Who says lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place?
Literally.
After a nearly hour-long rain delay with lightning flashing in the background, which seemed to douse some of the Eagles Super Bowl celebration that saw the championship banner raised to the rafters of the Linc, the Eagles and Falcons decided to run an instant replay of their playoff game last winter.
There were the Falcons, sitting on the edge of the Eagles goal line, down by six points, with one last shot at scoring.
No surprise here, the ball was going to Julio Jones. And just as in last year's NFC Divisional Playoff game, Matt Ryan and his star receiver failed to connect. Jones made the catch, but was already out of bounds.
Same end zone, different side.
18-12, Eagles.
Back in January it was 15-10.
They aren't going to send the film of this one to Canton. It was an ugly, penalty-filled game.
But it did have its moments, including the Eagles again rolling out their favorite gadget, a pass to Nick Foles, this time dubbed 'Philly-Philly.'
This is a game a lot of people, including me, did not expect the Eagles to win.
They looked horrible in the preseason, especially on offense, failing to score a single TD with their starters.
Foles was not great again last night, going 19 of 34 for just 117 yards and one interception.
But the defense was again on the money.
And Exton native Matt Ryan continues for some reason to struggle in his home town. With a first down at the Eagles 10-yard line with just a minute left, Ryan threw four straight incomplete passes. A penalty on the Birds gave him one more shot, and he failed to hoop up with Jones.
That's why it's a good thing to keep in mind that the NFL preseason is the most meaningless thing in sports.
The Eagles are 1-0.
Without Carson Wentz.
That's about all you could expect.
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