Late-game mistakes by the Eagles, defense and coaching staff sent the team to a stunning loss to the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night.

Here’s what we learned about the Eagles after the 22-21 home loss:

The breaking point

After several Eagles players had dressed and headed home from the game, Quinyon Mitchell sat in his locker room in full uniform, mentally replaying the Falcons’ winning drive.

“I just do it on my back,” the rookie cornerback said. “I just have to be better in situations like that. Just have situational awareness.”

» READ MORE: The decisions made in the Eagles’ last game loss to the Falcons put a lot of pressure on Nick Sirianni

Most metrics suggest the Eagles defense is one of the league’s worst units, but the group has been able to make timely stops in the red zone to keep the team in the game. The Eagles defense is allowing 6.9 yards per play, which is tied with the Los Angeles Rams for worst in the NFL, and has given up the most rushing yards above expectations, according to player-tracking data from Next Gen Stats.

On the Falcons’ final drive, the red-zone stops that had kept the defense afloat finally dried up. Mitchell and veteran cornerback Darius Slay credited the six-play, 70-yard scoring drive that gave Atlanta a decisive one-point lead in the final minute to their individual miscues in coverage, and understandably so. The Falcons went after Mitchell’s team for chunk gains early in the drive before catching Slay with his eyes in the backfield and way out of position for Drake London’s 7-yard touchdown catch.

Mitchell had been a bright spot on the Eagles defense up until that point, but the rookie was largely responsible for a series of explosive plays at the worst possible time. The first came with the Eagles in Cover 2; Mitchell bit on a route underneath, leaving too much room for Darnell Mooney to run between him and deep safety Reed Blankenship for a 21-yard completion. On the next play, defensive coordinator Vic Fangio switched coverage, with one deep safety and Mitchell and Slay in off coverage on the outside, but Mitchell was beaten on a deep out route by Mooney that went for another 26 yards.

“I put him in a tough position to begin with,” Mitchell said of Slay. “I gave up the deep ball, and then I gave up the out cut. So I just left it up to myself — I put him in a tough position.”

Still, Mitchell’s troubles on the drive might have been irrelevant had Slay not been beaten on the outside by London with the Falcons facing third-and-5 from the Eagles’ 7-yard line.

» READ MORE: Saquon Barkley defends third-down call, takes blame for Eagles loss

“That was definitely my mistake,” Slay said. “My eyes were on the backfield, and I just tried to do more than I should have.”

Low percentage looks

While much of the Eagles’ offense has changed under Kellen Moore, mostly for the better, Monday night showcased some of the challenges the group has faced in previous years that won’t be as easily overcome.

Jalen Hurts’ expected completion percentage, a metric tracked by NFL Next Gen Stats that measures the likelihood of a completion using player-tracking data, remained among the league’s lowest through two games for the second straight season. Hurts’ expected completion percentage of 60.7% ranks 30th in the NFL among qualifying quarterbacks. Last year, only Justin Fields finished the season with a lower percentage than Hurts’ 61.3%.

Part of that can be explained by Hurts’ understandable tendency to target AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith, even on low-percentage throws. With Brown sidelined with a hamstring injury, however, the number of high-percentage throws in the game’s key moments was few and far between. The Eagles made five trips to the red zone on Monday but scored just two touchdowns, largely because of well-defended route combinations on key downs.

Brown’s absence was noticeable throughout the game, but the lack of production inside the 20 was noticeable without the star receiver.

Return on investment

When you look at the Eagles’ defensive struggles in their front seven, it’s hard to overlook the group of top draft picks who haven’t made an impact.

Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith combined for just four tackles, five pressures and zero sacks against the Falcons. Carter had a tough matchup against Falcons Pro Bowl guard Chris Lindstrom, managing three pressures, but he hasn’t had a consistent impact on the quarterback this season.

» READ MORE: Nick Sirianni needs the Eagles defense to pick him off. Bryce Huff, Josh Sweat, Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter can’t do it.

After struggling against Steelers edge rusher TJ Watt in Week 1, the Falcons used chip blocks to slow down the Eagles’ edge rushers at times. This puts the onus on the interior linemen to win one-on-one matchups to break the pocket, something that rarely happened.

With the vast majority of the Eagles’ offensive starters on expensive long-term contracts, the team’s defensive balance will have to come from young players making an impact on rookie contracts. It starts with Georgia’s trio of first-round picks, who weren’t productive enough against the Falcons.

Stock report

Thomas Booker, up: Booker has played just nine snaps but has made two tackles for loss in that span, two more than Georgia’s aforementioned group of defensive linemen. The former Stanford star, who signed with the Eagles last season, was a long shot to make the 53-man roster but has shown enough in recent months to suggest he could be a quality rotation piece on the interior defensive line.

Nick Sirianni, down: As Jeff McLane of The Inquirer wrote, the Eagles’ penultimate offensive drive hinged entirely on Sirianni’s decision-making. The third-down pass to Saquon Barkley has been criticized as too aggressive, but the process that led to the pass was in fact conservative.

If Sirianni and Moore had treated the third-and-3 call as one of two chances to get a game-sealing first down instead of prioritizing running out the clock and settling for the field goal, the Eagles would have been significantly more likely to end the game with two rushing attempts within 3 yards of the sticks. For those who thought running out the clock for the field goal would be the difference in the game, it’s worth remembering that the Falcons scored with 34 seconds left.

» READ MORE: A tale of two Jalen Hurts and defensive doubts in our Eagles Week 2 stock chart

Mekhi Becton, neutral: I had Becton as a stock-down player in my postgame analysis, but have softened on that after watching the tape. The guard struggled a few times with twisting passes with Lane Johnson, but he also had dominant reps in the run game to create space for Barkley to rush for 95 yards on 22 attempts. Along with the rest of the Eagles offensive line, Becton had a characteristically solid game.

Eagles linebackers, eliminated: After an encouraging debut with the Eagles, Zack Baun had an inconsistent performance against the Falcons. According to Pro Football Focus, Baun had two missed tackles and was also caught out of position on a pair of Bijan Robinson’s chunk gains. Nakobe Dean also had his share of over-run stretch plays, and the duo combined for eight catches for 63 yards on 10 targets, according to PFF.