SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
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.
E-mail Les at bowenl@phillynews.com
and follow
him on Twitter.
Paul
Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982.
He has spent most of his nearly 3 decades with 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 started his career in Texas,
working first for the Midland Reporter-Telegram (1976-78), and then for
the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas
Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually was
boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose 2 sports coats to
blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley,
a University of Oklahoma grad who still hasn’t gotten over
that Fiesta Bowl loss to Boise State 5 years ago, have 2 terrific
daughters -- Allison, 28, who is an attorney in South Jersey, and Amy,
25, who works in administration for a professional baseball team.
E-mail Domo at PDomo@aol.com and follow
him on Twitter.
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