What was billed as a game the Eagles should win easily, it did not start out that way. The Eagles actually trailed Green Bay 9-7 at the half mainly due to some costly mistakes. Two lost fumbles and one bumbled play left the Birds with a 2-point deficit after two quarters. The Eagles defense held the Packers without a touchdown all game long. More importantly, they held the Packers to zero points in the second half. After blowing a 17-point lead in the fourth quarter versus the Giants and allowing 21 second half points last week against the Niners, it was important for the Eagles defense to get back on track during the late stages of any game. It truly was a tale of two halves, though Green Bay didn’t rack up yard after yard during any point of the game. The Eagles defense again did not allow Brett Favre to get going; holding him to only 22 of 44 passes for 205 yards, no TDs and a QB rating of 44.2. In the second half, he was just 7-for-18 for 79 yards with 2 INTs and worse, a 13.2 QB rating. His counterpart in Donovan McNabb was 16-for-30 for 288 yards passing with 2 touchdowns and no INTs. And for good measure, McNabb rushed 5 times for 47 yards and added 2 rushing TDs too.

With the win, the Eagles moved to 3-1 and into first place again in the NFC East, while the Packers fell to 1-3. The thing the Eagles did not do was sack Favre. But that was mainly due to Favre taking a quick 2-step drop and throwing the ball quickly downfield. He threw mostly short 5-yard crossing patterns and quick outs. In the long run that Green Bay’s chances of winning the game and in the second half, the defense started to get more pressure on Favre and he reacted by making mistakes. The defense forced many incompletions and 2 interceptions. During the first half, the Eagles moved the ball twice inside the 5-yard line only to have Correll Buckhalter fumble the ball away. But right after the second fumble, the Packers Vernand Morency gave the ball up himself and Darren Howard recovered it on the Packers 6-yard line. Two plays later, McNabb ran the QB draw and scored the game’s first TD, giving the Birds a 7-3 temporary lead. The Packers kicker Dave Rayner added 2-long field goals of 54 and 46 yards, respectively. The Eagles had a shot to retake the lead right before the half, but 2 McNabb sacks and a last second botched fake FG play ended the half in favor of Green Bay at 9-7.

Philadelphia came out of the second half and dominated the rest of the way to 31-9 laughter, though it did not look that way early on in the game. Donovan McNabb took the second half kickoff and drove the team on a 15-play drive that ended with a David Akers FG of 40 yards. The score read 10-9 and then it became the Greg Lewis TD show. Lewis, who started the second half in favor of the injured Donté Stallworth caught only 2 passes all game long. Those two receptions netted Lewis 2 touchdowns: (1) a 45-yard bomb with 5:08 left in the 3rd quarter and (2) a 30-yard pass less than 2 minutes later. Not bad for a night’s worth of work. McNabb later added another rushing TD on a beautiful 15-yard scamper where he beat rookie AJ Hawk to the pylon for the game’s final points. I took my daughter to her first game at the Linc and before the game began, I’d told her that we’d probably sing, “Fly, Eagles Fly” at least four times. And with that last McNabb TD run with 12:41 left in the game, we sang the song for the fourth time. Later on, Andy Reid pulled out McNabb and in came Jeff Garcia. Garcia finally saw his first game action in an Eagles uniform. It was a good win as the Dallas Cowboys and the complete T.O. circus comes to town come Sunday. Next week could well decide who might win the NFC East too. If the Eagles win, they’ll go up 4-1 with a possible 2-game lead on everybody if the Giants also beat the Redskins. So, get better Lito, we’ll need you next week. Ditto, Brian Westbrook!