SÃO PAULO, Brazil: The Eagles started the 2024 season taking the longest flight that the team has ever taken to a continent that has never seen a football game live and played on a "pitch" that isn't really suited for world class athletes to play a brutal sport on.
It is 11 hours in the air from Philadelphia to São Paulo, Brazil.
It is an impossible city to maneuver in of over 22 million people and it was on a Friday night under the lights of Corinthian Arena.
Most players haven't played on a Friday night since they were starring on their high school football team.
I can speak to the flight and the city and the atmosphere because I was there, along with thousands of die hard Eagle football fans. On my flight from Philadelphia to Rio de Janeiro it was almost exclusively Bird fans decorated in their favorite team jersey.
The beautiful beaches of Rio looked more like the Jersey Shore than South America with fans all over town. When I got to my hotel in São Paulo it was packed with more Eagle fans.
It's as if they invaded Fedex Field for a game against the Commanders, except that they traveled 8,000 miles to see the opener.
And no one was disappointed.
The atmosphere inside Corinthians Arena was electric. The pageantry was more like a playoff game than a season opener. The 50,000 fans that sold the arena out mirrored more of a Pro Bowl Game than a regular season tilt.
Every team was represented by their favorite team jersey's or their favorite players.
Fireworks, and chants, and flags reminded me more of a World Cup soccer match than an NFL game.
I was busy pregame doing a 1 hour pregame show for the NFL NETWORK and I could not hear my host, Jane Slater, standing right next to me. It was a juiced up stadium.
But the game started and all the hoopla settled down, as did the players.
I spoke with many of the Eagle players and coaches prior to the game and no one knew exactly what to expect.
DeVonta Smith was not exactly sure what Green Bay would do since they employed a new defensive coordinator.
When I told him to expect a great deal of press man coverage with the hope of robbing the middle of the field he was thankful for the insight.
Jalen Hurts was loose and approachable before the game going through his normal pregame warm ups. Saquon was bouncing around with excitement.
Everything was really very routine and normal before the kick, except I don't think anyone foresaw how slippery the field would be. Knowing soccer fields and covering NFL EUROPE for 10 years I was used to seeing football players slipping and sliding. Everyone took turns, regardless of position, of losing their footing.
But the biggest takeaway for me from the first outing was what Jalen and the new offense designed by Kellen Moore would look like and how the addition of Saquon Barkley would be utilized. I don't believe it could have gone any better against a quality opponent.
Barkley was amazing. He ran for over 100, he scored 3 touchdowns and one was on a well designed run action route out of the backfield matched up against an inside linebacker.
Jalen dropped in a dime for an 18-yard opening score touchdown to open the season and take an early 7-6 lead.
He would run for 2 more touchdowns including an 11-yarder behind the new right guard and center, Mekhi Becton and Cam Jurgens.
When the game tightened in the fourth quarter and the Birds were playing with the lead Saquon ripped off a number of solid inside runs that gained yards and took time off the clock. 34 points and 400+ yards of offense is a great way to begin the season after last year's horrendous collapse.
The introduction to short three -step drops were welcomed by Jalen and especially DeVonta Smith who caught seven of his eight targets, many for first downs. The use of motions, pre-snap movement, and a variety of formations had purpose.
None was more important than the second play of the third quarter. Down 19-17 to begin the third quarter and faced with 2-and-7 at their own 33 yard line; Kellen Moore had AJ Brown motion from a stack look to widen out to get matched up on the Packers best cornerback, Jaire Alexander.
It created a one-on-one for AJ. He took an inside release and stacked Jaire when Jalen threw a perfect pass over the top to a streaking AJ and he used high speed and explosion to go 67 yards for the biggest play of the game and give the Birds a brief lead. The offense was good.
Much has been made about the two interceptions of Jalen. The first was a seam route to DeVonta against a predicted Tampa two look.
It was the right read. It wasn't a particularly good route by the Slim Reaper. This throw gets made every week in the NFL.
It wasn't a strong route and not a perfect throw and Xavier McKInney intercepted. The other INT was made in the end zone. It was a scramble drill as Jalen broke the pocket and AJ ran a routine scramble drill where he went deep and found a dead spot in the Packer secondary.
He was waving both arms to Jalen when Hurts let it fly. It looked as if it was going to be an easy score, except AJ slipped in the end zone when he was attacking the ball and it allowed Alexander time to intercept.
I liked the decision...He has thrown many touchdowns to AJ over the past three years where he trusts his favorite receiver to come down with a jump ball type throw.
I wouldn't second guess the decision...I liked the aggressiveness. You have to have that mentality to win big games and playoff games
All in All Brazil delivered. The rabid fans took over the city. The Birds offense looked powerful and smart as they had answers to the blitz and they had a very productive evening.
And now they get one game under their belts with a few days to recover before they see the Vikings in their home opener.
Great start to a promising season. *
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