Eagles escape for sixth straight win
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Eagles escape for sixth straight win
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
It was a tale of two halves for the Eagles, but in the end, they escaped with a sixth straight victory, beating the Broncos, 30-27, at Lincoln Financial Field.
After a nearly flawless first half offensively, Donovan McNabb and company sputtered in the second half.
But after getting great field position at the Denver 42 yard line with 1:41 left, McNabb hit Jeremy Maclin for a huge 27-yard completion, which proved to be the difference. The play was initially ruled incomplete, but the officials reviewed it and overturned the call, giving the Eagles the ball at the Denver 13 yard line.
After three straight runs, David Akers hit a 28-yard field goal to give the Birds the win.
The Eagles are now 11-4 and will remain in first place in the NFC East for another week.
If the Cowboys lose tonight to the Redskins, the Birds clinch the division.
If Dallas is victorious, next weekend's matchup between the two teams will be for the NFC East.
Notes:
** McNabb completed 15 of 19 attempts for 242 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the first half. In the second half, he completed just five of 16 for 80 yards.
** Brent Celek had four catches for 121 yards in the first half, but didn't have a single reception in the second.
** DeSean Jackson had a touchdown early but finished with four catches for 33 yards, his lowest total since Week 9.
** The Eagles gave up four sacks and had three turnovers.
** A day to forget for Macho Harris. He was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Asante Samuel interception in the second half and fumbled a pair of kickoff returns, one which was recovered by the Broncos. Harris and Sean Jones rotated at safety opposite Quintin Mikell.
** Not Brian Dawkins. Not Correll Buckhalter. But it was ex-Eagle Jabar Gaffney who killed the Birds, with seven catches for 69 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
** Ok, so Dawkins wasn't so bad either. He led all players with eight tackles. Dawkins did not warm up on the field with the rest of his teammates, but instead first appeared during pre-game introductions.
** Buckhalter had five carries for 42 yards.
** With the Colts losing today, it looks even more likely that the Eagles-Cowboys game next week will move to Sunday night.
** If the Vikings lose Monday night, the Eagles overtake the No. 2 seed going into Week 17. That would mean a first-round bye and a home game in the divisional round.
sorry sheil, that was a lame unnecessary roughness call on harris. the ball was intercepted. that's a block...and a clean one!— mosquito killer- No. It was a penalty. Its been called a penalty all year since they changed the rules to make hits like that illegal.— mawst95
- i want the eags to play for it all in dallas next week.— starbird
- Why is it the Eagles ( Andy Reid) will never even try to control the line of scrimmage with a power running attack ?? I'll take the win ,but when your getting beat in pass protect isn't it time to run the ball out of a power formation ? Or do the Eagles even have that in their playbook ??— MJPD345
- blocking is illegal? if the player doesn't look who's coming at him, it's illegal? no f--ing way!— mosquito killer
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- Whatever Andy said to the Eagles at halftime should be never said again!!— NCTony
- It was an easy call on that penalty. They've been throwing flags at hits on defenseless players for two years now, and it's only going to get worse with the concern over concussions.— SteveMG
- The NFL refs sucked all year. Thank God they were consistant with that feet in bounds call. Could be they were just trying to make up for the 50 bad calls they made against the Eagles all year.— RichieAllen64
Great to see an Eagles WIN...BEAT those cowgirls...johnnyu
The zebras left way too heavy an imprint on this game. Somebody needs to remind them the game is about the players, and they don't need to hold so many 15-min conferences.
It was called a penalty - a wussy call by the ref - but a penalty because Macho left his feet. The NFL is slowly becoming a flag football league. THEY WEAR SHOULDER PADS, NOT MAXI PADS!!!!. The commissioner and all those lame non-athletes who never played football should go back to their bedrooms and let real men run this league.— Justicek- Okay I will start it. Hi I am grampa something or another and lonely wolf. Boy Mcstink almost blew that game with his bad defense and poor ball handling on those kickoffs.— funsoaz
- The Eagles cannot put two good halves of football together. Some of Donovan's throws in the 2nd half were a joke. Other teams make adjustments at halftime and Andy is consistently outcoached. It's going to be another frustrating playoffs. But, at least we're in.— fammarlin
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