All it takes is one play. With 6:53 left in the 4th quarter with the Eagles leading 16-14, Brian Westbrook took a Donovan McNabb screen-pass 71 yards to the house to essentially seal the victory over the Vikings. Whew!! Up until that point, Wetbrook had 16 touches for only 32 yards. The Birds have relied on big plays all season and big plays decided this one.
Asante Samuel returned an interception 44 yards for a score mid-way through the second quarter to give the Eagles a 16-7 lead. It was Samuel’s fourth post-season pick six and is exactly why he was given a $57 million dollar contract back in March. Ironically, Samuel had left the game the previous series after re-aggravating his strained hip.
DeSean Jackson had five punt returns for 105 yards, including a 62 yarder to set-up the Eagles first field goal. Jackson also added one catch for 34 yards, but it was key as it led to a third field goal. He also did an excellent job blocking down-field on Wetbrook’s touchdown.
David Akers had one of the best games of his career. He drilled four field goals of 43, 51, 31 and 45 yards. Since the Birds struggle to score touchdowns, Akers has proven vital to this late season run .
With 2:53 remaining in the game, Juqua Parker recovered a fumble on a bad snap to prevent any sort of comeback rally.
Finally, there was McNabb. He moves to 5-0 in his career vs Minnesota and has never lost an opening round playoff game in his career. With the running game stalled, Donovan needed to be sharp and he was. He finished 23/34 for 300 yards with one TD, one INT and one fumble. Jarred Allen and Brian Robison harassed him all day but he stood tall and threw the Birds to a win.
It was a typical grind it out kind of game. The Eagles allowed 148 yards on the ground, but stuffed Peterson in the second half. They ran 23 times for 67 yards. Not pretty, but credit Andy Reid for not totally abandoning the rush as he’s done in the past. I wanted to see 25 runs, so they were close. Up next, another trip to the Meadowlands to face the well-rested Giants. Should be another classic battle between division rivals who know one another quite well.
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Nice job beating the Vikings! Thank the defense and Akers for that one. Please go and knock off the giants next. I’d love to see both Manning’s gone from the postseason.
Matt – MusketFire
Matt – It won’t be easy, but the Birds will do their best to dispose of the other Manning.
lucky sons of ——- . well, honestly I am mainly a Peterson fan, not necessarily the Vikings, but even still, man! At this point, I do hope they beat the other manning… I will be there and will be sure to <a href=”http://www.ceiva.com/?utm_source=bc”>get pictures</a> of the beating.
man i hate this…..ohhhhh man, but here goes…..i hope you guys kick the shit out of the g-strings. at this point all i can say is your’re the lesser of 2 evils. hahahaha well good luck. i’d rather have donovan in there than that damn little pissant crybaby eli. so tired of his shit anymore. yeah everybody hates on romo, yeah well ok, fine….i’m living with it, but eli????come on even you guys will agree with me on that?
yo dallas dave, are you serious? both eli and rhomo blow but lets be honest rhomo cant carry eli’s jock….im an eagles fan but even i can be objective and see that the guy with the ring on is better than the guy who cant win after dec 1st and chokes on sherbert..
Sorry, dave. I can’t agree with you on this one. I used to despise Eli, but he showed me he was gamer last year. He’s still a Manning so I’m obligated to not like him, but he’s twice the QB Romo is. Not to mention he has nowhere near the talent around him that Romo does.
no i’m not askin anybody to say that romo is better than eli. i’ve got my own thoughts on that and i’ve said it many times before. eli is where he should be. he was drafted as a #1 pick overall. he has the family pedigree and should by all thoughts be a super qb for the worlds largest tv market team. hey everything is right with the world. all i’m tryin to say is really look at what romo has accomplished with where he came from. he was undrafted and was an unknown commodity till an injury to bledsoe brought him out. he nevr started a game till that point. suddenly the kid is the starting qb in one of the most hottest “seats” in the nfl. granted he’s made a lot of mistakes and tries, i believe, to do to much. he’s only been a starter for 2 years. they say it takes 3 years for a good qb to start showing the complete maturity in the nfl. well if you look at it that way, then romo is on corse? next year will tell the tale of the tape. i was trying to say everyone hates on romo, so i live with it. he has to prove evrybody wrong then. i geuss what i was refering to was that i just can’t hear anymore eli this or eli that!!!!! i can’t stand it. as eagle fans you guys probably don’t want to hear any good things about romo either, but do you want anymore from eli too???? thats all i’m sayin. romos done for this year, but eli’s still there, and has to go. do you guys want to hear anymore eli shit???????? and guys really, romos stats compare very well against eli’s. if or when romo does start to settle down and mature, he has the talent around him to succeed well in the nfl. i think eli has had his fair share of talent around him as well. any qb could win with that ground game????? and defense????
let me ask you guys this, if you beat the giants bad, and blow them out, what do you think will be the talk on eli? he’ll have to take the knocks. if you look at the whole picture, the difference between eli and romo is a super bowl ring. stats are the same, talent is pretty even on both sides of the ball, but eli is where he should be, romo came out of no where. so eli should win. and by all belief in the nfl system, then romo should be a failure? well he’s young and lacks experience, but he has guts and a knack to try to make things happen. that can win in the nfl. farve proved that. so farve had 17 years. lets give romo a couple more before we get out the ax. he just needs some time.
Hey, I can’t stand all the Manning shit, be it Eli or Peyton. The NFL and ESPN are in love with these two guys and it pisses me off. I don’t like Eli but I respect what he’s done in a tough place to play. Talent wise – Romo is the better QB, but the guy melts in the face of pressure. You need thick skin to play quarterback in the NFL. The Mannings, Favre, McNabb have it. So far, Romo has shown he doesn’t. I like the fact that you’re sticking by your QB, dave. But he’s running out of chances. I’d give him one more season before sending him to the chopping block, but you have to admit even he is running out of excuses. You win and lose as a team, but the QB is the team leader. After reading Romo’s comments the last couple seasons, I don’t think he’s taking enough responsibilty for his poor play and decision-making. Bottom line: Romo needs to grow the hell up and start playing like a man. Whether you like Eli or not, he grew up last year.
you dumb ass eagle fans should realize that that your garbage team isnt going to come into giants stadium and defeat the reigning champs
you are 100% right. and i agree. this will be his 3 year challenge. we saw the same thing with a lot of qbs that have gone before him. so shall we see with romo. if the cowboys fail to make it any farther down the road than they did this year, i could see jerry cleaning house with the whole offensive package. wade, garrett, romo, owens, and keeping the rest to start over with? and probably justified. but that you said grow the hell up and play like a man? how do you become a man? by learning from the mistakes you make in life and not making them again. that is what tony is a kid, but has made the mistakes and now can learn from them. roger staubach our great qb once said, “for every great play i’ve made in my carreer, there have been 3 mistakes first. if you get a first down on 4th and 1, what happened on your first 3 downs. if you gotta win the game in a forth quarter come back, what happened the first 3 quarters to get you to that point?”
Thanks for the input, Beau, but we have a minimum IQ requirement to post here and you don’t meet it.
davedallasfan – This is pathetic catching you like this. I haven’t seen you at G-Men HQ since oh… before the Ravens game running your mouth. You came to my house and choked on everything you said. I’m not reading all this drivel, a few lines shows how pathetic you are.
Sorry to interrupt Eagles fans, but dave sort of ran off before I had a chance to say bye.