Week 16 Wrap Up

 

A couple weeks ago before the Eagles embarked on their three game road swing, we at The Eagle Report dubbed this the “road trip from hell.” Seriously, three straight games against division rivals at the end? Who would have thought that would be a good thing? Obviously the Eagles knew something we didn’t because the Eagles have swept all three games to increase to 9-6 and clinch a spot in the playoffs. In this Christmas Day matchup, the Birds traveled down to Texas to take on the hated Dallas Cowboys in a game that meant big things. If the Eagles could pull off a win, they would move into first with a chance to win the division next week. If the Cowboys won, they would clinch the NFC East for the first time since 1998. As it would turn out, the Eagles came into this one ready to play. Just like in weeks past, everyone did their part to help seal an Eagles victory. Backup tight end Matt Schobel caught his first TD of the year to make it a quick 7-0 lead. After an unbelievable goal line stand that brought back memories of the 49ers game and the 4^th and 1 situation with Emmitt Smith almost 10 years ago, Garcia drove the Eagles down the field to make it a 10-0 Eagles score.  Unfortunately this game had one sour note as disgraced former Eagle/public enemy #1 Terrell Owens had a TD pass to cut the score to 10-7. The good news: that’s all Owens would get done. Owens would end up dropping 2 passes, one of which he could have ran for a TD and received a bone crunching hit from Sean Considine. Following that, it was lights out for the Eagles defense. Everyone did their part to hold the lead on defense as sacks were recorded by Darwin Walker and Rod Hood and interceptions were recorded by our pro-bowlers Brian Dawkins and Lito Sheppard. This was a game that many expected the Eagles would not win given that it was Tony Romo at QB for Dallas and not Drew Bledsoe. The father of one of the writers for The Eagle Report was one of a few people that said the Eagles would win this game and his prediction proved accurate. All in all, an outstanding win for the Eagles as they improve to 9-6, make the playoffs, and most importantly irritate the fans of the Dallas Cowboys. It’s Christmas time in Philadelphia and things just got a lot merrier for the New Years Eve game against the Falcons.

 

Post Game Positives

 

Offensive/Defensive Lines

 

The old adage of football being won in the trenches proved true today. The Eagles offensive line continued it’s recent domination helping Jeff Garcia throw for 238 yards and helping Westbrook, Garcia, and Buckhalter run for a total of 204 yards. Everyone on that offensive line has done their part this year and we believe that Jon Runyan has been snubbed for a pro-bowl bid. His play has been absolutely stellar. Shaun Andrews had another good game, using his speed and strength to create holes. On the defensive side, the often criticized line was fantastic today. The Cowboys running attack of Romo-Barber-Jones only ran for 83 yards. Equally impressive was the way they stepped up their play late in the game. Sacks by Darwin Walker and Darren Howard (yes, that Darren Howard) would kill momentum for the Cowboys and pressure from everyone including the oft-criticized Broderick Bunkley helped cause the interceptions by Sheppard and Dawkins. The play of the offensive and defensive lines are the reason the Eagles have turned their season around. The big turning point of this game was the defense’s goal-line stand. Every one of those guys did their part to keep Dallas off the board when they should have had points and it is a huge credit to how hard those guys have worked to help this team win.

 

Running Game

 

In addition to the snub-job given to Jon Runyan in this year’s pro-bowl, an even bigger snub was Brian Westbrook. Westbrook is having arguably the best season of his career as he has developed into the every down back that Eagles fans were hoping he’d be. Westbrook ran for 122 yards today with an average of 4.7 a carry and has really picked up his game since Andy Reid stopped calling the plays. Equally impressive were the legs of Jeff Garcia on 3^rd downs to keep the drives alive and pick up significant yardage in the process. Also contributing was Correll Buckhalter. After a slow start to this year, Buckhalter has come around and has done a phenomenal job filling in for Westbrook when he leaves the game to get a breather. All three of these guys were outstanding today, running for 204 yards and making the Cowboys defense look silly. Lastly, with the Eagles recent resurgence the last few weeks it has finally become apparent what this team is trying to do on offense after it had been a mystery for so long. Instead of relying solely on the big play, the Eagles are now searching to grind down a defense with a steady running attack and using their TEs and WRs to make plays when it is a passing play. This strategy has been dynamite for the Eagles and for their defense. Andy, Marty, Jim and the rest of the Eagles coaches deserve a lot of credit for their new commitment to the run and their development of a new, better approach to games.

