The Philadelphia Eagles lost a game and lost their star quarterback in the process. Yes, the Eagles lost a heart-breaker to the Atlanta Falcons 35-31 on Sunday Night Football, but more importantly, quarterback Michael Vick suffered a concussion in the game and his availability for next week’s home opener against the New York Giants is in doubt.
While it was an exciting contest between two teams with Super Bowl aspirations, it was also a sloppy game. Heck, I’m not sure what was worse; the sloppy early play by the teams or NBC announcer Chris Collinsworth’s unnatural “man-crush” on Eagles LT Jason Peters. That was just weird and uncomfortable for everyone.
Anyway, the Eagles actually had the statistical edge in the game, outgaining the Falcons 447 to 318 yards. Unfortunately for them, the Eagles also had the “edge” in turnovers 3 to 2.
Vick (19 for 28, 242 yards, 2 TD, 1 INT) left the game at the end of the third quarter after he was tackled into Todd Herremans and knocked helmets with him. Before that he was having another highlight reel type of game. Of course, that means that while he made some amazing plays he also made some amazing mistakes.
Vick not only had a horrible interception on his first pass of the second half when he misread the blitz, but he also fumbled the ball away when the Eagles had the ball 1st and goal inside the Falcons five yard line. Vick was hit on that play and didn’t really have a chance though. Actually, even though Vick wasn’t sacked, he was under constant pressure yet again.
In spite of those miscues, the Eagles actually turned a 14-10 halftime deficit into a 31-21 lead after McCoy scored his second rushing TD of the game with 2:05 left in the third quarter. Vick was knocked out on that drive and even though Kafka (7 for 9, 72 yards) played well, the Eagles wouldn’t score again.
The Eagles did have a chance to win, but on 4th and 4 at the Falcons 17 yard line inside the 2-minute warning, Jeremy Maclin (13 catches, 171 yards, 2 TDs) dropped a perfectly thrown Kafka pass. Since the Eagles were down by four at that point I can’t kill Andy Reid for going for it there. He had no choice.
Heck, Reid even got a challenge right in this game. This loss wasn’t his fault. The defense just seemed to wear down late in the 4th quarter as Matt Ryan drove the Falcons on two long TD drives to win the game.
Ryan (17 for 28, 195 yards, 4 TDs, 2 INTs) led the Falcons to those two deciding TD drives in very different fashion. The first drive was all passing. The second one was all Michael Turner. The first drive went 80 yards and the second one was 87 yards. The highlight was a 61-yard run by Michael Turner (21 carries for 114 yards, 1 TD) that went right up the middle.
The most surprising thing in this game was that the Eagles defense actually contained the dangerous Turner until that last scoring drive. Unfortunately the Eagles put so much of their attention into stopping the run that they forgot about the Falcons Hall of Fame TE, Tony Gonzalez. Gonzalez (7 catches for 83 yards, 2 TDs) owned the Eagles linebackers and safeties.
This loss can be placed squarely at the feet of the defense. While they did produce some turnovers, they could not stop the Falcons at the end, when it mattered the most. They also allowed the Falcons to score TDs on each of their five trips inside the red zone. That was a major problem last season and it doesn’t look like they solved it just yet.
As I said before, this was a sloppy game by both teams. Each team’s rookie punter had a horrific game, shanking punts that led to easy TD drives. There were way too many penalties, such as Falcons DE John Abraham getting an offsides penalty on a 3rd down play when DeSean Jackson (2 catches for 21 yards) dropped a sure TD. Given the gift 1st-and goal after the penalty, Maclin scored.
Somehow, Collinsworth missed the usual false start penalty on Peters. Guess he was blinded by the man-love. Even worse, the Eagles had to waste a timeout on the next play to prevent a delay-of-game penalty. A false start by Peters and clock mismanagement by Reid? Some things never change do they?
So the Eagles lose a game that they should have won, but it was not because Vick got hurt. Sure, that played a part in the loss, but when the offense scores 31 points and a team loses, most of the blame has to be put on the defense.
Now the big story will be whether or not Vick will be able to play against the Giants next Sunday. Reid seemed to suggest that Vick would be fine in his post game press conference, but Reid never tells the truth, so we may not know until game time on Sunday.
For now, the Eagles are left with a bad loss and a 1-1 record. They played good enough to win, but unfortunately they also played just bad enough to lose. And the Falcons were just good enough to take it from them.