Don’t know if the headline is totally accurate – maybe it should be “Fool’s Gold”. On a night in the Delaware Valley, where Philly fans had the TV remote in their hands as there was 2 games to watch at the same time. It was probably a tough choice for most. For me, it was easy – Phils all the way. I am a baseball fan at heart, ever since the early 1970’s. Growing up watching the likes of Schmitty, the Bull, Lefty and Bowa – many others not named – it was a great era in team history. They won 6 divisions, 2 pennants and a World Series Championship in 1980. But that ride ended in around 1984-85 as those players all started to retire and then there was a bunch of seasons of cellar dwelling or at least finishing near the bottom. In fact in 1980 – ALL FOUR TEAMS IN PHILLY PLAYED IN THE FINALS OF THEIR SPORT!! As was noted before, you had the Phillies in the World Series, Eagles played in the Super Bowl, the Flyers were in Stanley Cup Finals and the Sixers were in the NBA Finals. Only the Phillies won. Anyway on a night when at least 50% of the people in Philadelphia were watching the Fightin’s advance to the NLCS on the superb effort of Cole Hamels complete game shutout, the Eagles were on the West Coast slugging it out with the Forty-Niners. The Phils started at 8:07pm on TBS and the Birds started at 8:30pm on NBC.

The football game was one for the offenses as both teams racked up over 350 total yards as the Eagles held on at the end with a 27-24 win. With Michael Vick out with a rib injury, Kevin Kolb made his first road start of his career and ended the game with an impressive 103.3 QB rating. His final stats read; 21-for-31 passes for 253 yards and a touchdown. The main offensive weapon for the Eagles is the emergence of the young running back in LeSean McCoy. Shady as he known to his teammates, ran 18 times for 92 yards and 1 TD run, while catching 5 passes for 46 yards, Very impressive! His counterpart in Frank Gore managed just 52 rushing yards on 18 carries. The Niners QB Alex Smith put up some gaudy numbers however, throwing for 309 yards (25-39), while throwing 3 TD’s, but was also intercepted twice too. But perhaps the game was decided one very crucial play at the start of the fourth quarter. The Eagles were up 17-10, the Eagles kicker David Akers missed on a long FG attempt of 53 yards giving the 49ers pretty good field position. It was rookie first-round pick in Brandon Graham, who chased down QB Alex Smith from behind and as he was sacking him, Graham twisted Smith’s body forcing a fumble. The loose ball was picked up by an alert Quintin Mikell and he ran it for 51 yards for his first TD return of his 8-year career. It was the kind of play that happens to bad teams – with the loss to Philadelphia, San Francisco fell to 0-5.

In the second half however, the Eagles defense would almost giveaway the game in the end as Smith led two TD drives that cut the lead to 27-24. If not for that last scoring drive by Kolb that ended with another Akers’ FG, we would have been talking about overtime or perhaps worse, a loss. The game saving INT by Trevard Lindley saved the game for Philadelphia with just 28 seconds left in the game. OK, the Eagles are now 3-2 and tied for first place as both the Giants and Redskins won too – so all 3 teams are atop the NFC East, while Dallas continues to struggle at 1-4 after losing at home to Tennessee, 34-27. The offense looks fine as Kolb is still a pretty good quarterback – but can he do this every week or just against teams with a bad defense. Don’t forget last year, both starts for Kolb were against very sub-par defenses, the Saints and Chiefs. Last week, Kolb looked bad against a tough Redskins defense. What will happen, when he is up against the Giants or worse, the Dallas Cowboys? Looking forward, the biggest problem for the Eagles is not the QB position, but the Eagles young defense under control with the young defensive coordinator in Sean McDermott.

On the Niners first drive of the game – Alex Smith took his team right down the field on an 11-play, 51-yard TD drive. Kolb answered right back with a TD drive of his own which tied the game at 7-7. Then the Eagles defense settled down for a while, forcing 3 turnovers and a missed 40-yard FG with time expiring in the first half. The Eagles held a 17-10 lead at the half. After a rather quiet third quarter, the Eagles defense struck big-time as the fore mentioned faithful play. After that, it became the Michael Crabtree and Alex Smith show. And even though the Eagles run defense looked much, much better, the Eagles pass defense is going backwards as they allowed over 300 yards and two late-game touchdowns. This defense may ultimately cause the downfall of the team as we move forward. Stewart Bradley, still doesn’t look like himself and Ellis Hobbs, you might as well cut him now. Nate Allen is still a rookie and new starting free safety – and well how can I explain this? But no one will ever be able to Brian Dawkins – but going with a rookie may not be the best idea, but it is whom we got and we will have to make the best of the situation. We’ll be lucky to win 9 or 10 games, but if we get Michael Vick healthy again, maybe we will win seven more games and overcome some of the defensive deficiencies that we now have.