Sunday, January 11, 2009

Eagles Soar Against Short Yardage

Brian Westbrook carried the ball 18 for 36 yards. The Giants accomplished their primary objective, but the Eagles still won. Buckhalther was worse with 5 catches for 7 yards. But McNabb threw 40 times completing 22 for 217 yards with 1 TD & 2 picks.

It all added up to 23 points. With a good defense, 23 points gives the Eagles a chance to win. At least three times with the game on the line in the second half, the powerful Giant running attack couldn't pick up short yardage first downs. That made the difference. And the Eagles coveted 7 of 14 third downs, but none of which were 3 & 26. You can give some credit to the Eagles' linebackers but those short yard runs were right up the Eagles' gut and they were stopped by those two first round draft picks they've got clogging the middle for the Eagles' defense.

There are two things that Packers fans and hopefully Ted Thomson will take away from this. The Packers couldn't have converted those short yardage runs either. And they couldn't have stopped either of these teams from making those first downs either. We didn't see it all season and cold weather doesn't transform the "Seven Blocks of Cheese" into the "Seven Blocks of Granite".

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