The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Niners 38-24 at Monster Park on Sunday. But did you really think Alex Smith was going to bring back this team as Eli Manning had 2 weeks earlier? I didn’t think so. The explanation mark was a 300-lb defensive tackle rumbling, stumbling and bumbling down the sidelines for a 98-yd touchdown. The play resulted in half due to a fumble by 49ers rookie Frank Gore fumbling the ball on the 2-yard line. Mike Patterson, who scored the TD, could not even celebrate as he almost tripped himself a few times on the way to the endzone. The play also resulted in an Eagles all-time longest fumble return for a TD. Later, Patterson was laughing and said, “I was a bit winded”. He then said, “I admit, I thought the ball was dead, but the ball fell in front of me. I just saw the ball. I knew it was on top of everybody (in the pileup near the goal line). I didn’t feel my knees hit the ground. I just picked it up and ran”. He ran all the way for an Eagles 31-3 lead. Then I knew the game was officially over, even though there was still 24 minutes left in the game. This game was over except the part of running out the clock.

In this third game of the 2006 season, it was Donovan McNabb, Reggie Brown and of course Brian Westbrook who led the way to victory for the Eagles. McNabb completed 18 of 33 passes for 296 yards and 2 TDs. His counterpart in Alex Smith had bloated statistics as he did complete 27 of 46 passes for 293 yards and just 1 TD. He also finished with a QB rating of 84.8. McNabb’s had a 105.1 rating. But most of Smith’s yards came after Patterson’s 98-yard TD and the Eagles had a 31-3 lead. Smith, though did lead 3 pretty impressive TD drives after the Eagles knocked Frank Gore out of the game on that fumble as he was also injured when Brian Dawkins hit him to force the fumble. In stepped the rookie from Happy Valley, Penn State’s own Michael Robinson. At Penn State, Robinson led the Nittany Lions to an Orange Bowl Victory over Florida State and an 11-1 record last playing at quarterback. Now he is the backup running back and soon to be starter, if what he did in the 4th quarter was no mirage. He only rushed 5 times for 29 yards, but scored 2 TDs, bashing his way into the endzone twice. He even KO-ed Brian Westbrook on his first touchdown (and the team’s first TD of the game). Anyway with drives of 76, 43 and 76 yards, the 49ers made the final score a little more respectable at 38-24. But it was too little, too late.

But as Donovan McNabb has said time after time, Brian Westbrook is “The Ultimate Weapon”. Westbrook rushed only 8 times, but gained 117 yards, punctuated with a 71-yard TD run during the second quarter. On the play, Westbrook swept around the left side and had nobody for 50 yards in his way. As he got closer to the endzone, the Niners Mike Adams made a feeble attempt to stop him, but Westbrook gave him a stiff arm and this mini-rhino simply waltzed in for a touchdown. He also scored on an 8-yard scamper up the middle after the 49ers cut the Eagles lead down to 31-17. The drive was setup by a huge play where McNabb found tight end Matt Schobel wide open down the left sidelines for a 60-yd pass completion. Westbrook also scored the games first TD on a swing pass from 4 yards out. Westbrook finished the game with 164 total combined yards. Where would the Eagles be without him? He is the high-octane fuel that maintains this highly prolific offense. Donovan McNabb is simply the driver and he does an excellent job. And considering the disaster of last season, you really got to feel good about the Eagles so far this season.