How great is it that football is back? With redzone on all day long and an amazing Sunday Night matchup, what could be better? The ‘Birds of Prey’ rivalry, as some call it, will be a high scoring affair between two of the past NFC champions. 

The Falcons suffered a bad loss in Minnesota last week. They fell behind early and their offense couldn’t get going until too late. The Falcons looked defeated stopping the run as they allowed Dalvin Cook to stomp all over them for a huge game. They gave up a total of 174 rushing yards, so expect to see the Eagles try and work the ground early. 

Similar to Atlanta, the Eagles also came out slow and had to come from behind to defeat the Redskins in week 1. The offense looked spectacular after a quarter and a half of rust. Their defense wasn’t too special though, as they allowed Case Keenum to carve them up for 370 passing yards. Can you name the Redskins #1 WR? Bet you didn’t say rookie Terry McLaurin from Ohio State. 

With the Redskins producing like this against the Eagles, the Falcons have a tremendous opportunity. Expect the Eagles secondary to play better than week 1, but that doesn’t change the fact that nobody in the league can cover Julio Jones.

With two of the best passing attacks in the NFC, this surely will be a high scoring game. Vegas has the over/under point total set as 52.5 right now, showing how much scoring they expect to see. Wouldn’t be surprised if the over hit, even at 52.5. 

The Eagles have a 20-14-1 record over the Falcons in this rivalry. Philly has also won the last three games against Atlanta, holding them to just 12.3 pts/gm, a good 15 below their season averages. Win streaks tend to accumulate between these two, as the Falcons took the three prior to the Eagles streak. 

The Falcons need this game more than the Eagles. They are at home with the risk of falling to 0-2 on the season. Since 2007, there has been only a 12% chance of making the playoffs after starting 0-2. Although the Seahawks and Texans accomplished this in 2018, the Falcons don’t want to mess with that probability.