What happened?
Down 24-20 in the fourth quarter, Michael Vick guided the Eagles to two scoring drives, putting the Eagles at 8-4 and keeping them in first place in t he NFC East.
The Good:
Michael Vick had another solid game, going 22 of 33 for 302 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. He also ran the ball 10 times for 48 yards and a touchdown.
LeSean McCoy couldn't do much on the ground, but he was great catching the ball. McCoy ran the ball 12 times for 44 yards and a touchdown while catching eight passes for 86 yards and another touchdown.
DeSean Jackson only had three catches, but they went for 84 yards.
Brent Celek caught four passes for 55 yards and had a huge play on third down and 19 that allowed the Eagles to score a touchdown and put the game away in the fourth quarter.
Trevor Laws had his first career interception late in the second quarter, picking off Matt Schaub on a screen pass to set up a field goal.
David Akers kicked two field goals and four extra points.
The Bad:
Sav Rocca had three punts in the game, and averaged just 35.7 yards on them.
Andre Johnson had 149 yards receiving.
Adrian Foster didn't get to 100 yards on the ground, but he got close. He also scored twice, including a catch where he ran over Nate Allen at the three yard line.
Jason Avant had just one catch for four yards.
The Ugly:
The Eagles had 11 penalties called against them for 85 yards.
Houston made it inside the red zone three times, and scored all three times.
After taking over 12 minutes off the clock in the first and the start of the second quarter, the Eagles only had the ball for another 19 minutes.
The Breakdown:
This was a game that both teams needed to win, and while the Eagles almost let things slip away from them, in the end, they managed their fourth win since the bye and kept their first place lead in the NFC East over the New York Giants.
It wasn't as easy as a lot of people thought it was going to be, though. On their first two drives, the Eagles cut through the Houston defense, with Michael Vick once again doing most of the damage. His first pass of the game was a 30 completion to DeSean Jackson, and LeSean McCoy scored on each of the first two drives. After that, the first half once again boiled down to a few simple facts, though. The Eagles can't stop teams in the red zone, and there are times when this team just can not score when they get inside the 20 yard line. The three times that the Texans had the ball in the red zone, they found the end zone, including twice in the third quarter to put Houston on top for the first time. Meanwhile, the Eagles, who had gone 2-10 in their last two games inside the 20, scored on their first two drives in the red zone, but then had the same issues that they had faced against the Bears and Giants. While those two teams are solid on defense, Houston is anything but.
The biggest issue on Thursday night were the two dropped passes inside the red zone. Both Jason Avant and Brent Celek dropped what should have been touchdown passes from Michael Vick, and the two drives ended with field goals instead of touchdowns. Even though the Eagles won on Thursday, that can be a big deal, especially against a team with a better defense. Against the Bears, the Eagles had their chances, but couldn't get the job done. The same could be said against the Giants, despite Philadelphia winning that game. The Eagles got lucky against Houston, in that the Texans ended up not being able to stop the Eagles in the fourth quarter. Michael Vick did what he had to do, and the Eagles came away with a win. That doesn't mean that it was as good as it could have been, though.
Michael Vick took a lot of hits against the Texans, and was slow in getting up on a few of them as well. Vick took a nasty shot in the second quarter and didn't run as well after that. The biggest issue is the offensive line for this team. If they can't keep Vick from getting hit, he's going to get hurt. To make matters even worse, Winston Justice left the game with an apparent knee injury. King Dunlap is ok, but he's still King Dunlap. Winston Justice at least has started and knows the system better than Dunlap does. Considering Vick has been sacked eight times in the last three games, and he's one of the most elusive quarterbacks in the NFL, that doesn't bode well for this offensive line. Vick has to stay healthy to lead the offense, and all it's going to take is one good hit for him to be knocked out for the year.
Then, there's the defense. The Eagles held the Texans to just 10 points in the first half, but in the third quarter, they gave way to Adrian Foster and Andre Johnson. The two headed attack for the Texans recorded two touchdowns in the quarter, and Foster made Nate Allen look like a rookie when he ran him over on a touchdown run. The Achilles heel for the Eagles this year has been their defense in the red zone, and Thursday was no exception. All three times that Houston got the ball inside the 20, they scored a touchdown. It's not because the Eagles aren't talented on defense, or that Asante Samuel is out. There is something missing from this team that keeps them from having a killer instinct when the opponent gets close to the end zone. It's not good, no matter what it is.
Regardless of how the first three quarters went, the Eagles pulled out a comeback win in the last 15 minutes. Michael Vick ran for a touchdown to give the Eagles the lead, then found Owen Schmitt on the same play that LeSean McCoy scored on in the first quarter to finish things off. McCoy had another solid receiving day, even if the Eagles still refuse to give him the ball on the ground, while Brent Celek had the play of the game on a third and 19. While he was being tackled, Celek rolled over on the defensive player and stretched the football out. The ball just broke the plane, and the Eagles recorded a first down. Later on the drive, the Eagles scored, and that was all she wrote for the game. Without Celek making the same type of play he's made throughout his career, who knows how this game ends?
With four games left, the Eagles are sitting at 8-4, but these last four games are going to be tough. The Eagles play Dallas twice, the Giants in New Jersey and the Vikings in what could be Brett Favre's 300th straight start. The Cowboys and Vikings are playing spoiler, and the Giants are playing for the division. The Eagles need to take at least three out of these four games to ensure a playoff spot. Sweeping them and finishing 12-4 would be even better. Next up is the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday Night Football. Let's see what the Eagles can do once again in prime time.
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