Wrap Up
In the most anticipated game of the year, this game
more than lived up to its hype. There were a lot of things going against the
Eagles in this one. They were 0-7 in division games, Terrell Owens was coming
to town with the hated Dallas Cowboys, the media circus was blowing things up
all week, the Cowboys and Eagles at the Linc was sure
to be a good game and it certainly was right from the get-go. The opening drive
had a raucous crowd in
Post game Positives
Donovan McNabb
In a game where he had a ton
of pressure on him, Donovan more than handled it. He thrived off it. Donovan
would go 18-33 for 354 yards and 2 TDs with 0INTs
once again. As we all know, McNabb was a constant target of Terrell Owens last
year and this was a big game for McNabb. Not only to prove Owens
wrong, but all his critics wrong as well. McNabb more than made up for
the Eagles lack of a running game (52 yards total) with his unbelievable
performance. McNabb did what he usually does and spread the ball around
magnificently and the Cowboys had no idea what to do about it. This was a masterful
performance by McNabb as he gave the great crowd at the Linc
something to smile about for a long time as well as head coach
Andy Reid, who said following the game, “I might be the happiest chubby man in
Wide Receivers
T.O. Who? The Eagles proved once again they don’t need
Terrell Owens in what was a remarkable day by their wide receivers. Many of the
“experts” said before this game that the Eagles would suffer without Donte Stallworth or a healthy
Westbrook; since the Cowboys have such a good secondary. Stallworth
was out and Westbrook was pretty much a non-factor, but that was all okay. In
the end, rookie Hank Baskett had the best game of his
young career with 112 yards and a TD. Reggie Brown also got in on the fun with
79 yards receiving and 1 TD. These receivers are making a lot of people put
their collective foots in their mouths. While Terry Glenn and Terrell Owens struggled
all day to create offense, Baskett and Brown more
than produced for the Eagles.
Defense (Secondary and D-Line)
Darren Howard was an
unstoppable force today. Plain and simple, the Eagles do not win this game
without the outstanding effort from Darren Howard. Howard was in Bledsoe’s face
all day, registering 2 sacks forcing him to make errant throws that would lead
to interceptions, and had an extremely impressive day. Also impressive was the
play of Darwin Walker who got 3 sacks (Thomas and Cole also had sacks). Before
the game, Drew Bledsoe had dared the Eagles to blitz him because he had faith
his ability to get the ball out. The Eagles blitzed and blitzed often and
forced Bledsoe to make many a bad throw. Not to be overlooked is the much
maligned secondary. They got more scrutiny than anyone else this past week, but
they proved up to the task controlling the Cowboys passing attack all day.
Sheldon Brown did a fantastic job covering Owens, the “75% healthy” Lito Sheppard had two interceptions in his first game back
from injury, Dawkins had an interception, and even Joselio
Hanson was making plays. This game just proves how good pressure can help the
secondary make plays and that definitely happened today. Coordinator Jim
Johnson deserves all the credit in the world for his masterful game plan this
week. He did a magnificent job.
Post Game Negatives
Dhani Jones
The linebackers as a whole played
very well. Trotter made his presence felt, Shaun Barber was all over the place
making plays and tackles, and Matt McCoy looked good prior to his injury. There
was one Eagle linebacker who played awful and that was Dhani
Jones. Dhani was dealt with the unenviable task of
covering TE Jason Witten. Although Witten didn’t have a monumental game,
Jones did a lousy job covering him getting fooled on play-action several times.
He also was largely to blame for what were some pretty good runs by RB Julius
Jones by missing tackles. Dhani
Jones is a huge weak spot on this linebacker corps as he appears slow and
easily fooled. Dhani needs to figure out what
is going on because he will be exploited all season if he doesn’t.
Running Game
Even though Westbrook was
hurt, that’s no excuse for what was a pitiful running attack. The Eagles had
only 54 yards on the ground, although one run in particular by Correll Buckhalter was very
important in keeping the clock moving. The Eagles running game has been Jekyll
and Hyde recently. After looking good the first few weeks, it has suddenly
started to crumble a little bit. The offensive line has done a fine job, the running backs just aren’t getting to the holes fast
enough. It is a positive aspect the Eagles still won despite a lousy running
game, but running the ball and opening up the pass is so important for an offense
to be productive. Hopefully the Eagles can bring back their running
game in the future.
Kickoff coverage
This is not really a huge
area of concern, but the Eagles did allow a few nice runbacks by the
Closing Remarks
All week the Eagles said they were not going to focus
on Terrell Owens and rather the Cowboys as a whole. They were true to their
word as no Cowboys player was truly able to do anything productive. Notorious
Eagle killer Roy Williams was beaten twice by Baskett
and Brown, and the Eagles have got to be swelling with confidence following
this game. The important thing for the Eagles to do is not get complacent or
cocky. They have been working so hard this year and their hard work has been
rewarded thus far. Andy Reid is a great coach who knows that anything can
happen any Sunday so taking it one game at a time. The Eagles will travel into
an incredible atmosphere next Sunday at