The Philadelphia Eagles have their official home opener on Monday Night Football in Week 2. For the third straight year, they will be up against Kirk Cousins, who is on a new team and is just 10 months off of a brutal Achilles tear... and it shows
Eagles vs. Falcons preview
What to expect from the offenses
Despite an incredibly brutal start and on a field that could (and should) be deemed a crime against humanity, the Eagles made it out of Week 1 with a 34-29 win over the Green Bay Packers.
The Atlanta Falcons were not so lucky. They were able to play at home. Their field was in perfect condition. They got a brand-new used quarterback and a head coach who couldn’t be any more different than Arthur Smith. They played against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that never found the endzone. Despite all that, the Falcons lost that game 18-10.
Between these two teams, the biggest story that came out of Week 1 was Kirk Cousins' health and his ability (or lack thereof) to execute a primary function of an NFL quarterback in 2024: driving a ball downfield.
Not only was Kirk seemingly unable to consistently put real ‘oomph’ on the ball, but he was also ruthlessly inefficient and a borderline liability when he threw further than 10 yards. That’s not a winning formula.
Now, the Falcons played the Steelers in Week 1, and the Steelers have a really good defense. Maybe that takes away some of the deeper receivers who would otherwise be open and their pressure definitely affected Kirk, but that doesn’t take away from what we saw in his comfort level and ability to move.
The Falcons are mostly in trouble on offense. Their saving grace is their running back, Bijan Robinson. The guy is really really good at this job. In 2023, he had 30 rushes of 10+ yards (fourth most in the NFL), and if the Falcons’ passing game struggles as much as it has the potential to, Bijan’s performance is going to dictate how Atlanta does offensively.
For the Eagles offense, we know all of the skill position players are at (or very close) to the top at their respective positions. The offensive line is great, but if there is any doubt between the center Cam Jurgens and the right guard Mekhi Becton, it would be that the terrible field in Brazil helped them out by hampering the Packers' pass rush.
That means this comes down to Jalen Hurts. He made some terrible decisions against the Packers, two of which resulted in turnovers and one that was a near pick-six. Despite that, the Eagles still put up 34 points.
The offense can function with Hurts making mistakes, but neither Jalen nor the team will accept that. Hurts had a week to knock the rust off. We’re looking for him to be near, if not absolutely perfect, with his game on Monday night.
What to expect from the defenses
The Falcons’ defense doesn’t necessarily offer any true threats to the Eagles other than their safeties Jessie Bates and Justin Simmons. Sure they have Mathew Judon and Grady Jarrett, but the Eagles' offensive line has shown time and time again that they can turn even elite pass rushers into toddlers. Jalen has had issues seeing deeper defensive backs and if he gets overzealous with his throws, there can easily be an arm punt-esque turnover.
The jury is still out on the Eagles' defense. They had issues tackling in Week 1 and it’s hard to decipher whether that was turf-related or just guys not being good at their jobs. That's a potential mega-huge problem when it comes to stopping a running back who is addicted to getting to the second level. On top of that, their pass rush was virtually non-existent against the Packers, but the same playing surface-related qualifiers are applied to those guys as well.
This is a week where the pass rush will either shine against an offensive line that’s not super good and a quarterback that has a wonky leg, or they’ll constantly be under scrutiny for the next four to five months. The Eagles paying Bryce Huff $17 million, and he needs to be able to show that he’s worth it.
A way that the Falcons could hamper the Eagles is by blitzing. Last season, you could argue that the Birds’ offense thought blitzing was considered a war crime and they never prepared for it because there wasn’t a team that was inhumane enough to push those boundaries. Then, in Week 1, the Packers new defensive coordinator was reluctant (at best) to throw a blitz at Jalen which was kind of stupefying.
The Falcons’ new head coach Raheem Morris is a defensive guy. If he has any brain cells, he’ll test Jalen until he finds out whether the Eagles' problems have actually been fixed. Sure, the Eagles had some hot routes that Jalen was able to hit at the top of his dropbacks when the Packers brought pressure, but that only happened a few times during that game.
