Let’s make that 9 playoffs victories for the Eagles this decade, and 9 since the Cowboys last won 1.
The Eagles handled the Vikings 26-14 in a season where, on Thanksgiving, a playoff win seemed like an impossibility. The game wasn’t perfect, a far cry from the Dallas dismantling last weekend, but I was never really concerned about the outcome of the game.
Let’s get some talking points going about what I saw from the game…
The Good
- Containing Adrian Peterson. Take away the one 40-yard hiccup, the defense held Adrian Peterson to 43 yards on 19 carries (2.3 yards per carry). We wanted to make Tarvaris Jackson beat us, and we did, and he couldn’t.
- Asante Samuel’s TD. With his Pro Bowl berth, you can’t really label Asante Samuel a disappointment this year, but he has dropped several sure interceptions during the season. However, his game changing pick-6 made up for all that.
- Chris Clemons. Followed up his TD against Dallas with a total body slam of QB Tavaris Jackson on Samuel’s TD.
- DeSean Jackson and Kevin Curtis. Their excellent downfield blocking sprung Brian Westbrook for the game-clinching score. Jackson also gets some props for several excellent punt returns.
- Trent Cole. 14 tackles? For a DE? I guess it helps when the other team runs a lot, but for someone who wasn’t mentioned by the announcers once during the game, he was all over the place.
- The utterly insane Brian Dawkins. Dawkins might go down as the most popular Eagle in history. He nearly killed Adrian Peterson, and left several other Vikings players seeing stars.
- McNabb. He wasn’t spectacular, but he did enough (23 for 34, 30o yards) to win the game and didn’t do anything to lose it. Had several big throws on 3rd down and a beautiful deep ball to DeSean Jackson. McNabb is now 6-0 in the first playoff game. The Eagles have never been one-and-out with him at the helm.
- Andy Reid. He ran the ball enough, and kept throwing runs in there even though it wasn’t all that successful (more below). Also, I think he has the best playoff beard.
- David Akers. Looked like he might be on the downturn last year. After setting a new Eagles FG record in the regular season, and kicking 4 FGs straight down the middle that would have been good from 60 yards, it appears the downfall of Akers has been wildly exaggerated.
- Sav Rocca’s return. Rocca had been struggling as of late, but got off a lot of good punts in a field position battle.
The Bad
- Offensive Line. The Vikings D-Line was all over McNabb in the first half, and the running game, though given a chance, was not working with Brian Westbrook running at a 1.9 ypc rate. There were also several plays where a lineman ran untouched to the QB. This is not going to cut it against the stellar Giants D-Line next week.
- McNabb’s Grip on the Ball. He’s GOT to figure out how to hold the ball stronger, he’s way too easy to strip.
- Hank Baskett. Got his first catch since the Monday night game against the Browns. Probably distracted by being engaged to Kendra Wilkinson, but it would be nice for him to show up again.
- The lack of carries for Correll Buckhalter. Again. I feel like a broken record here, but every time Correll Buckhalter gets carries, good things happen. Westbrook is clearly still not 100%, and Buckhalter is fresh and running well. 2 carries, 27 yards today. Got to get him involved more.
- McNabb’s Agent. For responding to Lurie’s comments about wanting McNabb back by saying that they would need to talk about his benching and perhaps renegotiate his contract before they can talk about him playing in 2009. Give me a break.
So, what did you guys see in the game? And what do you think we have to do to be able to beat the Giants next week?
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“but for someone who wasn’t mentioned by the announcers once during the game”
Is there any good reason to listen to Aikman and Buck rather than Reese and Quick?
Good breakdown, though. I keep waiting for something to go horribly wrong with this team, but they keep stretching their season along.
boomdizzle-
Let’s not forget about the dome effect. Hopefully Akers and Rocca will play just as well at the windy Meadowlands.
Also, I’m thinking our offensive line bounces back with a strong game. Vikings run defense no joke!
I think there used to be a delay but I was told that people were complaining and they ended up switching it to be broadcast without the delay.
I’m usually away at college so I don’t know how it used to work or when the change happened, but I do know that we listened to the radio broadcast the last two weeks and it was right in sync with the action. Try it out next week if you can.
I dont know about you guys but for the first time in years against Dallas we turned on Reese and Quick just to prove a point to one of our friends and we were like “what when did the Voice of Eagles link up to the HD broad cast”. So I don’t know why it works on some areas perfectly and not in others, but I was in Philly and it worked out dead on for the last two weeks. It makes the games so much better then listening to the junk that the other hosts put out there.
I think that our O-line did pretty well against a very good D-line. A lot of those hits on McNabb came from linebackers and other blitzing players that should have been picked up by our RB or TE’s. As soon as our TE and RB were helping out Tra with J Allen he did not get the same attack at McNabb.
With Hank Baskett, is he still hurt? I didn’t think he was even supposed to dress for this game, so I was surprised to see him even out there. It could be why we are not seeing him as much. Hopefully Kendra fixes him up and gets him back to game speed. Even though Brown had a good game, I like the rotation of Jackson, Baskett and Curtis the best with Avant sneaking in for over the middle. Either way I cant believe we are about to play the Giants in the second round of the playoffs, unreal.
boomdizzle – it started when Justin Timberlake took off Janet Jackson’s top. People freaked out and they put a delay on. I haven’t tried to listen to Merrill this year….so maybe they went back.
gcl – maybe Baskett is banged up. He only missed one game though. Avant had a couple huge 3rd down catches. he’s a solid player.
one BIG thing I forgot in the bad section was FINISHING DRIVES! Akers was good, but we will have to capitalize on opportunities against the G-men.
