The Philadelphia Eagles entered the divisional playoff duel with Atlanta Falcons as the historic number one seed underdog – and they didn’t let themselves get confused! Even without the injured Carson Wentz, Philly worked his way to a 15:10 win, where Atlanta’s play calling is likely to cause some discussion.
From the first drive onwards, the Eagles had almost always had big problems in the offense. Nick Foles (23/30,246 YDS) played desolate in the first half, not only because he had to fight extremely with the strong wind during longer passes – here his opponent Matt Ryan (22/36,210 YDS, TD) also revealed problems. Nevertheless, the Eagles tried early on to bring a downfield element into their game, so that Atlanta would not deliver the box, which worked out well in the beginning with penalties against the Falcons secondary.
But their own mistakes stood in the way of the hosts. A fumble by Jay Ajayi on the second Play from Scrimmage finished the first Eagles drive, a bag on third down the second drive. However, Atlanta initially only took the lead with a field goal and so the first touchdown of the match belonged to Philly: Ajayi cleared the way with several physical runs and after Foles had secured another fumble just before the Goal Line, LeGarrette Blount ran from a yard to the final zone.
However, the mistakes continued: Atlanta reclaimed a punt after several Eagles players hit the ball, the Eagles helped with several penalties and Ryan found Freeman with a great play to the touchdown. And it remained curious: seconds before the half-time break, Foles was very lucky when a safe interception bounced off the knee of Falcons-Safety Keanu Neal into the hands of Torrey Smith. It was Foles’ longest completion of the first half and prepared the way for another field goal before the break.
Then, however, the Eagles made the right adjustments in the passing game: More option-plays for Foles, who felt visibly more comfortable in the pocket during the second half and clearly played much better, while the Defense forced some punts – two field goals led the Eagles with six minutes on clock 15:10. And then it became dramatic: Atlanta did a fourth-down conversion, a few plays later the Eagles were in the Red Zone. But bad play-calling prevented the possible game winning touchdown, the strong Eagles defense finally held its ground at Fourth Down and the NFC Championship game takes off in Philadelphia!
Philadelphia Eagles – Atlanta Falcons 15:10 (0:3,9:7,3:0,3:0,3:0) BOXSCORE
The Falcons were in the Red Zone with a Goal-to-Go situation at the most critical moments after some great passes by Ryan. A touchdown here would have ended the game where – but what happened? A fade at first down, a very strange shovel-pass at second down and a too short route at third down: Throughout the whole season, offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian had revealed play calling deficits, especially in the red zone, which never hurt the Falcons more than it does today. At Fourth Down, to top it all off Julio Jones slipped out, Game Over.
There’s no question about it: the Eagles’ offensive line was, especially in the second half, the dominant unit on the pitch and the main reason for the Eagles’ victory. The Pocket for Foles became bigger and bigger, also thanks to better play-calling, in the run game Ajayi and Blount profited from great pull-blocks – especially by Center Jason Kelce – and also in the screen game the linemen did a great job.
In addition to Kelce and the performance in the second half of Foles, Cox deserves special mention. Stopped several Falcons runs in the center, recorded one sack and ended up with seven tackles.
In addition to the questionable play-calling decisions of the Falcons, Freeman in particular attracted negative attention. Not only because he scored seven yards in ten runs, but also because the running back in pass protection revealed problems. In the lightning pickup, he had a lot of trouble, which Philadelphia attacked in the course of the game. The run game over Tevin Coleman (10 ATT, 79 YDS) was much more explosive.