The Eagles lost.
Some stuff worked, more stuff went wrong, and the defense got diced up by Kirk Cousins in just over a minute to lose it at the last second on Monday night.
There's a lot of questioning and concern about what kind of team the Eagles really are in the immediate fallout from that.
Here's some of it...
Wrong call, wrong time
Sheil Kapadia | The Ringer
The Eagles went for it on fourth down early into Monday night and failed. It was a gamble they lost out on, but not one that would make or break them in the big picture. At the time, there was still a lot of football to play.
But then they were faced with that same situation late while trying to preserve a narrow 18-15 lead, and after Saquon Barkley dropped a third-down pass that would've iced the game.
They opted to kick the field goal to go up six. By now, you know what happened next.
But why did Nick Sirianni and his staff suddenly get so conservative late compared to the aggressiveness on offense shown out of the gate?
The logic was all backward, wrote Sheil Kapadia, citing insight from the Carolina Panthers' analytics VP Eric Eager:
Back in 2020, Eric Eager, a football analyst who is now the vice president of football analytics with the Panthers, wrote about why going from a three-point lead to a six-point lead late in the game is the wrong choice. When teams are down three, they tend to play conservatively for the field goal. Had the Eagles been stopped on third and fourth down, the Falcons would have gotten possession inside their own 10 with under a minute left, needing just a field goal to tie it. Typically, the trailing team in that spot is not playing to score a touchdown. It is playing to get into field goal range, so it is not as aggressive. Hypothetically, had the Falcons kicked a game-tying field goal, the game would have gone to overtime, and the Eagles still would have had essentially a 50/50 chance to win. In other words, the downside of the Eagles failing on fourth down (the worst-case scenario) wasn’t actually that bad. [The Ringer]
But taking the field goal backed the Falcons into a corner and left them throwing everything at the wall.
The Eagles' defense was in condition to stop it, and they got burned.
A real concern
Tim McManus | ESPN
Sticking with the defense, the Eagles' pass rush was near invisible on Monday night, struggling to get to Kirk Cousins save for one sack from Milton Williams.
Jordan Davis, Nolan Smith, and Josh Sweat were completely quiet, Jalen Carter got the most attention from the Falcons as the only serious threat, Brandon Graham looked like the most effective pass rusher when he really shouldn't be at this stage of his career, and Bryce Huff...oh boy...
The pass rush is a real problem, one that Tim McManus over at ESPN fears won't be going away:
They are tied for the second fewest sacks in the league (three) through two weeks. Some regression could be expected after Philadelphia traded Haason Reddick to the Jets. But his replacement, Bryce Huff, was a pass-rushing specialist with the Jets and has not yet made his presence felt after signing a three-year, $51 million deal in free agency. Defensive tackle Jalen Carter has generated more pressure than Huff, but he has one QB hit and no sacks to show for it. With Kirk Cousins coming off an Achilles injury, the Eagles had a good opportunity against Atlanta to get after the quarterback following a slow start in Week 1 against Green Bay. That opportunity came and went, leaving concern this could be a season-long issue in Philly. [ESPN]
MORE: The Eagles' D-line can't be this ineffective, right?
Carter disciplined
Jeff McLane | Philadelphia Inquirer
Going back to Carter, Jeff McLane reported after Monday night's loss that the second-year defensive tackle had been disciplined by the Eagles for being late to "something team-related" last week in the leadup.
The punishment was Carter not starting or playing in the Eagles' first defensive series, though he was back in by the second and ended up playing the most snaps out of any interior linemen on the defense.
Probably inconsequential when it came to Carter's playing time and the end result against Atlanta, but perhaps something to stay aware of for later.
The other side
Jori Epstein | Yahoo! Sports
We always watch, read, and hear about the Eagles' wins and losses from the team's and Philadelphia's perspective.
And from that perspective right now, Monday night was all kinds of infuriating.
But then there's the view of things from the Falcons' side. Kirk Cousins, with that reputation of shrinking under the primetime spotlight and with tons of doubts surrounding his comeback from his Achilles tear, marched Atlanta straight down the field and through the Eagles' defense for the win.
What was it like over there?
From national football writer Jori Epstein:
Cousins credited his entire team for the win, from the swatting defense to the separating London who “made it easy on me.” Teammates argued that Cousins actually made the difficult look easy as he completed 20-of-29 passes for 241 yards, two touchdowns and no mistakes.
This wasn’t a repeat of the Falcons’ Week 1 offense. The narrative, they knew, was shifting.
“[Cousins] was just getting so much criticism throughout this whole week,” [Falcons safety Jessie Bates] said. “‘Kirk can't move. Kirk can't do this.’ To watch his poise [in the] two-minute drive and how sharp it was? The leaders on this team, when it’s nut-cutting time and it’s time to make play, that’s what we lean on.
“I’m happy that we got him.” [Yahoo! Sports]
While Eagles fans are still left wondering what exactly happened.
MORE: Eagles EDGE Bryce Huff is unplayable – a film review
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