9. Atlanta Falcons
Similar to the Divisional Round game from January, the Falcons were able to hold the Eagles to scoring under 20 points, making it seem like a hard fought defensive battle would have been good enough to pull off the win over the defending champions on opening night. But unfortunately for Atlanta, it was the offense that struggled to come through against Philadelphia’s defense, despite numerous key opportunities to find the end zone.
From the Eagles putting together an impressive goal-line stand on the first drive of the game by the Falcons to failing to find the end zone at the end of the game despite having five opportunities inside the 10-yard line, Atlanta has no one to blame other than themselves. As mentioned before, this was way too similar to what happened last January in the playoffs when Julio Jones just missed what most likely would have been the game-winning score o send the Falcons to the NFC Championship.
Speaking of Jones, as impressive as it was to see the Atlanta speedster catch 10 passes for 169 yards, Ryan needs to do a better job of finding his top target in the end zone if this team is going to have any chance at reaching the playoffs for a third year in a row. Talent wise, the Falcons still deserve consideration for being one of the top teams in the NFC since they still put up quite the fight for the most part against the Eagles, even it was frustrating to see them come out on the losing end.