Jason Kelce’s coming home — Everything to look for in Eagles’ MNF clash

You read that right, Jason Kelce is making his long-awaited return to the Linc. Unfortunately, only as a member of ESPN’s Monday Night Football crew.

This will be the 3rd straight year Kirk Cousins travels to Philly in week 2 for a prime-time matchup, so far, he’s 0-2. The Eagles will be looking to keep the streak alive with a win in the Linc on prime time, while Kirk and the Falcons looking for a much-needed rebound to their disaster in week 1.

What are the Falcons trying to be?

Week 1 came with a LOT of hype for the Dirty Birds. Arthur Smith couldn’t hold them back anymore, they finally got a QB in Kirk Cousins, it was at home, and against a very beatable Steelers team. Instead of getting a statement win, they fell very flat. Kirk looked bad and threw 2 picks, the offense never got in sync, and probably the weirdest of all their top target was Ray-Ray McCloud. If you remember one of the signatures of Arthur Smith’s offenses in Atlanta, it was never using his star players right. Well, Kyle Pitts and Drake London combined had 1 less target than Ray-Ray McCloud. The offense was so bad the Steelers won with 6 field goals. Peak Steeler football right there.

It was obvious that former Rams DC now Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris was outmatched by a very talented Steelers defense. While the Eagles defense is far from the Steelers level, it is still abundant with talent and with the home crowd behind them for the first time this year, it won’t make life any easier for the Falcons.

One thing the Falcons know they will be, however, is a defensive powerhouse. When you bring in a Defensive Coordinator to be your head coach and pair him with an uber-talented defense already, you’re going to give a lot of good offenses a problem. The Falcons boast the best safety duo in football with Jessie Bates and Justin Simmons, a lockdown corner in AJ Terrel, and Grady Jerret as a play wrecker on the line. It will be another early test of Kellen Moore‘s new offense.

In Zack Baun we trust

In his Eagles debut, Zack Baun made a name for himself with a whopping 15 tackles and 2 sacks. While expecting him to repeat this performance is unrealistic, the Eagles are going to need him along with the rest of the linebackers, including Devin White set to make his Eagles debut after missing Sao Paulo. With Bijan Robinson and Tyler Allgeier on the other side, tackling and containing the run is going to be pivotal to slowing down the Falcons offense.

On a similar note, the pass rush is going to have to be better than it was last week. The poor turf conditions didn’t help, but the defensive line itself didn’t get 1 sack, both were from Zack Baun. Kirk is a very talented QB when he’s got time to make things happen, especially with his supporting cast. We’ll hopefully see Bryce Huff get some more snaps in as well after he barely played any in the season opener, to the confusion of almost all Eagles fans.

Immovable Object vs Unstoppable Force

I’m exaggerating a little bit, but the Eagles offense will be heavily tested Monday night. We already went over just the list of names the Falcons defense has that’ll make life difficult. Still expect a heavy dose of Saquon, Grady Jarret be damned. Speaking of Grady Jarret it’ll be a big week once more for Cam Jurgens. He was rough last week and with a very talented Falcons D-line, the Eagles might not be able to afford Cam Jurgens being rough again.

Additionally, the Eagles will be flying without one of the best receivers in football. After being questionable for most of the week, A.J. Brown has been declared out for tomorrow’s game. This means 2 things. The first is that Devonta Smith is now the WR1, which is fine he’s extremely talented and that won’t be the problem. The question mark comes with Jahan Dotson at WR2. He didn’t catch a single pass in week 1 and only had 1 target. After essentially just running cardio in week 1, the Eagles will need him to be a significant factor in the offense just a week later.

Who’s winning?

Before week 1 I would’ve said this is going to be a close game. Now I’m not as sure about that. The Falcons looked really, really bad in week 1. The more concerning part is that Kirk looked awful. And if you know anything about Kirk Cousins in prime time, it’s not getting any better. Give me the Eagles 27-17 over the Falcons.

Watch our pregame show Monday night at 7:15 here:

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