Philadelphia Eagles vs Atlanta Falcons
The Monday Night Football season gets kicked off with yet another doubleheader here in 2015. The first contest of the two-game slate that we’ll be treated to features Sam Bradford, Chip Kelly and the Philadelphia Eagles going on the road to take on Matt Ryan, Dan Quinn and the Atlanta Falcons. Both teams are coming into the season with some good hopes of taking their division by season’s end, and that journey starts with this battle on Monday night.
Details for Sunday’s game are below:
Date: Sep. 14
Start Time: 6:55 PM ET
Location: Atlanta, Ga
Stadium: Georgia Dome
TV Info: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN app
Radio: For Falcons radio affiliates, click here. For Eagles radio affiliates, click here.
Ticket Information: For Falcons ticket info, click here. For Eagles ticket info, click here.
Keys to Victory
Eagles
After narrowly missing out on the postseason last year, Chip Kelly and his Eagles will be looking to make a return trip to the playoffs, though the team will look a little bit different. This year, the offense will be led by the new tandem of quarterback Sam Bradford and running back DeMarco Murray. How these two mesh together in this specific offense will say a lot about their chances of getting back to the postseason. If Bradford can stay healthy and Murray is anything like what he was in Dallas last season, then they should be in pretty good shape.
Monday night against the Falcons, they need to set the tone for the rest of the year by taking care of the Falcons defense like the two took care of defenses together when they were paired up at Oklahoma in college.
Falcons
With new head coach Dan Quinn now running the ship, the Falcons will look to get back to the top of what still is a poor NFC South. What this team needs to do on Monday night right off the bat is establish the running game as a viable threat once again and that falls on the shoulders of Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman. These two need to shoulder a lot of the load so Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Roddy White and the rest of the passing game has a lot more room to work against this Eagles defense.
Also, and this goes without saying whenever anyone faces the Eagles, they need to get that Philly offense off their rhythm, which might be a little easier to do the first game of the season.
Betting Odds
Point Spread: Eagles -3
Moneyline: Eagles -155, Falcons +135
O/U: 55
Prediction
Judging from the preseason, which is something you tend to not want to do the first week of the season, this Eagles team looks about as ready as ever to make a run at that NFC East title. Bradford looks comfortable in this offense so far and Murray should thrive in the system as well. Monday night against this Falcons defense that will still be struggling to find their new identity under Quinn, they should put on a show for everyone and walk away 1-0.
Final Score: Eagles 38, Falcons 20
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