The Washington Redskins were invited to play in Philadelphia this past weekend. They probably should of stayed back in Washington. The first half did not go according to plan for the Eagles. The second half was more of a massacre once the Eagles offense got rolling and the defense controlled the Redskins throughout even when the Eagles offense was struggling. These Indians were slaughtered and sent back reeling to DC. McNabb was almost perfect in the second half, though he was sacked on the first two plays of the third quarter. On their second possession, Sean Taylor who read the intended pass to Owens perfectly intercepted McNabb. But every time the Eagles made a mistake on offense, the defense was there to back them up and stuff the Redskins at every turn. After 3 plays and out, Tom Tupa punted the ball into the end zone and the Eagles got the ball back on their own 20-yard line. From there, McNabb was sparkling again, driving the team straight down the field. He hit Freddie Mitchell for a big 13-yard gain and first down. Westbrook followed with runs of 21 and 6 yards. McNabb then hit Westbrook for a 5-yards pass and first down. On that play, Taylor smacked T.O. in the face and picked up a personal foul penalty. That setup the game’s clinching score when Donovan McNabb found a wide-open Terrell Owens for a 19-yard touchdown. That made the score 14e-6 with 3:06 left in the third quarter. Thus the second half slaughter begun.

The Eagles defense came out smoking in the first half and if not for a couple of dumb penalties, could have helped to put the game away in the first half. Case in point. On the first two plays, Clinton Portis was stopped for losses of 4 yards on both plays. On third-and-18, it appeared that the Eagles defense stopped the Redskins on an incomplete pass. Enter dumb penalty #1. Lito Sheppard was called for holding giving the Redskins a first down. Ike Reese produced dumb penalty #2 grabbing the facemask of the receiver. Add another 15 yards. The Eagles defense still shined, forcing Washington to kick a 35-yard field goal. The drive took 7:01 off the clock on 12 plays and 61 yards, though 20 of those yards were courteously of penalties. On the Eagles first possession, McNabb ran the offense efficiently on a 13-play 67-yarddrive that lasted 7:23 and resulted in a 2-yard TD pass to Chad Lewis. On the drive, McNabb ran 3 times for 29 and Westbrook rushed 3 times for 43 yards. The Eagles took a 7-3 lead with 65 of the 67 yards via the run and only 14 yards of the drive through the air.

The Eagles started their second possession in the same manner, moving the ball proficiently from their own 1-yard line to the Redskins 35-yard line on 8 plays. But play nine ended in disaster as McNabb put on his magic slippers to escape the oncoming pass rush. He stopped for a moment to possibly throw the ball downfield, but waited too long and was walloped from behind by Jermaine Haley and fumbled the ball away. Again, the Redskins were held to a 3-and-out possession. On the Redskins next possession, Patrick Ramsey took Washington on a 13-play 63-yard drive, which ended in another field goal. That cut the lead to 7-6. This score would hold up for halftime when McNabb performed dumb penalty #3. With time running out and the Eagles already in field goal range, he lined up under the wrong player causing a false start penalty. Instead of being under center, he lined up behind Jermaine Mayberry, his right guard. With no timeouts left, there was a 10 second walk off and the half ended.

In the second half, McNabb and the Eagles simply overwhelmed the helpless Redskins as McNabb completed 11-of-15 passes for 111 yards and 3 TD’s. With his 4 touchdown passes in this game, he became the first Eagles QB with back-to-back games of 4 TD passes. Washington coach Joe Gibbs had no answers on how to control McNabb in the second half as he completed his last 2 TD passes to Brian Westbrook to close out the scoring at 28-6. On the other side of the ball, the revamped defense led by starting middle linebacker Jeremiah Trotter held all-pro Clinton Portis to 37 yards rushing on 17 carries. That computes to a 2.2 yards per carry average. Trotter finished the game with 7 tackles. The Eagles defense forced Patrick Ramsey into many incomplete passes and Ike Reese finished the game with his second INT of the season. The Eagles are now 9-1 and need only one win over the Giants next week to clinch their fourth straight division title. The last time the Eagles were at 9-1 was back in 1980, the only time the Philadelphia Eagles ever played in the Super Bowl. The Eagles have now won six straight against Washington and 7 of their last 8. The Eagles are also 15-2 in their last 17 NFC East games. Is a November championship ready for the taking next week? We shall see!