In his first game with that big contract, Julio Jones was worth every penny.
Jones hauled in nine passes for 141 yards, including a pair of touchdowns, and the Atlanta Falcons came back after squandering a 17-point half-time lead to beat the Philadelphia Eagles 26-24 Monday night in the coaching debut of Dan Quinn.
“Julio is an awesome player,” said Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan, who overcame a pair of costly interceptions. “He’s as good as it gets, and we’re lucky to have him.”
Coming off the best season of his career, Jones was rewarded with a new $71.25 million (Dh261.7m) contract. Early on, he dominated the Eagles’ revamped secondary as Atlanta raced to a 20-3 half-time lead.
Philadelphia rallied behind new quarterback Sam Bradford, taking the lead for the first time at 24-23 on Ryan Mathews’s 1-yard run with 8:37 remaining.
Back came the Falcons, driving into position for Matt Bryant’s fourth field goal of the game, a 47-yarder with 6:27 to go that turned out to be the winner.
Cody Parkey was wide right on a 44-yard field goal that could have restored Philadelphia’s lead. The Eagles had one more chance, but cornerback-turned-safety Ricardo Allen intercepted a pass that went through the hands of Jordan Matthews, sealing the victory with 1:11 left.
“They didn’t want to throw it at my corners so they threw it in the middle of the field,” Allen said. “They tipped the ball and it landed in my lap.”
Bradford, in his first regular-season game in nearly two years after being acquired in a trade with the St Louis Rams, was 36-of-52 for 336 yards. But Philadelphia’s much-hyped running game, led by newcomer DeMarco Murray, was largely a bust.
After leading the NFL with 1,845 yards rushing with the Dallas Cowboys last season, Murray was held to 9 yards on eight carries. Mathews had only 4 yards, while Darren Sproles led the way with 50 yards on the ground.
Coach Chip Kelly’s up-tempo offence looked unstoppable in the pre-season but bogged down in the first half against the fired-up Falcons, who hope the energetic Quinn can turn things around from a 10-22 showing the last two seasons under Mike Smith.
“You just trust the preparation, let it rip and have fun,” Quinn said. “That’s what we did.”
Other than a 69-yard drive that led to a field goal, the Eagles generated just 56 yards on their other seven first-half possessions – three of which went three-and-out, and another ended quickly when Bradford was intercepted. The deficit would have been even bigger if not for Kiko Alonso’s dazzling one-handed interception while falling backward in the end zone.
“We couldn’t get anything going in the first half,” Bradford said.
Jones repeatedly burned new Eagles cornerback Byron Maxwell, including touchdowns of 4 and 22 yards. Philadelphia clamped down in the second half, but Jones finally got loose for his only catch after the break: a 44-yarder that set up Bryant’s winning field goal.
Bryant also connected from 41, 39 and 44 yards.
“The big thing that you can take from this win is that we finished,” Bryant said. “Coach Quinn has really emphasised over the pre-season about finishing.”
Ryan was 23-of-34 for 298 yards but handed Philadelphia the momentum on the third play of the second half. A deep pass down the middle just as he was hit was picked off by safety Walter Thurmond, who returned it 23 yards to the Atlanta 8. After an incomplete pass, Murray took off around the right end for Philadelphia’s first touchdown of the season.
The Falcons were forced to punt, and the Eagles put together their most impressive drive of the night to that point. Despite four penalties, they went 95 yards in 13 plays, capped off by Bradford’s 5-yard touchdown pass to Murray that sliced Atlanta’s lead to 20-17. The running back hauled in the throw, cut back to leave Kroy Biermann sprawled face-first on the turf, and sauntered into the end zone.
Philadelphia weren’t done, either.
Bradford guided the Eagles 80 yards in just six plays, including four consecutive completions that went for 24, 12, 21 and 19 yards to the Atlanta 1. Mathews took it in from there, giving Philadelphia their first lead of the game.
“I told the guys at half-time it was a tale of two halves,” Kelly said. “We played a lot better in the second half.”
Not quite good enough.
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The specs
Engine: 2.7-litre 4-cylinder Turbomax
Power: 310hp
Torque: 583Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh192,500
On sale: Now
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
How Islam's view of posthumous transplant surgery changed
Transplants from the deceased have been carried out in hospitals across the globe for decades, but in some countries in the Middle East, including the UAE, the practise was banned until relatively recently.
Opinion has been divided as to whether organ donations from a deceased person is permissible in Islam.
The body is viewed as sacred, during and after death, thus prohibiting cremation and tattoos.
One school of thought viewed the removal of organs after death as equally impermissible.
That view has largely changed, and among scholars and indeed many in society, to be seen as permissible to save another life.
Company%20Profile
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Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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COMPANY PROFILE
● Company: Bidzi
● Started: 2024
● Founders: Akshay Dosaj and Asif Rashid
● Based: Dubai, UAE
● Industry: M&A
● Funding size: Bootstrapped
● No of employees: Nine
Company%20profile
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The stats
Ship name: MSC Bellissima
Ship class: Meraviglia Class
Delivery date: February 27, 2019
Gross tonnage: 171,598 GT
Passenger capacity: 5,686
Crew members: 1,536
Number of cabins: 2,217
Length: 315.3 metres
Maximum speed: 22.7 knots (42kph)
The biog:
From: Wimbledon, London, UK
Education: Medical doctor
Hobbies: Travelling, meeting new people and cultures
Favourite animals: All of them
The Pope's itinerary
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport