With the win, the Philadelphia Eagles improved to 7-4 and remained one game back of the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC East and tied with the Green Bay Packers for the wild card spot. Washington fell to 3-8 and it was their 6th loss in 8 games. The Eagles finally won 2 consecutive games by 4 or fewer points for the first time since they beat the Panthers 27-24 and Redskins 21-19 in Dec. 2006 behind Jeff Garcia. It was also the fifth time since 2002 that the Eagles have swept the Redskins. Washington now has lost 9-straight road games too. The game started with a bang too, but not the kind of bang you’d expect. Riverboat gambling Andy Reid was up to his old tricks, calling for an opening game onside kick. It failed miserably and it seemed like the Eagles were chasing down the Redskins all game long. Washington had even outgained the Eagles by 14 yards in the first 48 minutes (238-224), but Philadelphia had a strong last 12 minutes outgaining Washington 154-39. We have seen this sort of gambles in the past, but the Redskins were not fooled as Quintin Gaither picked up the kickoff and returned it 25 yards to the Eagles 24-yard line. Four plays later, Jason Campbell dove into the end zone for the TD and the early 7-0 lead.

Philadelphia then came right back on a bunch of runs by McCoy and Weaver. After a 15-yd completion to Brent Celek, Weaver gained another 18 yards setting up the Eagles first-and-goal from the 10-yard line. Michael Vick came in on 2nd down and rushed it to the 1-yard line. On the 4th down, Andy Reid decided to go for it and it appeared that McNabb completed a TD pass over the middle to DeSean Jackson. But a Celek pass interference nullified the play and the Eagles settled for the FG instead. So some real bad decisions and penalties and the Redskins were in somewhat command with a 7-3 lead. The Redskins unreliable QB Jason Campbell eventually missed a few passes and were forced to punt. The electrifying DeSean Jackson then almost broke another punt return for a TD, but as he was 1-step from going all the way, the punter made a great ankle tackle on the receiver. He returned it 29 yards out to the Eagles 49-yard line anyway. The Eagles possession again featured another 4th down play that Andy Reid gambled and Weaver dove over the pile for the first down. Three plays later, McNabb made another of patented plays escaping from the pass rush and throwing a deep pass downfield to a wide open Jackson for an easy 35-yard TD pass. Donovan McNabb started at QB for the 137th time in his career, tying the franchise record with Ron Jaworski. It appeared as though the Eagles would then cruise to an easy game after all, even with the 7 points the Eagles gave the Redskins to start the game.

The Washington Redskins took the next possession and Campbell drove the Redskins right down the field on a long 13-play, 80-yard drive that put the Redskins back up 14-10 early in the second quarter. Campbell really did not have really good numbers either as he completed just 22-of-37 passes for 231 yards with 2 TD’s and 2 INT’s. Those 2 INT’s came back to bite the Redskins too. Late in the second quarter, Asante Samuel twice intercepted the inept QB deep in Redskins territory. But the Eagles offense could not totally get back on track after the Jackson TD either. But those two turnovers did give Philly 6 points and a 16-14 halftime lead. Two many penalties and the Eagles were forced to just settle for a 2-point lead. On the game, the Eagles were penalized 7 times for 60 yards, all but one were in the first half. The Eagles offense went into deep freeze during the third quarter and Washington scored 10 straight points as they took a 24-16 lead with just 11:37 left in the fourth quarter.

Then Donovan McNabb engineered the two scoring drives in the final 7 ½ minutes to help the Eagles win their second consecutive game when trailing in the fourth quarter. Before these last 2 games, the Eagles had won just once in their previous 14 games when trailing in the 4th quarter. The Eagles converted 2 of the first 11 third downs, while the Redskins were successful on 8 of their first 12. The Eagles comeback started with a great defensive stand as the pass rush forced 2 incompletions and then forced a Shawn Suisham FG on a drive that started with a McNabb INT. It could have been 28-16, which might have been too much for the Eagles to overcome. Donovan McNabb all the sudden got hot after he just overthrew the first pass to Jason Avant. It quickly became the Jason Avant drive as McNabb hit the receiver in stride for a long 46-yard pass all the way to the Redskins 44-yard line. Next play, a circus catch by Avant for another 20 yards. Eventually, it was Eldra Buckley smashing his way behind Weaver’s blocking for the TD. Down by 2 points still, Reid decided to go for the 2-pt conversion. McCoy made a great play to keep his balance on a shuffle pass from McNabb and all of the sudden; it was 24-24 with 7:24 left in the game.

The Eagles special teams made another nice stop with Joe Mays pinning the Redskins at their own 16-yard line. The Eagles defense forced another punt, the fifth of the game. The game winning scoring drive became the Jeremy Maclin drive. After a 12-yard gain by Shady McCoy to start the drive, Maclin made a nice over the shoulder catch and kept his feet in-bounds for a 35-yard gain up the right sidelines. On a 3rd-and-5 play, McNabb again connected with Maclin for 6-yards and another first down. The Eagles now were 5-for-5 on the last 5 third down plays. That’s quite a turnaround. Then it was just a matter of wasting away the rest of the Redskins timeouts. So three plays later, with 1:52 left on the clock, it was David Akers successfully kicking the game-wining 32-yard FG. He has now made 16 in a row, including three in this game. It was his first game-winning FG since Jan. 7, 2007 in the NFC Wild Card playoff victory over the Giants. The Eagles defense then finished the job on 4th-and-1 forcing yet another incomplete pass by the hopeless Jason Campbell, who was harassed all game long. The Eagles playoff road seems like it is back on track with 2-straight come from behind wins in two weeks.