Eagles – Falcons:
- Sam Bradford didn’t look sharp early. Too many missed passes and miscommunications. This was exacerbated by the job the Falcons did stopping the run. Eagles head coach Chip Kelley gave up on it and decided to lean on Bradford’s arm. It wasn’t a good decision. The Eagles had 8 yards rushing, 117 yards passing and an INT while only scoring three points at half time. Despite running the ball better, the Eagles stuck with the pass in the second half. They had more success in the second half but still lost this game in large part because they the refused to run the ball more.
- The Eagles had a lot of trouble getting pressure on Matt Ryan and that exposed their biggest apparent weakness. That secondary’s not good.
- Speaking of Ryan, he was very lucky that he didn’t give this game away. Two interceptions that really should have been five. He’ll want to clean that up. He won’t get away with it often.
- The Falcons were running the ball surprisingly well and they did a good job of setting up the play action pass.
- I heard all off season about how the Falcons were quietly building that defense up. I didn’t get it, myself, until tonight. They’re far better than I thought. They’re much faster and much better at the line of scrimmage. I was damned impressed.
Vikings – 49ers
I was doing a podcast and could only occasionally glance at this game. I went to bed not long after that. But I do have some thoughts on what I saw.
The biggest knock on the Vikings going into the season was their offensive line. They did nothing that I saw during this game to ease anyone’s mind. The 49ers harassed QB Teddy Bridgewater and limited running back Adrian Peterson to 14 yards on 4 carries in the first half. The Vikings have been touted as a playoff team. They’re going to have to do better if that’s going to be the case.