One week after the Bears debacle, the Eagles traveled to Minnesota to play the Vikings in that Dome. In this game, the Eagles even scored more than 1 TD. And for the NFL’s newest dynamic player in Adrian Peterson, the Birds defense even held him to just 70 yards rushing on 20 carries and no TD’s. The Eagles defense really came out hard limiting the Minnesota pass offense to just 151 yards and the Vikes had just 256 total yards. The Eagles offense gained 385 total yards and Donovan McNabb a pretty good showing at quarterback, completing 23-of-36 passes for 333 yards and 1 TD. McNabb also did not throw a single INT. It was a clean game for both teams as none of the 3 QB’s who played threw an INT and there were no fumbles. Peterson did have the game’s biggest gaff as he fielded a bouncing ball on an Eagles kickoff to start the third quarter. Peterson accidentally stepped out of bounds on the 1-yard line. The Eagles defense stopped the Vikings on three straight plays forcing a punt. The Eagles got great field advantage on the ensuing punt and took full advantage with a David Akers 27-yd FG, extending the lead to 20-10.

Minnesota came out of the start of the game firing on all cylinders, driving 79 yards on 11-plays to score the game’s first TD. Vikings starting QB Kelly Holcomb found former Giants TE Visanthe Shiancoe with a 9-yard pass to give the home team an early 7-0 lead. Then, the Eagles former offense coordinator in Brad Childress pulled one over on Andy Reid. The new Vikings head coach called for the onside kick and the team recovered at the Eagles 48-yard line. Trent Cole sacked Holcomb on first down and an intentional grounding play on third down forced the Vikings to punt from their own 33-yard line. Late in the first quarter, McNabb and the Eagles offense finally gained some confidence with a nice 72-yard drive to setup Akers with an easy 20-yard FG. The key play was a nice 50-yard pass from McNabb to Greg Lewis. The Eagles defense stiffened even more, holding the Minnesota offense to punting situations on their next 3 possessions. In the meantime, the Eagles offense finally converted two redzone possessions into touchdowns.

At the start of the second quarter, the Eagles QB Donovan McNabb connected three times to Reggie Brown for gains of 13, 13 and 30 yards. It was a 6-yard shovel pass to Brian Westbrook that finally gave the Eagles a TD and a 10-7 lead. Late in the second quarter, Westbrook dove over the goal-line defense for his second TD of the game. That made it 17-7. The Vikings Ryan Longwell added 3 points from 39-yards out to complete the scoring at 17-10 going into the half. Akers added two field goals in the second half to finish the Bird’s scoring at 23-16. The Eagles defense came up big too, limiting the Vikings to just 2 FG’s in the second half. With the score at 20-13, Trent Cole stepped up again, sacking Brooks Bollinger and forcing a 48-yd FG. Bollinger had replaced Holcomb on this drive as Juqua Thomas sacked the starting QB and knocked him out of the game. The injury was listed as a whiplash injury to the neck. Minnesota’s defense also stepped up, holding Brian Westbrook to just 46 rushing yards on 21 carries. Their defense also held McNabb from scoring any 2nd half TD’s. Ultimately, McNabb and the defense were better than Minnesota’s and the Eagles escaped with a very important 23-16 victory. Another key to the Eagles success late in the fourth quarter were two sixty plus yard punts by Sav Rocca. The second was a 65-yarder with 15 seconds left in the game that went out-of-bounds on the Vikings 9-yard line. That clinched the win for the Birds and they improved to 3-4 and host Dallas next week.