What happened?
The Eagles jumped on the Giants early, putting up 30 points in the first half before putting it into cruise control in a dominating win over New York.
The Good:
Donovan McNabb was on point for the entire game, going 17/23 for 240 yards and three touchdowns, with most of that coming in the first half.
LeSean McCoy made the most of his start in place of Brian Westbrook today, rushing for 82 yards on 11 carries, including a 66 yard backbreaking touchdown early in fourth quarter.
Leonard Weaver got a chance to carry the ball today and did well, carrying it eight times for 75 yards and a touchdown.
The receivers as a group were excellent, with DeSean Jackson, Brent Celek and Jeremy Maclin all scoring touchdowns.
The defense was great, putting pressure on Eli Manning all day long and forcing three turnovers. Asante Samuel and Quintin Demps had interceptions, and Moise Fokou recovering a fumble.
The Bad:
Jason Babin played well, picking up three tackles and a sack, but he did muff a kickoff in the third quarter that gave the Giants a little bit of hope.
The Eagles lost the time of possession battle by over ten minutes.
The Ugly:
Nothing was ugly this week. It's always nice to beat up on the Giants.
The Breakdown:
After winning, but looking flat on Monday night against the Redskins, the Eagles came out today and looked like one of the best teams in the NFC as they absolutely smoked the New York Giants in a convincing 40-17 win. The tone of the game was set early, as Leonard Weaver took the third play of the game 41 yards for a touchdown, and the Eagles never looked back. Philadelphia would score on five of their six first half possessions, with the only blemish being a blocked extra point on the second touchdown of the game.
Every time the Giants looked like they were going to get back into the game, the Eagles came back out with an answer. In the second quarter, New York cut the lead to 16-7 with a late touchdown pass from Eli Manning to Kevin Boss. The Eagles responded with a great kick return by Ellis Hobbs, and then Donovan McNabb needed just one play to hit DeSean Jackson with a 54 yard touchdown strike. On the next New York drive, Eli Manning was intercepted by Quintin Demps, and this time McNabb needed just two plays to pass 43 yards, including a 23 yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin. Just like that, a close 16-7 game had become a 30-7 blowout, and the Giants had lost all of their momentum.
New York did make it a little closer in the third quarter, as they put ten points on the board within six and a half minutes to cut the lead to 33-17. While some people may have had thoughts of the 2006 collapse, this Philadelphia team squashed any notions of that, as LeSean McCoy broke a 66 yard touchdown run off on the next Eagle drive that would finish the scoring and put any thought of losing this game to bed. This Philadelphia team has exceptional quick strike ability, and they showed that off today, with touchdowns of 41, 54 and 66 yards during the game. The only issue I have with the offense this week is that they don't seem like a ball control type of offense, and while they have the ability to score on any single play, there are going to be times when they are going to need to hold onto the ball for long periods of time. I still don't know if they can do that.
You can't give the defense enough credit for how well they played today. Eli Manning never looked comfortable, and threw two costly interceptions for the Giants. The Eagles only sacked Manning twice, but they had pressure on him for most of the game. Not only that, but they contained Brandon Jacobs for most of the game as well. Jacobs finished with 86 yards on 20 carries, while Ahmad Bradshaw had just 21 yards on nine carries. Jacobs never looked like he could get into a zone all day, and had very few plays where we was actually able to run downhill, which is how he gets most of his yards. The only problem the Eagles had on defense today was when it came to covering Kevin Boss, the New York tight end. That's been a problem all year for Philadelphia, as they just can't seem to get the right matchup against any opposing tight end. Five times this year, the opposing tight end has been able to break through the Eagles' defense for a big game, and that has to be fixed, especially with some of the tight ends that are left on the schedule later on this season.
There are very few things in the NFL that make me smile more than the Eagles blowing out the Giants. Today, the Eagles did just that, scoring almost at will and keeping the New York offense off balance for the entire game. For this week, at least, there should be little to complain about for how the Eagles played. Donovan McNabb looked sharp, and even without Brian Westbrook in the game, Leonard Weaver and LeSean McCoy did just fine in his place. The remaining schedule for the Eagles is not going to get any easier, and they play Dallas next week. Hopefully, they can make it through this three game NFC East stretch at 3-0 and in first place. That would be ideal.
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