This game is pretty easy to digest and explain. After last week’s debacle, the offense still looked very ragged and out of sync. Donovan McNabb looked lost at times and only completed 15-of-25 passes for just 156 yards. He threw 1 TD and had no INT’s, but was sacked three times. This game was won by an aggressive Eagles defense that forced one very big INT along with 4 fumbles, which 3 were recovered by an Eagles defender and they sacked Redskins QB Jason Campbell on 6 occasions. In between all this havoc, the only sign of life and success for the offense was on two first-half plays involving wide receiver DeSean Jackson. The first was a 67-yd TD run on and left-side end around play on the team’s very first possession. The second was a 57-yard TD reception late in the second quarter. Other than those 2 plays, the Eagles offense looked dead in the water as they won their first NFC East showdown. Take away Jackson’s two big TD plays and the offense gained just 138 yards.

It was a night when the franchise QB in Donovan McNabb joined the likes of John Elway, Fran Tarkenton and Steve Young with a very distinguished NFL stat. McNabb became just the 4th QB in NFL history with 30,000 passing yards, 200 TD passes, 3,000 rushing yards and 20 rushing TD’s. The Eagles won this game despite poor QB play, a very erratic offense and a knockout blow to their star running back Brian Westbrook as he suffered a concussion after his helmet hit the knee of Redskins linebacker London Fletcher on the Eagles second possession of the game. They beat a team whose record dropped to 2-5, with an offensive coach Sherman Lewis calling the plays for a lame-duck head coach in Jim Zorn. Zorn had his play-calling duties stripped from him after the Redskins lost to the winless Kansas City Chiefs, 14-6. Washington also lost to the sorry Detroit Lions too. Their only wins came against two winless teams in the St. Louis Rams and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Eagles defense forced three first-half turnovers, which led to 13 points. The Eagles won with the help of newcomer Will Witherspoon, who was acquired six days earlier from the Rams as the linebacker had an INT return for a TD, a sack and forced fumble that led to a FG along with 8 tackles.

Surprisingly, it took just 1:54 for the Eagles to score a TD, something they failed at miserably last week against the 31st ranked NFL defense. After a couple of Westbrook runs and a 6-yard pass to Brent Celek for a first down, McNabb faked a handoff to Westbrook and instead gave the ball to DeSean Jackson. Jackson took the ball on an end around play to the left side. The electrifying wideout ran it for a 67-yd TD run as he out-ran LaRon Landry and DeAngelo Hall to the end zone. A nice block by teammate Jeremy Maclin on Carlos Rogers assured that Jackson scored and the Eagles held an early 7-0 lead. The play was also the longest running play since Westbrook gained 71 yards in San Francisco on Sept. 24, 2006. Late in the first quarter, it was Witherspoon who caught a tipped pass deep in Redskins’ territory and the linebacker easily ran it in for a 14-0 lead. After that, the Eagles defense brought the house down on Jason Campbell, who did not really have bad passing numbers despite being sacked 6 times, fumbling twice and that costly INT by Witherspoon. His QB rating was 91.6 with 284 passing yards.

The second quarter came down hard on Campbell as Witherspoon sacked him and he fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Quintin Mikell. David Akers kicked a 47-yard FG to make it 17-0. Later on after Campbell found Devin Davis for a 2-yard strike, Antwaan Randle-El muffed a punt and Akers added a 44-yardFG for a 20-7 lead. Three plays later, Campbell was sacked again forcing a fourth down. After the Eagles got the ball back, McNabb himself was sacked setting up a very long third-down situation (3rd-and-22). But somehow, the QB found a wide-open Jackson deep downfield for a 57-yard TD. That’s 27 points alone in the first half and 3 more TD’s than they scored against the Raiders last week. The second half, the Eagles offense went into hibernation, but the Eagles defense kept the pressure on Washington as they sacked Campbell 4 more times and forced two more fumbles. The Redskins really did not have a chance to in this game even as the Eagles offense still looked like a ghost of itself, but did just enough to win this game on those two huge Jackson plays and to leave Fed-Ex Field with a 27-17 win to improve to 4-2.