PREFERS TEMPLE'S OFFENSE TO PRINCETON'S
TALKING POINTS
What we're talking about on the morning after the Eagles' win over the Giants:
1. The running fullback. With Brian Westbrook out with a concussion, Andy Reid decided to give some ball-carrying work to fullback Leonard Weaver. Weaver, who had just four carries in the first six games, had 8 Sunday for a career-high 75 yards, including a 41-yard touchdown run on the Eagles’ first possession.
2. Big-play Eagles. Who needs sustained drives. None of the Eagles’ five touchdown drives against the Giants were longer than 4 plays. They scored three of their TDs on 40-plus yard plays. Just 3 of their 20 TD drives this season have been longer than 6 plays.
3. The opportunistic defense. The defense had 3 more takeaways Sunday, which were converted into 17 of the Eagles’ 40 points. They have a league-high 21 takeaways and a plus-13 turnover differential in their first 7 games.
4. Return of the good Donnie. After two poor games, McNabb snapped out of his funk and turned in the best performance of his career against the Giants. He threw 3 TDs, averaged more than 10 yards per attempt and had a 146.7 passer rating.
5. Two down, one to go. Three division games in three weeks looked like a daunting challenge after last month’s ugly loss to the Raiders. But the Eagles beat the Redskins and took out the Giants and can go 3-0 in the division if they beat the Cowboys Sunday night at the Linc.
5 NUMBERS TO PONDER
1. Of the Eagles’ 20 touchdown drives this season, just 3 have been longer than 6 plays. They had 5 TD drives Sunday. The longest one was 4 plays. Two were 3 plays, one was 2 plays and another was one play.
2. Donovan McNabb has thrown just 2 interceptions in his last 10 regular-season games (304 attempts). He thrown just 1 pick in 133 attempts this season.
3. Since 2005, the Eagles are just 11-15 against NFC East teams.
4. In their last 5 games, the Eagles have run the ball 54 times and passed it 85 times in the first half, and run it 59 times and passed it 70 in the second half.
5. The Eagles, who had converted just 1 of 22 third-down opportunities of 10 yards or more in their first 6 games, converted 3 of 4 against the Giants. They were 2-for-2 on third downs of 2 yards or less. For the season, they are 12-for-15 on third downs or 2 yards or less.
UP NEXT
The Dallas Cowboys visit the Linc for a showdown on Sunday night football. The Cowboys are also enjoying a resurgence after some early season struggles. And last season's 44-6 loss to the Eagles in the regular-season finale is already being talked about in Texas. "Trust me, that 44-6 game is going to be in our heads," wide receiver Patrick Crayton said.
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
