On an afternoon with an overcast sky and the looming potential for a major hurricane ready to pounce on the City of Brotherly Love, the Atlanta Falcons flew in displaying confidence and poise, thumping the Philadelphia Eagles with a 30-17 victory at Lincoln Financial Field.
The victory takes the visiting team to a historical perfect record of 7-0 as the Philly home team fell to an “embarrassing” 3-4 evoking boos from their anxious- for- a- victory fans.
It would be a day of shattering records as Falcons Coach Mike Smith, with this game marking 50 regular season victories for him, became the winningest coach in Falcons history. It would also be the day that Eagles Coach Andy Reid would see his 13 year record of never losing a game coming off a bye week come to a resounding end.
.Smith’s record stands at 50-21 since he arrived in Atlanta in 2008. Smith commended his team and lauded the plays of both the offense and he defense for the victory. The Falcons last won a game in Philadelphia in 1988.
The Falcons owned the ball most of the game, punting only twice as Matt Ryan threw for 262 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions. The Falcons scored on each of their first six possessions including touch downs on their first three drives. WR Drew Davis on a 15 yard pass from Ryan scored the first touchdown of the game on 3rd and 8 after the Falcons marched down the fields 80 yards.
When the Eagles did have the ball, they didn’t do much with it largely due to the Falcons solid defense. Falcons Safety Thomas DeCoud had nine sacks including one on QB Michael Vick on the Eagles first possession. The Eagles were held to 92 yards on the ground and 178 in the air. The Falcons came away with 392 total yards. Julio Jones had five catches in the game with a spectacular 63 yard touchdown in the second quarter. Defensive Ends Kroy Biermann and John Abraham had stellar games as Bierman had a season-high seven tackles and a sack and Abraham sacking Vick for his seventh sack of the season. Abraham is the NFL’s active sack leader with 119.0 career sack.
“Whatever decision Coach Reid makes I support it,” a visibly disappointed Vick said in the post game press interviews. “Obviously he’s thinking about making a change at the quarterback position. I know I’m giving everything I’ve got out there… deep down as long as I know I’m doing that, that’s all I can ask out of myself.” In a post interview a few minutes earlier Reid called the game an “embarrassing performance” that would be evaluated but stopped short of saying there would definitely be a change of quarterback.
As raindrops peppered the field and and rain slickers appeared among the fans in the green and grey stands with a few more rounds of boos for their lackluster team, the crowd headed for the Exits early in the fourth quarter making their way home to prepare for Hurricane Sandy and trying to forget what they just saw on their home field as their team went down in defeat.
The Falcons on the other hand were all smiles while preparing to make their way back to Atlanta with yet another victory along with many fans who traveled to Philadelphia to see their team continue their reign as the only undefeated team in the NFL this season at 7-0. Next up, the nationally televised night game against the Dallas Cowboys at the Georgia Dome on Sunday, November 4, 8:20 p.m.
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