Opener a big test for Eagles' pass defense

ATLANTA - It is an NFL truism that you can't tell that much about a team's season from its opener, but so far with Chip Kelly, that truism hasn't been so true.

Kelly's first opener was a head-spinning, 33-27 victory at Washington, in which his offense showed the NFL what was coming. LeSean McCoy (remember him?), who would lead the league in rushing that year, was the NFL leader right out of the gate, with 184 yards on 31 carries. But defensive shakiness and the inability of the offense to gear down and eat clock turned a 33-7 lead into a nailbiter. All of these things became recurring themes of the season.

Last year, the Eagles opened at home against woeful Jacksonville in what promised to be a blowout. It eventually was that, a 34-17 victory, but only after the Birds fell behind by 17 points at halftime, with Nick Foles turning the ball over three times in the first 20 minutes. Turnovers, so rare in 2013, would dog the Eagles throughout 2014; they finished with a minus-nine interception ratio. Foles' slow, labored decision-making that day presaged the trade that sent him to St. Louis in March for Sam Bradford.

That brings us to tonight, and the Atlanta Falcons. It's hard to say that emerging unscathed will prove that Bradford can stay healthy all year, as he takes a regular-season snap for the first time since Oct. 20, 2013, but this certainly would be the first priority.

One thing we might be able to get a sense of is whether the Eagles' defense has been fixed. Particularly, we should get some idea of the progress new secondary coach Cory Undlin has made in the area Undlin has emphasized most, the area that led to former secondary coach John Lovett working at Cal this year instead of at NovaCare - last season, the Birds allowed an NFL-high 72 "X plays" - passing gains of 20 yards or more.

Back during OTAs, Undlin declared that the Eagles were "out of the X-play business." Strong-armed Atlanta quarterback Matt Ryan, a Penn Charter alum, might have something to say about that, along with his jet-powered receiving corps, which includes Julio Jones and Roddy White. Thirty-one of Jones' 104 catches last season went for 20 yards or more, as he amassed 1,593 yards, an average of 106.2 per game. White turns 34 this season, but 14 of his 80 catches in 2014 (for 921 yards) went for 20 yards or more.

The Falcons have a new head coach, former Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, but everyone assumes they will continue to play to their offensive strength, which is going long. Even though they finished 6-10 a year ago, the Falcons were fifth in passing offense; their 61 offensive X plays ranked fourth, just behind the Eagles, who had 63.

Eagles second-round rookie corner Eric Rowe said this was a major focus of preparation last week.

"Off play-action, they're going deep post, deep overs, their [bootlegs] are deep routes," Rowe said. "Obviously, we have a huge emphasis on that, not letting any of those go over our heads. I feel like if we can eliminate that, that makes the game a lot easier for us."

It's unclear what Rowe's role will be tonight. Byron Maxwell and Nolan Carroll are the starting corners, but the nickel job, held down capably by Brandon Boykin last season, is a bit of a mystery. Toward the end of the preseason, the Eagles were moving Carroll inside on nickel and playing Rowe outside, with spotty success. Rowe said he hadn't been told if that will be the case tonight. It would be a tough spot for a rookie, who said he has never played in a dome.

Another option would be playing journeyman vet E.J. Biggers as the nickel, leaving Carroll outside. Biggers said he, too, was in the dark about what the plan would be. This probably isn't exactly true, given that the team presumably practiced the nickel last week, and somebody was with the first unit, but reporters only get to watch the loosening-up part of practice during the season, and nobody was divulging the setup.

Yet another option would be to move a safety - Malcolm Jenkins or Walter Thurmond - into the nickel role and bring in a backup safety off the bench. That probably would be Jerome Couplin, whose preseason was truncated by an appendectomy. Do the coaches trust Couplin that much yet?

We'll see.

"You don't want to go into a game fearing anything, but you are aware," Biggers said, when asked about the Falcons' big-play passing potential. "You kind of lock into splits and formations and things like that, that will bring the deep ball."

Thurmond said the Eagles have looked at what new Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan has done in other places. "His concepts are going to be the concepts - it's just different personnel running the concepts," Thurmond said.

"It's going to be a great test, because this is one of the great [receiving] tandems in the league, with Julio and Roddy White," Thurmond said. "It's going to be a great test for us, to see what our cover ability is, and to make an identity for ourselves as a secondary.

"We're going to get challenged. We're going to have some deep balls thrown at us. We have to work with great technique and be disciplined throughout the route, make the play at the end of the down."

Thurmond called Jones "a top-five receiver in this league."

The guy in the crosshairs vs. Jones would be Maxwell, the new $63 million corner, though indications are, since Jones isn't Ryan's only dangerous target, Maxwell will stay on one side and won't follow Jones around the formation.

"You can't make it easy for 'em, you have to make 'em earn it," Maxwell said.

Asked about Jones, Maxwell said: "He's fast, he has ball skills, he's a great athlete - runs after the catch. He just jumps out, to be honest with you."

Maxwell, from North Charleston. S.C., said he has about 20 friends and family making the 4 1/2-hour drive to Atlanta.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian