WOW! What a game! On National TV yet! Monday Night Football!!! A road win in San Francisco. You just lost your best player and the 110 Million Dollar Man at that. The Philadelphia Eagles are not supposed to win this. Somebody forgot to tell the Eagles. Hey Eagles, how are you gonna win without Donovan McNabb? Simple. There are two reasons: (1) a stifling defense and (2) Koy Detmer. What? Koy Detmer! Koy Who?? Koy Detmer, the Eagles backup QB who has not started in over 4 years. Yes, Koy Detmer not only helped the Eagles win the game, but the Eagles won so convincibly that now they are considered the best team in the NFC and the team to beat to get to the Super Bowl. The Eagles smashed and bashed the helpless 49ers 38-17 in one of the more memorable Monday night games for the Philadelphia Eagles in their history.

Last week, McNabb broke his ankle and still passed for 4 touchdowns in a 38-14 win over the Arizona Cardinals at the Vet. They now go on the road this week and have to play the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football in front of a national television audience with Koy Detmer at the helms at 3Com Park. Detmer, perhaps had his most productive game ever as he took apart the 49ers. He completed 18-of-26 passes for 227 yards, 2 TD's and 1 rushing TD. He was sacked once. He led the Birds straight down the field after the opening kickoff, marching 90 yards on 12 plays. His first TD pass was to Todd Pinkston, who caught the sideline pass for a 25-yard touchdown. The Eagles led 7-0. The game settled a bit after the early points put up on board on that first possession. Then, Brian Mitchell took a punt return for a 76-yard touchdown only 4 ½ minutes into the second quarter. It was his 13th of his career and new NFL record. The Niners did strike for a TD with 4:03 left in the half, But, Koy took the next Eagles possession and turned it into another TD drive. 8 plays and 74 yards later, the Eagles took a 21-10 lead into the half after San Francisco added a FG.

In the second half, Detmer led the Eagles on another drive with Koy diving into the endzone for seven. That gave the Eagles a 28-10 lead. Then 3-and-out after that for the Niners, Koy had the Birds on the move again. As Philadelphia moved closer for another score, Koy was hit as he attempted a pass which went incomplete. On the play, Koy went down awkwardly on his arm, causing his elbow to dislocate. Now the Eagles lost both McNabb and Detmer to 2 pretty serious injuries. In came AJ Feely to the rescue. He immediately hit TE Chad Lewis for the Eagles fifth TD. Now, the score read, Eagles 35-10. Unbelievable. The Niners came back with Jeff Garcia leading the way. He hit an open Terrell Owens for a 18-yard pass with under 1 minute left in the third quarter. Owens ran it in for a touchdown to cut the Eagles lead to 35-17. That was it for the San Francisco Forty-Niners. The Eagles defense, buckled up and took it to the Niners the rest of way, refusing to let them score any more points. They held the Niners' QB's to 337 total passing yards on a 36-for-63 day. The Niners threw 63 passes. The Eagles only had to pass the ball 29 times. the Birds' defensive secondary held Garcia in check with the offense really never on track until halfway through the fourth quarter. The Niners gained half their passing yardage during garbage time. By this time, the game was well out of reach for San Francisco, while the defense still pressured the QB.

The Eagles are now 8-3, 7-0 in the NFC. The Birds pretty much took the Niners out of this game early on. It was a big win for the team who has Super Bowl aspirations. Now, they must go forward without both Donovan McNabb and Koy Detmer. The third string QB is now in charge. AJ Feely will have to go it alone. A game that began with dread for the fans of the Eagles -- ended in dread after Detmer went down too. How did the Eagles beat the 49ers at San Francisco? It happened, it really did happen. It will be another week filled more by controversy and questions than by answers that will leave everyone wondering about the Philadelphia Eagles chances of winning the NFC and advancing to the Super Bowl. Is the dream over? Not yet. But if AJ Feely does not perform well, it could all come crashing down. As suddenly as we saw the sun rising on Monday Night over 3Com Park for the Eagles, it may have set too on the Eagles chances of completing their main goal and objective of winning the Super Bowl. With whoever is quarterbacking, it still seems that the Eagles are destined to win in January.