ATLANTA - Jeremy Maclin had his coming out party Sunday night.
The rest of the nation found out what Philadelphia has known for a year now: The Eagles wide receiver is a budding star.
Yes, the Eagles already have a superstar wideout in DeSean Jackson. But on a night when Jackson was held in check, Maclin carried the pass-catchers - until the bitter end.
Maclin set career highs with 13 receptions and 171 yards and caught his first and second touchdowns of the season. It was his fifth career 100-yard game, and his reception total ranks as the third-most ever by an Eagle in a single game.
Unfortunately, his effort was all for naught as the Eagles fell to the Falcons, 35-31, at the Georgia Dome, and when the team needed him most, Maclin couldn't hold onto a Mike Kafka throw over the middle on fourth down with less than two minutes remaining.
When asked after the game whether he should have made that catch, Maclin said: "Yeah."
He did almost everything: touchdown receptions, short grabs, long ones, and catches for first downs. There was more. Maclin had a few key downfield blocks on LeSean McCoy carries, and he showed gruff as he continually mixed it up with Falcons defenders.
And then he took a blow to the head on a helmet-to-helmet collision in the third quarter. Maclin had just caught a 16-yard pass from Michael Vick when Atlanta cornerback Dunta Robinson led with his helmet. The collision drew a personal-foul penalty.
If the name Robinson and the words collision with an Eagles receiver sound familiar it's because last season he knocked out Jackson cold with a blow. Unlike Jackson, Maclin got up from this hit, although he looked dazed. He went to the sideline and missed only a play. About the hit, Maclin said: "He's 2 for 2."
Before the collision, however, it was Maclin that took a floundering Eagles offense and injected some life into it. With the Eagles down, 21-10, early in the third quarter, Maclin pulled in a short pass from Vick and zoomed 36 yards through a minefield of Falcons defenders and into the corner of the end zone.
It was his second touchdown of the game and was the fifth time in Maclin's short career - 33 games to be exact - that he had a multi-TD game.
The first touchdown was almost as important. Trailing by 7-3 in the first quarter, the Eagles should have had a touchdown when Vick threw to Jackson in the end zone. But the pass was slightly low, and Jackson couldn't hang onto it.
He was saved by a Falcons offsides penalty and then by Maclin, who made a nifty catch on a pass tossed behind him two plays later. The 5-yard score was just another example of Vick looking to his No. 1-A receiver early and often.
Last week, Maclin was targeted just three times and caught one pass for 20 yards. He was supposed to be involved more upon his return to his hometown of St. Louis and his return to game action after missing all of the preseason with a cancer scare. But Vick and Maclin just couldn't get in sync.
Against the Falcons, though, Maclin was involved from the get-go. The first two plays were trick plays that netted few yards, but when Maclin ran his routes the balls were there. Even after Vick left with a concussion and Kafka took over, Maclin was the playmaker.
Maclin should play all his games against the Falcons. Last season, he caught seven passes for 159 yards, including one for an 83-yard touchdown. The year before, as a rookie, he snatched four catches for 83 yards.
But both those games resulted in Eagles victories.
Jackson, on the other hand, netted just two catches for 21 yards a week after his six-reception, 102-yard opener.
Jackson, who left the game for short periods with minor bumps, helped in other ways. He had a great block on McCoy's 2-yard TD run in the third quarter that expanded the Eagles lead to 31-21.
But those were the final points for the Eagles, who fell to 1-1.
Contact staff writer Jeff McLane at 215-854-4745, jmclane@phillynews.com, or @Jeff_McLane on Twitter.
