Two things came to mind after Lito Sheppard was hurt. Plaxico Burress would be even more open for one. And second, the Giants had a good shot of coming back. Think back to days of Harold Carmichael on the Eagles. Not many opposing cornerbacks could cover him either. Size and speed make Burris a very opposing wide out. And after Lito Sheppard went down with a dislocated elbow, you’d just know that Burris was going to get the ball more often. Sheldon Brown is OK, but he has a harder time covering those bigger receivers. Time after time, Eli Manning threw to Burris in the second half. With the score 20-10 late in the third quarter, New York had the ball at their own 29-yd line. That is where the Giants got the ball back after David Akers successfully kicked a 48-yard FG. On play four of this drive, Manning went long to Burress, the pass went incomplete, but Sheldon Brown was flagged for pass interference. The first time he was flagged, it was OK, but this flag was totally bogus. A 48-yard penalty in the playoffs! The Eagles defense held and the Giants kicker Jay Feely made an easy 24-yd FG to cut the lead to 20-13.

The Eagles next possession went nowhere and was forced to punt it back. I was a little more worried on the first play as Tiki Barber gained 13 yards on first down. A few plays later on 3rd-and-4, Manning completed a huge pass to Tim Carter for 14 yards down to the Eagles 34-yard line. Another quick pass to Barber for 6 yards and 2 more short rushing gains and the Giants had 1st-and-10 at the Eagles 23-yd line. Then disaster almost killed the drive for the Giants. Two false starts and a bogus holding penalty set the Giants back to 1st-and-30 at the 43-yd line. Then Plaxico struck fast and furious. On 2nd-and-30, Burris gained 18 yards to setup 3rd-and-12. Then Burris caught a pass for another 14 yards and a first down. Finally, it was Burris for 11 yards and a TD. The score is now 20-20. The only good thing about the score, the Giants wasted 2 precious timeouts. On the ensuing kickoff, Reno Mahe took the ball and returned out to the 34-yard line. A good start for this drive as the Eagles struggled all game with field possession.

All game long, the punting of Jeff Feagles (ex-Eagle) put the Eagles in bad situation after another and a not so great Jeff Garcia could not get the Eagles out of trouble, especially during the first quarter. The Eagles started their first 3 possessions inside their own 15-yd line. On the other hand, the Giants took the opening kickoff and drove the entire field. The Eagles special teams did a nice job to keep the Eagles in the game. R.J. McQuarters was tackled on his own 15-yard line to start the game. And later, Eagles punter Dirk Johnson held his own keeping the Giants from getting into field goal range as the offense struggled early on. And of course, David Akers was perfect with 3 FG’s (36, 48, 38). The tale of the game was the success of Brian Westbrook as he rushed 20 times for 141 yards. But his counterpart in Tiki Barber also played well in his farewell game, rushing 26 times for 137 yards. But Barber had a good percentage of his yardage early in the game. After the Giants first possession, where Barber rushed 3 times for 25 yards, the Eagles defense stiffened and held him in check for the most part, except a 41-yard run late in 2nd quarter down to the Eagles 2-yard line. But the next 2 plays, Barber gained nothing and the secondary forced an incompletion on third down, forcing a FG to tie the game at 10-10.

Well back to the game-winning FG drive. The Eagles had one plan. Run Westbrook. Westbrook gained 11, 5, 5 and 13 yards in succession getting 3 first downs and ticking the clock down to the 2-minute warning and the Giants couldn’t do anything but watch and hope. Hope that is that Akers would miss or the snap of the FG in the closing seconds would be botched as the Cowboys Tony Romo did against Seattle the previous night. Two more runs and a kneel down set the stage for the Eagles to end the game with just 3 seconds left. All that stood between were 38 yards and the foot of the Eagles kicker David Akers. The snap was good and the very reliable hands of Koy Detmer’s hold were perfect. And so was the kick by Akers and the Eagles had won 23-20 and the clock read 0:00. There was no Giants miracle comeback as had happened back in week #2 of the regular season. The Giants season is over and the Eagles get to travel to New Orleans next week to play the Saints.

Though Philadelphia won the game outright on the game’s final play, the Eagles effectively won this game in the second quarter. First, the Eagles had held the Giants 3 straight times early in the game and on the Eagles fourth possession starting at their own 16-yard line started to move the ball. On first down, Garcia completed a 9-yd pass to Reggie Brown. Brown also had a great game with 7 receptions for 73 yards. Then Westbrook caught a short pass for 6 more yards and the Eagles had their first 1st down of the game. Then Brian Westbrook took over. On play 7 from the Giants 49-yd line, he took the ball and methodically ran all the way for the touchdown, cutting back twice leaving the Giants’ tacklers flailing and chasing. Score 7-7! Sheldon Brown then intercepted a ball from Eli Manning and returned it back to the Giants 37-yard line. Brian Westbrook gained 22 yards alone on the first play. Correll Buckhalter then bashed his way to another first down on the next 2 plays down to the 4-yard line. The Giants defense stiffened and eventually forced a field goal. After the Giants retied the game at 10 late in the second quarter, the Eagles drove the ball on the strength of Garcia’s arm. Garcia orchestrated a beautiful 10-play, 80-yard drive, completed 5 passes to LJ Smith, Reggie Brown and Donté Stallworth mixed with a few runs in between. Finally with 1:01 left in the half, the Garcia hit Stallworth again for a 28-yard TD completion. That gave the Eagles a 17-10 lead at the half.

The Eagles defense dominated after that until Lito got hurt. And even then, the Giants needed a couple of pass interfernce calls to get back into the game. Philadelphia did not play their best game, but still managed to win it. In order to win next week though, they better bring their “A” game as they had on Christmas night in Dallas. Otherwise, the streak of 6 straight wins will end. The best scenario for the Eagles is to have the Birds win next week, that is the Eagles and Seahawks. Then the NFC Championship Game would be back in Philadelphia. Let’s just hope for the best that the Eagles go down to the “Big Easy” and bring home another victory.