We’re talking about the Falcons needing to send the house and everything in it. That will let everyone know exactly what the Eagles can do under pressure. Will the Falcons get burned? Maybe, but A.J. Brown was going to do that anyway...and also DeVonta... and also Saquon.
There's a reason the Eagles are very heavy favorites in this game. A lot has to go wrong for them and a lot has to go right for the Falcons in order for the Falcons to stay competitive. That being said, if you take away Kirk Cousins' injury (which you can't) he loves a close game. The guy knows how to wheel and deal, but there's just not enough evidence that he physically can. The TV show Heroes once said, 'Doubt the quarterback, doubt the team' or something along those lines.
How to watch Eagles vs. Falcons live
- Date: Monday, September 16, 2024
- Time: 8:15 p.m. Eastern
- Site: Lincoln Financial Field
- City: Philadelphia, PA
- TV/Streaming: ESPN (looking at you, DirecTV and Disney) and NFL+ (phone and tablet only, if you're one of those kinds of people)
Latest game odds for Eagles vs. Falcons in Week 2
The latest odds as of Friday morning via Draftkings:
- Moneyline: Eagles -325, Falcon +260
- Spread: Eagles -6.5
- Total: 47
Eagles vs. Falcons: team stats and trends
Despite all of the new players and coaches between the Eagles and the Falcons, there is a lot of familiarity, but that’s to be expected when Kirk Cousins is in his 13th year in the NFL. He’s gone up against Vic Fangio five times, which is important because of how exotic Vic's defenses are.
- Kirk Cousins has a 3-2 record against a Vic Fangio defense.
- Cousins is 2-3 against the spread (ATS) in those games.
- ‘Prime Time Kirk’ might actually just be ‘Monday Night Kirk’ because he’s 3-10 in MNF games.
- Remarkably, he’s also 3-10 ATS on Mondays as well.
- He has won three of his last four MNF games, but the loss was against the Eagles.
- He hasn’t won a game against the Eagles (0-2) in the Nick Sirianni era.
- The Falcons' record ATS this year is 0-1 with a -12 point differential ATS (they were 4 point favorites and lost by 8 points)
Jalen Hurts isn’t new to the prime-time spotlight either. In his four years as the Eagles starter, he’s played in six Monday night games and done… just fine. It’s the fact that this is a home game that helps him shine.
- Jalen is 3-3 as a starter in MNF games.
- Again, remarkably, he’s 3-3 ATS on Monday Night Football.
- Jalen Hurts is 1-0 against a Raheem Morris defense.
- In that game, Jalen was 25-0f-38 for 303 yards, a touchdown, and an interception.
- Most importantly, Hurts is 16-7 as a starter at home.
- Four of Hurts’ seven losses at home came in 2021.
- The Eagles’ record ATS is 1-0 with a +4 point differential ATS
Player news and injuries
This game is on Monday, and this is being written on Friday morning so we don’t have the final injury reports yet, but what we do know is that on Thursday, the Eagles’ Milton Williams (DL) was limited in practice with a foot thing, and both Isaiah Rodgers (CB) and Devin White (LB) were full participants.
Those three aren’t exactly game-changers. With Quinyon Mitchell and Nakobe Dean looking as good as they did in Week 1, Rodgers and White coming back isn’t super consequential. Williams being limited is kind of a bummer because he’s pretty good, but the Eagles do have serviceable depth on the defensive line.
For the Falcons, both Nate Landman (LB) and Antonio Hamilton (CB) did not practice with some lower body stuff. The bigger one for them is Kaleb McGary, their starting right tackle, who was limited with a groin injury.
If he’s not 100 percent, let alone available for the game, that right side of the line will be ripe for the taking. Bryce Huff should be the edge rusher on that side and if he gets to go up against a backup, he NEEDS to produce. We’ve already looked at how immobile Cousins is, so this is kind of a huge problem for everything the Falcons have going on.
