2024 NFL Season, Week 2: What We Learned from Falcons' win over Eagles on Monday night

Atlanta Falcons

2024 · 1-1-0

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Philadelphia Eagles

2024 · 1-1-0

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• REWATCH: Falcons-Eagles on NFL+
• READ: Eagles WR Brown says he’ll miss multiple weeks with hamstring injury
• READ: Cousins’ first Falcons win comes on last-minute 70-yard GW drive
• READ: Saquon ‘dropped the ball’ in Eagles’ loss: ‘Let my team down’

1. Falcons steal road win. Atlanta spent the majority of the night riding the running game because it was its best mode of operation. Bijan Robinson finished with 97 yards on 14 attempts, posting an excellent clip of 6.9 yards per carry. But much like in Week 1, the Falcons couldn’t finish drives in the end zone, and there wasn’t much reason to believe they’d suddenly elevate their inconsistent passing game with just 1:39 left to play and 70 yards between them and the end zone. Boy, were we wrong. Kirk Cousins rediscovered his old form in the most crucial spot, connecting with Kyle Pitts to start the drive, then operating the hurry-up offense masterfully, ripping passes for Darnell Mooney down the left sideline for gains of 21 and 26 to move the Falcons into the Eagles’ red zone. Two plays later, he found Drake London for a 7-yard touchdown pass, capping a stunning final drive to wrestle the lead away from the Eagles and shock those in attendance at Lincoln Financial Field, delivering a finish almost no one saw coming on the national stage. If anybody thought the Falcons might be headed down a difficult road with Cousins as their quarterback, they received a great piece of evidence to the contrary Monday night in a huge spot, saving the Falcons from the dreaded 0-2 start.
2. Eagles waste Hurts masterpiece. Jalen Hurts was excellent Monday night, extending plenty of plays with his legs and carrying one scoring drive almost solely with his scrambling, including a run for 15 yards that required Hurts to evade a defender and barrel through a couple more to pick up the first down. His passing, while not prolific, was sharp, too, and with a healthy early mix of Hurts playmaking and Saquon Barkley runs, the Eagles were doing enough to set themselves up for what appeared to be a 2-0 start. But when the wheels fell off, they did so rapidly, and by the time Hurts regained possession with a chance to save Philadelphia, his ambition got the best of him when he threw a sailing pass toward DeVonta Smith along the sideline and watched Jessie Bates slide in for the game-sealing interception. Hurts did enough to win this game, showing off toughness, persistence and leadership. Eagles fans — and the Eagles themselves — will need some time to process the pain of this loss.
3. Cousins finds his old form. Atlanta admitted it needed to put Kirk Cousins in a place of comfort after failing to muster much of a fight offensively in Week 1, and proved it from the beginning, returning Cousins to a familiar place under center on the game’s first three snaps. In typical Cousins fashion, the first two were handoffs, and the third was a play-action pass, sending a much-needed signal that the Falcons were willing to tailor their approach around their high-priced quarterback. Cousins didn’t quite hit his stride, though, finishing the first half with a passing line of 7 for 13 for 75 yards. The second half was a different story, though, as Cousins settled in, completing 13 of his final 16 passes for 166 yards and two touchdowns, breaking through with a pass over the middle to Mooney for a score and capping it emphatically with his frantic final scoring drive. In that last possession alone, it’s as if Cousins rediscovered his arm strength, following a fading pass (that was completed) with a missile to Mooney for a crucial second straight completion. By the time he found London, we were all left to process what had just happened — and accept that reports of Cousins’ demise were overblown. If Cousins can consistently be this quarterback going forward, the Falcons will very much have a say in the suddenly competitive NFC South.
4. Philly needs to clean it up. The Eagles will look back at this one with significant regret for more than just how the game ended. Philadelphia had a number of positive gains wiped out by penalties — including three illegal man downfield flags — and even the positive plays that stood occasionally came with a catch (e.g., Hurts’ scramble and spike, which drew a delay of game penalty). It’s early, and these kinds of minor errors tend to happen. But nine penalties (accepted for 53 yards) are simply too many for a team that intends to contend. Philadelphia largely played well enough to win, but its mismanagement at the end and its errors — and this is being written after the Eagles avoided a penalty for Chauncey Gardner-Johnson‘s slight removal of his dislodged helmet after a key fourth-down stop — cannot happen frequently if it wants to regain the NFC East throne.
5. Eagles pay price for untimely aggression. Facing third-and-3 with 1:46 remaining, the Eagles could have used both third and fourth down to pick up a fresh set of downs, or run the ball on third-and-3 to, at minimum, take the clock down to roughly one minute before kicking a field goal. Instead, Philadelphia called a play-action pass with Hurts rolling out to the right and targeting Barkley. The play worked, but the execution failed, as Barkley dropped the ball, stopping the clock and saving Atlanta enough time for Cousins to put together a magical final drive, one that would have been much more difficult to achieve had the Eagles simply run the ball before kicking a field goal. We know what happened next: Atlanta used 1:05 to speed down the field and score the game-tying touchdown. Hindsight is a privilege when judging these decisions, but Philadelphia’s choice to throw on third down actively went against what was working for it for most of the night, and conflicted with an identity the Eagles seemed to embrace earlier in the game. With the most successful fourth-and-short play known to man in their back pocket, the Eagles instead chose the riskier option and paid for it, making this loss sting that much worse. If the Eagles truly want to leave their nightmarish collapse to end the 2023 season in the past, they’ll need to act with intent in situations such as these — or else Nick Sirianni is going to continue to hear the doubters. 

Next Gen stat of the game: The Falcons had a mere 0.7% chance of winning with 1:56 left in the fourth quarter, according to the Next Gen Stats win probability model. Their comeback is the seventh-most improbable win in the Next Gen Stats era (since 2016).

NFL Research: After losing each of his first nine starts on Monday Night Football, Kirk Cousins has now won four of his last five starts in the Monday night prime-time slot. Philadelphia, meanwhile, lost its fourth game in which it had a lead with less than two minutes remaining since the beginning of the 2023 season, tying for the most such losses in the NFL in that span.