THINKS THE EAGLES STOLE ONE
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.
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.
