Strange Eagles strategies are the early story in Week 2 versus the Falcons
It's been a strange first quarter in South Philly. The Philadelphia Eagles have decided to make things hard on themselves early. On their first offensive drive, Dallas Goedert. DeVonta Smith, and Saquon Barkley didn't touch the ball, and if we aren't mistaken, we didn't see Jalen Carter the first time the defense took the field.
Philly forced an Atlanta Falcons punt on their first drive. Saquon Barkley saw a heavy workload (four carries) on the second Eagles drive, but facing a fourth down scenario deep in the red zone, they eschewed an easy field goal attempt to try and score six points.
As you might imagine, the conversion attempt was unsuccessful... Ouch... Regardless of who the opponent is, you must take the points, right? Then again, had the attempt paid off, we'd be praising Nick Sirianni for gambling.
The Eagles work themselves into an unnecessary dog fight early.
Philly is a home favorite over the underdog Falcons. Passing on an easy Jake Elliott field goal seemingly took an easy three points off the board. It also may have given Atlanta some confidence.
Three early Eagles offensive drives didn't lead to much. The Falcons drove deep into Philly territory early in the second quarter, and wouldn't you know it?
They elected to take the field goal attempt, and they nailed it. With just over ten minutes remaining in the second quarter, the Falcons led 3-0 early.
The Birds woke up. Jalen led them on a go-ahead drive and found DeVonta Smith in the back of the end zone. 7-3 Philadelphia...
The Falcons closed the second quarter with a field goal to trim the lead to one point. This one's close. One half of football will decide it.