For much of the second half on Sunday it looked like the Eagles were going to blow a 17 point lead, and the game to the Denver Broncos. Last season that probably would have been the case, but then the 2009 iteration of the Eagles showed us why they are different and deserve to be taken seriously as a legit Super Bowl contender in the NFC.
In the Birds’ defense the game shouldn’t have been that close. Up 17 in the 3rd Asante Samuel picked off a deep Kyle Orton pass down the far sideline and took it all the way to midfield. The way the Eagles offense was clicking at that point in the game it seemed like they would cruise to an easy win, but a terrible unnecessary roughness call on Macho Harris (and an additional penalty on Samuel for delay of game) backed the Eagles up to their goal line.
The refs really screwed the pooch on this call because it wouldn’t be out of question for Tony Scheffler (the intended target of Orton’s throw and recipient of Harris’ vicious hit) to recover and tackle Samuel from behind. That makes Harris’ hit a block; a fantastic, CLEAN block. Thanks to those two calls the Eagles started the drive on their own 1 instead of the 50, and lost all their offensive momentum as a result.
Unfortunately that was not the only bad call to go against the Eagles. Don’t even get me started on the challenge that overturned a backward pass that should have led to an early defensive TD, or the poor spot on a late 3rd down that took a Reggie Brown first down catch and instead turned it into a punt (his knee was down with the ball in front of the first down marker.)
All of these calls contributed to a game that was closer than it needed to be, but when it mattered the most Donovan McNabb and Co. rose to the occasion. Two performances in particular stood out to me in playing a big part in the W:
- Jason Peters‘ day didn’t start out too well, as he was beat by Elvis Dumervil on the Eagles first drive leading directly to a sack and a forced fumble that Denver recovered on their own 32. From there on out though Peters was brilliant, containing the NFL’s sack leader and giving McNabb plenty of time to throw. Dumervil did end up with two sacks, but he beat Celek on the last one, not Peters.
- Jeremy Maclin may not have had his most impressive performance from a statistical point of view, but he had the play of the game on the Eagles winning drive coming up with a tremendous sideline grab that reminded me of something we’d see from Marvin Harrison in his prime. The 27-yard catch came on a third and long with the Eagles just out of field goal range, and set up David Akers’ winning kick.
In a game where Desean Jackson was effectively neutralized by Champ Bailey, Maclin stepped up with six catches for 92 yards and showed just how important he is to this passing attack.
A few other observations from the Eagles win and the rest of Week 16′s games:
- Brent Celek had a huge first half, but wasn’t even targeted in the second. I’m sure the Broncos made some changes to their coverage but the Eagles still need to get the ball to him more consistently.
- Jason Avant continues to show he may in fact have the most reliable hands on the team. The focus and reflexes it took to snatch that deflected third quarter TD pass were remarkable.
- Brian Westbrook looked good in his return and forms a lethal duo along with Shady McCoy. I still cringe everytime he takes a big hit though.
- A pretty quiet game for Brian Dawkins. Made a few mistake on the Eagles first drive and was a step late on several plays, but I still would take him back in Philly in a heartbeat. All due respect to Sean Jones and Macho Harris, of course.
- I don’t know about you, but I felt like the CBS announcers started rooting for Denver more and more as the game went on. Jim Nance and Phil Simms kept harping on the few blown calls that favored the Eagles, while ignoring the countless ones that went against them. The icing on the cake? When Phil Simms said about Sheldon Brown, who had just knocked away a deep ball from Brandon Marshall, “He’s clearly not at 100%.”
Ok ok that may not be biased, but it’s definitely STUPID. I could see why CBS would favor Denver with their coverage; the Broncos are a team they’ve seen many times this season while the Eagles are rarely on that station (Fox usually gets the big NFC matchups.) Still it doesn’t give you an excuse to suck as badly as Nance and Simms did today.
- I don’t understand at all why Peyton Manning was pulled in a close game between the Colts and the Jets. One more Manning-led scoring drive could have sealed a win for Indy and preserved the perfect season, but instead Jim Caldwell put Curtis Painter in and the Jets had no problem victimizing the backup and pulling away late.
Look, I can see why you’d want to rest your starters with a first round bye already locked up, but the goal in every game is to win and if your team has a shot at making history and going undefeated you don’t tank a winnable game against a mediocre opponent. That was a real momentum-killer for the Colts, and Manning’s displeasure with the situation sums it up in my mind. Indy’s first year coach (and whomever else had a hand in the decision) screwed up, plain and simple.
- For those of you who missed Saints owner Tom Benson’s reaction to an almost game-winning field goal this amazing animated gif comes courtesy of Deadspin and 30fps. Geaux HOME Aints!
Images courtesy of ESPN.
**A quick note: some of you may have noticed that my posts have been few and far between lately. I’ve been busy with some personal matters (nothing bad, I assure you) and will be extremely busy through New Years. Once everything starts to settle down for me in early January I’ll start posting more regularly. Happy Holidays!**
