SCORES TWICE AFTER A PUCK TO THE FACE
Our report card on the Eagles' win over the Giants:
RUSHING OFFENSE
Amazingly, the pass-happy Eagles did the smart thing on a windy day and ran the ball. Ran it a season-high 41 times. Gave it to Brian Westbrook a career-high 33 times. Only averaged 3.5 yards per carry, but controlled the ball, particularly in the second half, when they had for 20 1/2 minutes Grade: A-minus
PASSING OFFENSE
Donovan McNabb completed 19 of 30 passes, including 12 to Brian Westbrook and L.J . Smith. Didn’t throw an interception for the second straight game. Westbrook’s 72 receiving yards were a season high. So were Smith’s six receptions. Grade: B-plus
RUN DEFENSE
A month ago, Brandon Jacobs and the Giants steamrolled the Eagles for 219 rushing yards. In Sunday’s rematch, the Eagles held them to 88 yards on 24 carries. Giants had just 2 runs of 10 yards or more. Grade: B-plus
PASS DEFENSE
With no Plaxico Burress to worry about and a little assist from the wind, the Eagles held Eli Manning to seven completions in 21 attempts in the first three quarters. Safeties and linebackers did an excellent job on tight end Kevin Boss, holding him to one catch for 5 yards. Grade: A
SPECIAL TEAMS
David Akers, who entered the game just 9-for-18 in his career at the Meadowlands had a near-disastrous day. He had two field goal attempts blocked, including one that was returned for a touchdown at the end of the first half. Grade: D
OVERALL
So much for the belief that the Giants were unbeatable. The Eagles’ offensive and defensive lines both won the trench battles. In man-bites-dog news, Andy Reid ran the ball a season-high 41 times. Grade: A
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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