Friday, November 28, 2008

Here We Go Again...


Donovan McNabb evoked memories of 2001, Brian Westbrook finally got his carries and the Philadelphia Eagles dominated the Arizona Cardinals 48-20.
Literally, from the start of the game the Birds from Philadelphia dominated their former NFC East rival in a way that has been missing all season. Sure, there will be those who sit back and say that Arizona stinks. Regardless of whether they play in the NFC West (a division the Eagles swept this season), they still had a 7-4 record coming into play. 7-4 is 7-4 -- I'm sure there are plenty of Eagles fans who would have taken a 7-4 record coming into last night's game.
Then the game started and the Eagles showed up playing like an entirely different team then the ones from Baltimore and Cincinnati. They looked like a completely different team than the one I had seen all year. It started from the man drawing up the plays. On the opening 12 play scoring drive, 6 were runs and 6 were passes. No coincidence that this was the best drive I had seen from the offense all season. Wish it hadn't taken Andy Reid three quarters of a season to figure it out, AGAIN. That pretty much set the tone for the evening.
Reid showed a commitment to running the ball, and the offensive line responded by opening up huge holes for Westbrook, missing child Lorenzo Booker and even, Kyle Eckel. Right, Kyle Eckel. Reid showed some diversity in the playcalling and a word I've heard many times since last night is "unpredictable".
Unpredictable is a perfect word since it the exact opposite of what this offense had been for the past month. Stale, boring, slow and horrendous were all adjectives that had been thrown around in discussing the offense.
And obviously, Donovan McNabb responded in the way I totally expected from him. Here is a ten year veteran who holds nearly every passing record in franchise history, who has taken this team to 4 NFC championship games and a Super Bowl, who had the eyes of a nation on him this Thanksgiving night. This guy was ripped by everyone from Warren Sapp to your Uncle Pete.
There was intensity on defense, the first time that has been really evident in a long time. Being down at the game may have played a part in that, but I really feel like the guys were feeding off it. How about Joselio Hanson? There is a reason that Lito Sheppard didn't start and it has to do with that thing a few inches below your left shoulder. Dawkins came up with a big forced fumble and guys were swarming the ballcarrier. It was nice to see.
There are now ten days to go until this team heads up I-95 for another battle with the New York Giants. Everything is a must win from here on out. To make the playoffs the Eagles are going to have to beat the teams ahead of them. What a wild situation it would be to go into the last game of the season in late December against the Cowboys with a wild card berth on the line. To get there, they have to win and that starts in ten days.

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