94.1 WYSP (Reese and Quick) are now in sync with Comcast cable. WYSP has been promoting that recently. Verison customers such as myself do not have the luxury and the radio is ahead of the tv so there is no quick fix.
The Eagles played well, but I am concerned with the offense sputtering at times. This will not be good against a stellar Giants team who has had an extra week off to prepare/heal. We need to capitalize and score a TD anytime we get in the red zone and 100% of the time within the 10 yard line.
I was disgusted with the play calling of Reid on the 3rd and 1 from about the 8. Why not run or short pass to get the first and goal there? They cannot make play calls like that in a game in which every point is crucial and touchdowns will not be easy to come by. Let’s hope Reid knows this Giants defense well enough (3rd game this year and Spags at the helm) that he can call the right plays in the right situations. And for god sakes, give Buckhalter the ball!!!
Pete, are you purposefully misspelling “Tarvaris” because he stinks so badly?
Don’t start doing that, I can only take so many more “Brett Meyers” on here
sorry, spell check didn’t really pick up “Tavaris.” Was just a typo that I didn’t catch in the re-read. No disrespect meant.
does WIP sync up with HD, or regular-D? Cause HD is usually on a delay of it’s own.
Great piece, Pete. However, I have to take issue with the popular view, stated here and in other media, that McNabb’s performance was less than spectacular. His completion rate was 68% and he logged 300 yards. The interception was relatively painless and was thrown on a late shot at the endzone in the first half. Although they couldn’t finish several drives with better than a field goal, McNabb did engineer two HUGE, field-position changing drives that started inside their own five yard line. Those two drives likely saved at least three Viking points–if not much more.
The bottom line is that a playoff win on the road is spectacular in its own right. The Eagles are fortunate to have a tested and seasoned QB. The Vikings aren’t. That was the biggest difference in the game.
Pretty sure that Baskett missed both games after the Monday nighter. So this was his 1st game back, and did not look too healthy.
This win makes up for the bad news of the Rays signing Pat the Bat. Hopefully we can pull an upset next week. Our defense just has to continue to bring the house for all 4 quarters.
J Dubbz, I agree we need TDs not FG. We will not beat the Giants kicking field goals or field goal attempts. The meadowlands plays games with kickers all day long, those 40 yarders are not the same as within a dome. It could be very cold and windy by game day greatly reducing the effectiveness of our punts and kicks. We need to punish the Giants when we get good field position. A 60 yard punt return needs to turn into 7 points not a 3 point field goal.
We need Baskett to be healthy for this game. He has played well this season and he and Avant have been very good at catching tuff balls to convert for first downs.
Buck tends to have great games against the Giants. Is this the game he finally recieves more playing time. He gets one rush for 20 yards and then a no show for the rest of the game. I know B-west is the man, but Buck should really get his chances. Even with MIN, C Taylor was used effectively with A Petterson, why cant we do the same. Sproules destroyed the Colts. You know the Giants will use all three of their RBs. Most teams are effective with a two back system but I feel we never use a resource like Buck.
Great game and I can’t wait for the Vagiants. On a side note about McNabb’s agent’s comment…did anyone else see the clip on ESPN with McNabb talking about getting through the “storm”? I think he’s a great QB and I hope he is here for the next 2 years but I am tired of his persecution complex. He needs to stop reading the papers and just play football.
Drew-
The problem McNabb has, is either way, he can’t win. For years, he stayed away fromt he media and was seen as a company man. The media and fan base lambasted him for never speaking his mind. Now, when he decided to speak his mind, the media and fan base jump on him for that. That being said, his recent comments are probably a bit over the top and come across as sour grapes. He has always had a chip on his shoulder and I am fine with that.
First you have to redo McNabb’s stats. He shouldn’t get credit for Westbrook’s 1 yard catch and 70 yard scramble. Which by the way my MAN Nick Cole hit 3 different Vikings downfield on that run, and was running into the end zone. That big man can move and hit, I’d love to see him in short yardage situations as a full back.
Anyway anytime you get a 340 pound offensive lineman hitting 3 people to the ground VERY good things are going to happen, even if I’m running the ball.
So put McNabb as 200 yards passing and no TD and one INT and one fumble, 67% completion. Not a great day and would it kill him to run for 20 yards a game? All in all not enough to beat the Giants.
Oh and if we continue to throw on 3rd and 1? I”m gonna hurl
If you put him at 200 yards, you are taking away that 70 yards and 30 extra. In addition, you are making the faulty assumption that the drive would have ended right then and there. Who is to say McNabb would not have picked up an additional 40 yards through the air if that screen was stopped for a 5 yard gain? Not to mention, it was not an easy throw with the traffic he had to throw through. He played a very solid game and made key throws that led the Eagles out of terrible field position. Those throws out of the end zone on third down likely saved the team 3 points if not more.
If Kevin Kolb had made every throw McNabb made on Sunday, he would have been annointed the savior of our team and the next great QB by all the McNabb haters.
100% agree, McNabb has always been, and probably always will be, held to an unattainable standard.
Great point Pete. That game was a so-so game for McNabb, because he can do much better if he
1) doesn’t throw on 3rd and 1
and
2) scrambles for 15-20 yards per game
that said if Kolb could consistantly repeat even a mediocre McNabb performance, he’d be a better QB than at least 10-15 other QB’s in the game, and sadly yes, he’d be loved by some here in Philly who never embraced #5
but I seriously doubt Kolb could perform at even a so-so McNabb level and really doubt he can equal the greatness of McNabb’s excellent games
what do we all figure for Sunday’s game? Giants by all rights ought to win the game, but I like the Birds in a close game