 

Teamwork

 

After the injury to McNabb, many believed this team was finished. In fact, one of the things that frightened many an Eagles fan was that following their crushing loss to Tennessee was the belief that the team quit and no one stepped up afterwards. The same was said in the game against Indianapolis. Well since then, every single member of this team has contributed in some way or another; even frequent targets of criticism by The Eagle Report such as Matt Schobel, Michael Lewis, or Dhani Jones. QB Jeff Garcia has his guys on offense playing up to their full potential and with fire in their eyes. On defense, Weapon X Brian Dawkins has them playing high octane, hard hitting football with him of course leading by example. These guys are clearly a united front and everyone is on board with what the team is doing. It almost brings a tear to your eye when you think of the turmoil last year and compare it to what has happened this year. Much credit should be given to Andy Reid. He never let his guys get down and always pushed them and his coaching has paid off. Andy was criticized by many people and even had some calling for his head but he has cast that aside and did a great job coaching this team and building back team chemistry.

 

Post Game Negatives

 

Penalties

 

First and foremost, we believe the first few penalties called against the Eagles (such as the pass interference and illegal contact penalties against LJ Smith) were not very good calls. Regardless, LJ was obviously doing something he wasn’t supposed to if they were called in the first place. The Eagles did a great job controlling false starts, but they did get called for a hands to the face penalty which resulted in 15 free yards for the Cowboys. The penalty was called against Trent Cole who is an outstanding player for the Birds, but seems to have these temporary lapses of judgment from time to time. Regardless, penalties were a bit of a problem for the Eagles tonight and good teams do not have those lapses of judgment or many penalties.

 

Sloppy tackling

 

The Eagles have had an issue with this all season long but they managed to get away with it in this game because of a solid defensive effort by everyone involved as well as excellent playcalling by coordinator Jim Johnson. The Eagles looked just plain sloppy on some of their tackles. One play that came into our minds was when DE Juqua Thomas had what looked like an easy sack on Tony Romo only to have Romo scramble away and pick up a first down that would lead to the only 7 points Dallas would pick up. The Eagles have to improve on their tackling because this sort of thing has haunted them before and could hit them again.

 

Tony Romo and the scrambling QB issue

 

One of the reasons many people believed the Eagles would lose this game besides the media’s love affair with Tony Romo was that Romo was a scrambling QB. The Eagles have had problems with scrambling QBs all year (see Vince Young and David Garrard) and Romo was supposed to be no different. With the exception of the final score, Romo was no different as he was able to scramble for 42 yards throughout the game. The Eagles are lucky they were able to shut down the running game and make the passing game non-existent because the way Romo was able to scramble and avoid the pass rush was very reminiscent of games they lost. With the epitome of scrambling QB coming to the Linc next week in Michael Vick, the Eagles need to figure out what to do in order to keep the QB in the pocket.

 

Closing Remarks

 

It has been kind of a rough winter so far in Philadelphia with the Flyers and the Sixers stinking it up, but the Eagles have made a forgettable month of December a better one and made Christmas of 2006 a day that will live in the memories of Eagles fans for many years to come. There is no better way to celebrate this holiday than spending time with family and watching our beloved Philadelphia Eagles: 1.) beat the hated Cowboys, 2. make the playoffs, and 3. take over 1^st place in the NFC East. This was an all around great team effort that everyone who roots for the Eagles can be proud of and even more so for the countless people who work for the Eagles organization from Jeff Lurie to the players on the field. This game had all the elements of what makes Eagles football great. It had the intensity that the fans expect, it had a goal line stand of impenetrable defense, and it had the team functioning together as a unit, showing some brotherly love, that we come to expect from a team that plays in the great city of Philadelphia. For many fans, the only thing they asked Santa for this year was an Eagles victory in big D to prove all the doubters wrong and propel us into the playoffs in what many considered to be a lost season.  The Eagles’ work is not done as they still have one more game left to play against a scrappy and dangerous Falcons team. However, this game gave us two wins over the hated Cowboys for the year, it showed we can win without Terrell Owens, and most of all it gave all of us Eagles fans something to smile about on Christmas.