The long-awaited NFL season gets underway Thursday night, with a rematch of one of the NFC divisional playoff games.
The 2018-19 NFL season kicks off with the Atlanta Falcons visiting Philadelphia to battle the Super Bowl Champion Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field. The Falcons would like to avenge the loss in that divisional game, which saw Atlanta favored despite Philadelphia having the top seed. Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan moved his team to the Eagles two-yard line with just over a minute to play, but a fourth-down pass sailed over the head of wide receiver Julio Jones to seal the victory for the Eagles -- who went on to win the Super Bowl for the first time in their history. It was the second year in a row the Falcons came up short: two seasons ago, the Falcons allowed the New England Patriots a historic comeback to lose what looked like a sure Super Bowl victory.
How To Watch
Where: Philadelphia
Start time: Thursday, Sept. 6, 8:20 p.m. ET
TV Network: NBC
Stream Online: Watch live with fuboTV
The Falcons are returning most of their starters from a year ago so chemistry certainly will not be an issue. They should have a high powered offense with Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, Devonta Freeman, Tevin Coleman, Mohamed Sanu all back. The team also added Calvin Ridley, their first-round draft pick, to the potent offense. Defensively, Atlanta should be just as good if not better than last year when they held the Eagles high powered offense to a touchdown and three field goals in the divisional playoff game loss.
The Eagles will enter the 2018-19 NFL season with somewhat of a target on their backs, having the title Super Bowl Champions makes every opponent work a little harder and pay a little closer attention to details when they see that game coming up on their schedule. How they respond to that and deal with the Super Bowl hangover is one of the biggest questions for the Eagles. Coach Doug Peterson made a big declaration that Super Bowl winning QB Nick Foles will be the starter (mainly because Carson Wentz is still recovering from a torn ACL).
Offensively, aside from Foles and ultimately Wentz, the Eagles have Alshon Jeffrey and Nelson Agholor at receiver along with their big weapon, tight end Zach Ertz. They also have Jay Ajayi and Corey Clement at backs. Last season, their offensive line was a big question mark going in but proved to be a backbone of the offense by seasons end. The defense was a big strength for the Eagles last season as well. They ranked fourth in total defense while sacking the quarterback nearly two and a half times a game. They also had 31 takeaways including 19 interceptions.
The long wait for football comes to an end Thursday at 8:20 p.m. ET.
