Eagles Play Like Contenders and Upset Giants

After upsetting the #1 seed Giants, the 2008 Philadelphia Eagles.....the 2008 Eagles... are one win away from the Super Bowl. Who woulda thunk it?

My 3 keys to the game were: 1)stopping the run, 2)not giving away points with big mistakes, and 3)keeping time of possession in balance. The Eagles didn't do all that well in any of these areas, especially during the first half, but they showed up, played like champs, and won every facet of the game.

The Eagles didn't stop the run, but they contained it. They gave up points on the Safety and the Fred Robbins interception, but only 5. And while the 1st half time of possession was way imbalanced in favor of the Giants, it was even at the end of the game.

The Eagles Defense probably deserves the most credit after yesterday's win, as they kept the New York Giants and their high powered offense out of the end-zone. In New Jersey. In bad conditions. They bent a few times during the game, but they didn't break. There's no doubt that if the D wasn't playing the way they are, we would not be in the Championship game.

Offensively, the first half was miserable, at least statistically speaking. They held the ball for a total of 12 minutes, McNabb threw a pick, was tackled in the end zone for a safety and was generally ineffective. But you know what? The Giants were worse, and the Eagles went into the half leading 10-8.

The second half didn't start well, with Fred Robbins catching a batted-down McNabb pass and returning it to the Eagles 33 yard line. The Giants kicked a field goal and took an 11-10 lead. This is when the game turned around. The scoreboard only shows 3 points by the Eagles during this quarter, but they chewed up 10 minutes of the clock with 2 drives, the first was for a FG, the second of which was for a TD shortly after the 4th quarter started. In between, Giants kicker John Carney missed a 47 yard field goal.

The game was still close when the 4th quarter started, even with the 7 points the Eagles put up early in the quarter. The score was 20-11. The D really stepped it up at this point, stopping the Giants on two key 4th down attempts, picking off Manning, and recovering a fumble. Kicker David Akers, who is typically bad in the Meadowlands, came through with another FG--his third of the game. Game over. Eagles 21, Giants 11.

NFC East games, especially those in January, are rarely pretty, and that held true yesterday with the lack of offense, turnovers, missed FGs, and dropped passes. But the Eagles came in cool and confident, the D was awesome, and the team made some big plays on both sides of the ball. We outplayed the defending Super Bowl champions on offense, defense, and special teams. For a change, Andy Reid also out-coached the other guy. So all-told, I'm a happy camper. After-all, it's the 2008 Eagles that are one win away from the Bowl. Woohoo!