September 10, 2019
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In a corresponding move, Eagles have since signed Akeem Spence. The effect of Jackson’s subtraction from the Eagles’ defensive line and what Spence will be able to contribute hasn’t been determined yet. We’ll have to see how things go in Atlanta. Then, we’ll be able to quantify things. For now, an Eagles team whose mantra has often been ‘next man up’ has to live by that code again. This has to feel like a touch of Deja vu’.