The Philadelphia Eagles are now perhaps the hottest team in the NFC, Are they also the most dangerous too? How about this scenario? Eagles win out, they will officially qualify for the playoffs for the that last wild card spot if either Tampa or Atlanta also loses two of the last 3 games. They will probably play at Arizona the first week in January. They already beat the cards by 28 points. Next up, those New York Giants. Just as the Giants beat Dallas last season, can the Eagles make the playoffs and if they advance to the Divisional round, beat the team that is a favorite to get to the Super Bowl. I know the men in blue don’t want that to happen. They’d rather play Tampa or Atlanta in their first playoff game, not those very familiar Philadelphia Eagles. The best team may not have won this Sunday, but the team playing the best did. And boy did the Eagles ever dominate those Giants. Take away those meaningless 70 yards and that last TD drive in the last minute of the game and the Eagles would of outgained New York 331-141 and would won by a score of 20-7. Take away those blocked FG’s, and the Birds would of won 26-0!!!

Essentially, the Philadelphia defense pitched a shutout of the Giants. One lucky special teams TD and one free TD by the team just allowing the Giants offense to finish off the clock and it would have been more realistic of what the final score showed. The first quarter was a draw. Each team had three possessions and neither team did much except punt. Even early on Brian Westbrook did not do much. Looked like it would end up being one of those infamous 10-6 games that these two teams are known to play at times, especially here in Giants Stadium. Westbrook gained just 7 yards on his first 6 carries. Then Donovan McNabb connected with Kevin Curtis for a 32-yard reception. After that great catch by Curtis, it was three straight plays for losses and the Eagles had 4th-and-13 from the Giants 33-yard line. Akers booted a 51-yd FG straight down the middle of the uprights. That’s right. David Akers field of horrors was finally vanquished after the wily old veteran was successful on his first ever 50+ FG in Giants Stadium. That was with the wind’s help. It was his first FG over 45 yards in 9 attempts. Then to start the second quarter, the Giants marched right down the field, but the Eagles defense finally forced the Giants offense to bog down and they were forced into a 47-yd FG attempt for John Carney. Trent Cole blocked the field goal. That was just the beginning to what was to come.

Halfway through the second quarter, the Eagles finally started to move the ball consistently for the first time in the game. They were even successful on converting third downs into first downs. The first was a 3rd-and-7 from their own 26 and McNabb found an open Kevin Curtis for a 10-yd gain. Then on 3rd-and-9 from the 48, he found LJ Smith open along the left sidelines. He gained 10 yards before being forced out-of-bounds. Two plays later, Westbrook broke through the middle of the Giants defense and raced all the way to the end zone for a 30-yard TD run. The Giants did answer with a few first downs, but the Eagles defense eventually forced Eli Manning to throw an interception on 4th down. Eagles got the ball back on their own 42-yard line with just 1:02 left in the half. They moved right down the field and were poised to take a 13-0 lead with Akers lining up for a short 32-yd FG. Justin Tuck blocked it and the Giants Kevin Dockery picked it up and ran it back to the house and the home crowd exploded into cheers for the only time in this game. A 13-0 lead, turned into another nightmarish small 10-7 as the 71-yd TD return put the Giants on the scoreboards and back into the game. It was a near disaster.

Coming out of the second half, the Eagles got the ball and with momentum on New York’s side as was the wind, the Eagles offense responded by driving the field again. With 7:38 off the clock with mostly runs by Brian Westbrook, the Eagles were poised to increase their lead to 13-7. Nope, it was blocked again. This time Terrell Thomas tipped the 34-yd FG attempt. The ball still almost made it through the uprights, but the strong winds blew straight into the ground just a few yards short. Two possessions and the score should have been 16-0, but it remained 10-7. The wind did not help the Giants offense as the Eagles defense tightened their grips even more holding them to virtually zero yardage in the second half. As a team that generally rolls up 200+ rushing yards on Philadelphia as they had in early November, the Giants managed just 88 total rushing yards. The Eagles had 144 yards rushing. Westbrook was responsible for 131 of them by himself. For good measure, he also caught 6 passes for 72 yards. He topped off his day with a 40-yard TD catch and run as a helpless Antonio Pierce tried in vain to catch the fast back but to no avail. The Eagles took it to the Giants, but the Giants still had one more hope with a 4th-and-1 at the Eagles 38-yd line with 9:35 left in the game. Trent Cole and Darren Howard forced Eli to throw the ball into the ground and that was it. McNabb played another mistake-free game with a QB rating of 92.5. He completed 19-of-30 passes for 191 yards and 1 TD. And as in the first game, the Eagles QB was sack-free. He even ran for three first downs on 5 carries for 20 yards. He was flawless and so were the Eagles as a team. And now they have something to play for, THE PLAYOFFS!!