Eagles corral the Colts
Eagles 26, Colts 24
Eagles corral the Colts
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
They all mean the same thing, these NFL games. It says so in the standings every day. A win is a win, a loss is a loss, a tie is a tie, and all had better be forgotten in time for the next weekend. It is the way of their world.
But that is in the accounting sense. In the cosmic sense, some of these games do mean more than others. Count this one among them: Eagles 26, Colts 24.
What the Eagles have done is identify themselves as a contender with this win. With a 5-3 record now, two of the Eagles’ wins are against the handful of teams in the two conference’s higher echelons (Indianapolis and Atlanta). And coming as this one did, after a game at Tennessee that they absolutely gave away, marks this Eagles teams as both pretty good now and also as pretty resilient. Those are two good things to be.
Playing in his first game back from what he now has described to CBS as three broken ribs, Michael Vick was dynamic again, with 218 yards passing and 75 yards rushing. On the first play of the game, Shady McCoy had a 62-yard run on the first play of the game that announced to the world that this day might be different. And wide receiver DeSean Jackson showed no signs of the concussion he suffered 3 weeks ago, with seven catches for 109 yards and a touchdown.
Still, it was the Eagles’ defense that will walk away from this game with the greatest psychic benefits. First, they pressured and bottled up Colts quarterback Peyton Manning, who had tortured the Eagles in three previous career games. Even more important, in some ways, they played a calm, buttoned-up, non-panicky game after their collapse against Tennessee -- even when presented with all manner of obstacles, including a couple of key penalties with which they angrily disagreed.
The end was messy, to say the least. The Colts scored with 1:50 remaining to bring them to within 26-24 -- on a drive that continued only because Trent Cole was called for an inadvertent love tap to the back of Manning’s helmet as he was in the process of stripping him of the ball.
After the Colts kicked off, an 11-yard end around to Jackson got the Eagles a first down. Then another end around to Jackson got them 6 more yards. And with the Colts calling their timeouts, and the Eagles needing one more first down to ice the game, a false start penalty on guard Nick Cole on third-and-2 pushed them back 5 yards, and a Vick scramble came up short -- officially, it was a sack for zero yards -- and the Eagles were forced to punt.
Which left Manning on his 26-yard line, with 40 seconds to play, no timeouts, and needing a field goal to win. But he didn’t get it, instead forcing a throw over the middle that was intercepted by Asante Samuel with 6 seconds remaining.
In all, there was nothing particularly attractive about it, filled with penalties and mistakes on both sides -- blown coverages, blown opportunities, you know. Along the way, there was a frightening (but, thankfully, not catastrophic) injury to Colts receiver Austin Collie that highlighted both the fragility of players in a brutal sport and the difficulty with which defenders and officials are attempting to deal with the new realities concerning concussion prevention.
But in the end, it was a W. And for the Eagles, maybe, a little bit more.
14 points the refs have given to the colts. The Collie fumble and the Peyton fumble = 14 pionts. The Eagles vs The Colts & refs!!! This is "Goodell's Moronic Masterpiece!!!!" The right team won, but good god what has happened to football. ?????— joethaplumber- yo really, high school ref's could have done a better. Worst calls i've seen in years. Get your head out of your butts and give back the money someone pays you to be an idiot !!!!— medigon
Agreed officiating was the worst I have seen in a long time. I think the ref should still get his envelope even though the Colts didn't win. He did everything in his power to make it happen.- Thank you Coltsfan...it's nice to see a bit of civility on these boards. That was a hard fought game and Peyton had me holding my breath until his completion to Asante. I had my family around me cheering, pizza, and beer...the W made it that much sweeter. Good luck to ya's going forward!— Emell
- One of my best friends is a monstrous Colts fan----even she thinks the refs sucked and were screwing the Eagles. HUGE win against 2 opponents---Colts and refs.— cgrant
- The call on Cole's "love tap" (and that's exactly what it was!) was laughable....one of the worst calls I've seen in a long time. If the Colts had won, you could not have convinced me that there wasn't a conspiracy between the NFL and the refs! Good win....now let's please beat Donovan!!— jimyd0315
- thanks colts fan.. and the eagles are pit-bull-champions! kiddding, kidding..i'm just kidding. refs almost stole this one. vick was a little rusty and the defense needs to start tackling better. andy needs a time-out coach. that clip of reid punt-pass-kick is an all-time classic. ..it looked like a graphic for the evolution of man. but all in all a very good w. the defense in the 2nd half was amazing. vick please stop taking all those body shots.
- You won't see wolf or Bill tonight. They're both curled up in a dark corner crying over our victory. Let the REAL fans celebrate tonight, without the negative ones...they'll be spouting their drivel soon enough. Nice job EAGLES!— Emell
- And here I was thinking I was the only one who thought the officiating stunk...
- The officials should be fined $50,000 apiece for attempted grand theft. That was an abysmal performance. The game lasted almost four hours due to their abhorrent tactic of throwing flags on nearly every critical play. The game had no rhythm, as Phil Simms adeptly pointed out, b/c of the referees' insistence on stopping the game to throw petty flags on both teams. At the end they tried to impose their will on the outcome and almost succeeded. What a bunch of buffoons.— farside37
- Let's be more precise here. The refs merely made the calls according to the rules. It's the rules that are absurd. There is no way the human eye, the refs eye, can catch and determine whether a hit is illegal or not. There has to be booth review. No way Coleman used his helmet. Cole caught Manning's helmet, barely, but it has to somehow be determined that it was incidental. I hold Goodell responsible right now but something tells me he doesn't care.— Murrayman
Refs have money on the game? Some of the calls were ridiculous and almost cost the Birds the game. Nice win. Lets keep it going next week and stomp Donovan.- Did anyone notice how peyton took a full step forward when he was calling the play in the shotgun? That's a false start for anyone else...don't even get me started with the uneccessary roughness calls. This is getting out of control!— djw26
- Hats off to the defense.. the freakin refs did everything they could to keep the colts in the game!!! The score should been 26-17!!!.. There is no doubt the Eagles are a different team with Vick at the helm.. I hope they keep him..— nixman101
- why were the colts wearing throwbacks on the road?— bmoney17
