Atlanta Falcons wide receiver Roddy White (84) moves the ball against Philadelphia Eagles defensive back Byron Maxwell (31) during the second half of an NFL football game, Monday, September 14, 2015, in Atlanta.
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Cody Parkey missed a 44-yard field goal with 21⁄2 minutes remaining.
It was only the first game and Maxwell certainly wasn’t the only Eagle to make mistakes, but his performance was disconcerting nevertheless. “He’s hit those before”. Parkey was rushed into a decision as well and the ball sailed wide of the mark.leaving Eagles fans devastated. Ideal snap, flawless hold. “My fault”. But no. Linebacker Paul Worrilow slammed into Jordan Matthews just after the receiver had bobbled Sam Bradford’s pass, and Ricardo Allen made a sliding interception on the deflection. “Nothing more, nothing less”.
Jones, who was rewarded for the best season of his career with a new $71.25 million contract during the preseason, dominated the Eagles’ revamped secondary as the Falcons raced to a 20-3 halftime lead.
In exchange for trading McCoy to Buffalo, the Eagles received linebacker Kiko Alonso, who made one of the great plays of Week 1: a leaping one-handed interception in the end zone. Ryan threw an INT-his second of the night-just 1:24 into the third stanza; the Eagles them promptly scored two TDs, erasing all but three points from their 17-point deficit. I say running back play instead of ground game, because there wasn’t much of that. Darren Sproles wound up leading the team with five carries for 50 yards.
Despite all the hype around his going against one of the NFL’s bottom pass defenses, Sam Bradford ended up with two costly interceptions in the close game despite a pretty good stat line. They sputtered, as if channeling ghosts of Falcons past, turned the ball over and allowed three straight touchdowns in the second half to fall behind, but this time didn’t fizzle.
Jones caught two touchdown passes, and Bryant kicked four field goals to help the Falcons survive a furious Philadelphia rally in the second half and give new Atlanta coach Dan Quinn his first win, 26-24 on Monday at the Georgia Dome. The Atlanta quarterback finished 23 of 34 for 298 yards.
Walter Thurmond, who’s looked like a real ballhawk in practice, the preseason and now the first regular-season game, picked off a Ryan pass and returned it to the Falcons’ 8-yard line to set an immediate tone out of the half.
Minnesota quarterback Teddy Bridgewater completed 23 of 32 passes for 231 yards with one interception. It was the college connection that put the first TD on the board, Bradford to Murray with a huge block from Kelce led the Eagles in for the touchdown.
The Falcons were forced to punt, and the Eagles put together their most impressive drive of the night to that point. Regardless of 4 penalties, they went 95 yards in 13 performs, capped off by Bradford’s 5-yard landing cross to Murray that sliced Atlanta’s result in 20-17. The running back hauled in the throw, cut back to leave Kroy Biermann sprawled face-first on the turf and trotted into the end zone.
But it was short-lived because of a first half couldn’t have gone much worse for the Eagles. Mathews took it in from there, giving Philadelphia its first lead.
“I told the guys at halftime it was a tale of two halves”, Kelly said. The team that emerged for the second half was clearly ready to play.
NOTES: Matthews finished with 10 catches for 102 yards.
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COLEMAN-FREEMAN COMBO: As expected, Falcons rookie Tevin Coleman started at running back and was effective with 20 carries for 80 yards.
