The Philadelphia Eagles escaped with a 21-19 victory at Fed-Ex Field. It was a lot closer than anyone would of thought at the half. Other than the Redskins first possession, which led to a FG, the Eagles defense held Jason Campbell and the offense in check for the better part of the first half. The win keeps the Eagles hopes of making the playoffs alive. Now all they have to do is travel to both the Meadowlands next week and then to Dallas on Christmas Day, win both and they would not be in the playoffs, but would also be the NFC East Division Champions. On the Redskins second possession, linebacker Omar Gaither picked off a pass and returned it to the Redskins 31-yd line. A short field and three straight running plays (Westbrook for 6 yards twice and Buckhalter for 4 yards) along with a defensive holding penalty and the Eagles had the ball on the 10 with first and goal. Jeff Garcia found TE LJ Smith open in the middle of the end zone for a 7-3 lead. A lead that the Eagles would never relinquish. Barely!

Early in the second quarter, Campbell appeared to be moving Washington into scoring position. The current drive already amassed 50 yards on 10 plays down to the Eagles 20-yd line. This was mostly on the legs of Ladell Betts as he single-handedly ran the ball 6 times for 36 yards. The Eagles defense had trouble stopping Betts all game as the ‘Skins backup running back bulldozed his way to 171 rushing yards on 33 carries. Where as the Redskins passing offense was not very good with Jason Campbell completed just 15-of-27 passes for 182 yards and 2 very costly INT’s. Sam Rayburn stepped up and put a lick on Betts on first down, causing the back to lose 3 yards. That forced a passing play that Washington paid a big price for. Campbell was intercepted by Eagles safety Michael Lewis after trying to force a short pass over the middle to his tight end Chris Cooley. Lewis jumped the pass and following a herd of blockers, returned it for an 84-yd TD return. It was a devastating blow to the Redskins. Later in the quarter, Garcia hit Reggie Brown for a 60-yd bomb down the middle of the field. That eventually setup a short 3-yd TD pass to Donté Stallworth. Washington would add a FG to make the score 21-6 at the half.

The third quarter was dominated by the Redskins offense a Jason Campbell orchestrated two long time consuming scoring drives. A 10-play 55-yard drive ate up 4:30 of the clock, but the Eagles defense eventually forced a 32-yd FG. Jeff Garcia answered with a nice 5-minute drive himself, but a dropped pass by LJ Smith forced a punt and Washington started their best drive of the game. On mostly short passes and runs by Betts, the Redskins started from their own 10-yd line and 90 yards later, Washington had cut the lead to 21-16. The big play was a deep pass to Randle-El for 34 yards and the TD. Both teams then went 3-and-out as the Eagles did this twice. With 11:21 left in the game, Campbell once again drove the team on a long time consuming drive, again with a mix of short passes and runs by Betts. The Antoine Randle-El ran a trick play where the receiver ran the end around option play. He threw a deep pass to Brandon Lloyd. The pass went for 40 yards down to the Eagles 18-yd line. But it was the will of Brian Dawkins who would not allow a TD to be scored. He sacked Campbell for a 9-yd loss on third down forcing a 35-yd FG by Shawn Suisham and that made the score 21-19 with Philadelphia still ahead. The Eagles had the their next possession start at their own 23-yd with 4:58 left after the ensuing kickoff. Three really nifty runs by Brian Westbrook and three kneel downs later by Garcia and the Eagles put this game in the bag with a very important victory. The win still keeps alive their chances of making the playoffs.