Once again, the Philadelphia Eagles dominated those men in blue from the northern part of Jersey. And once again this season, the Eagles will face a familiar foe in the Arizona Cardinals. The Eagles have already beaten these same Cards on Thanksgiving night, 48-20. The Eagles scored 3 straight touchdowns to start that game on the way to a convincing victory against those red birds. I remember the NFL Network’s TV headline read, “Battle Of The Birds”, which was really not a battle at all. The upcoming NFC Championship Game should be more competitive, but I still expect the attack birds in midnight green to come out on top by a double-digit score. But back to the Giants game, there was a huge difference in why the Eagles have mastered the Giants again. Fact one: the quarterbacks! Donovan McNabb had a tough first half and only completed 4-of-9 passes for 18 yards in the first 28+ minutes. Then something happened in those last 90 seconds of the second quarter. The Giants kicker John Carney had just successfully kicked a 34-yd FG to give New York an 8-7 lead. Starting at the their own 25-yd line, McNabb drove the offense on a quick 68 yard 12-play drive in just 1:28. McNabb would complete 5-of-9 passes for 50 yards on this last minute drive to set up David Akers with an easy 25-yd FG to give the Eagles a 10-8 halftime lead. McNabb was even better in the second half; finishing the game completing 22-of-40 passes for 217 yards and 2 INT’s and 1 big TD. He also rushed for a TD in the first quarter. His final QB rating was only 58.0. His 2nd half rating was 75.8, but he finished up with a 4th quarter rating of 151.3.

During the second half, McNabb’s Eagles outscored those Giants 16-3 and his numbers showed it to; 13-0f-22 for 149 yards, 1 INT and 1 TD. He also converted 7-of-14 third downs and in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, he converted 7-of-9 during the crucial time when the Birds were moving into the wind. In the first quarter, both teams came out tentatively, trying to establish the running game. The Giants finished the game out rushing the Eagles 138-59, but were far from dominating this game. Brandon Jacobs had a nice game, rushing 19 times for 92 yards. He had just the one big run of 24 yards in the third quarter that set up the Giants go-ahead FG at 11-10. But other than that one run, the Giants running game were ineffective. The Giants main man helped kill what chances the Giants had in winning this playoff game. Eli Manning finished the game with just a 40.7 QB rating. He completed just 15-of-29 passes for a measly 169 yards. He was picked off twice, the first INT by Asante Samuel, who returned the ball all the way to the Giants 2-yd line setting up the Eagles first TD. Eli was pressured throughout the game, but not to the point that he was being knocked down on every play. The Eagles pass defense played smart and were always around the ball, with Quintin Mikell and Brian Dawkins anchoring the team making play after play. Eli could not master the swirling winds at the cold and blustery Giants Stadium and the Giants as a team only converted on 3-of-13 third downs. Manning was terrible and his passes often fluttered harmlessly to the ground. Late in the game, McNabb threw a perfect spiral of a pass and connected with DeSean Jackson for a crucial 48-yard pass reception. That set up Akers last FG at just 20-yards out and finished off the scoring in the game for both teams.

This game was a game of quarterbacks and defense. Neither running backs, tight ends or wide receivers on either team really stepped up with huge games. Yes, Jackson’s play was big as was Jason Avant’s clutch 21-yard reception on 3rd-and-20 in the third quarter. It was a game of field position. The Giants could not take advantage of decent field position on their part throughout the entire game. While the Eagles generally started out deep in their own territory most of the time, McNabb was able to convert just enough third downs to keep ball possession close to even, especially during the crucial middle two quarters when the Eagles had to play into the strong swirling winds. And how about that David Akers as he went 3-for-3 on FG’s again. Giants Stadium was once a house of horrors, but not this season as he is now 6-for-6 in both games. He even has two 50-yarders too. The Giants kicker missed two costly FG’s and the Giants offense failed to score a TD. The Eagles’ pass defense once again stood tall, not allowing a passing TD now in 5 straight games. In their last 4 games period, only 1 Clinton Portis and 2 Adrian Peterson rushing TD’s is all this defense has allowed. The Giants defense played great too and their pressure at times was relentless, but McNabb fought through it all to lead the offense on a key third quarter TD drive that put the game out of reach for good. He first found Kevin Curtis on an important 3rd-and-5 play for 8 yards. He also connected with LJ Smith for 6 more yards and a face-masking penalty moved the ball down to the Giants 29-yard line. At the start of the 4th quarter, McNabb ran a perfectly run play-action play and found Brent Celek wide open for a 1-yd TD to give Philly a 20-11 lead.

That fourth quarter TD broke the backs of the New York Giants. Though they had most of the quarter still to play, the Giants were down two scores and the offense looked awfully cold as they tried to move the ball down the field. The running game was not dominating enough for the New York offense to stay at it. The wind was atrocious and with Giants going against it in the fourth quarter, it made it all the more difficult to come back. Just like on Dec. 7th, the Eagles held the wind in the fourth, grabbed the lead for good and the defense was just too dominating for the Giants to amount any comeback. The Eagles defense came up big twice, stopping the Giants 2 times on fourth down. First with 12:49 left and after a coach’s challenge by Tom Coughlin, the Giants were faced with 4th-and-inches at their own 44-yard line. The Eagles two big defensive tackles, Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley stuffed Eli Manning as the QB tried the sneak. The Eagles were able to kill off about 3 minutes before punting the ball back deep in Giants territory. With just over 6 minutes left, the Giants were faced this time with fourth down at the 47-yd line. This time, they gave the ball to Jacobs, who was tackled short again by Stewart Bradley. This time, there was no doubt to the ending and Philadelphia would add a FG to make it 23-11 and advance to their 5th NFC Title Game in 8 years. The Eagles again were the better team, becoming the first team to win in New York twice in the same season against these Giants since they moved to New Jersey. They did not need any luck, just a relentless defense and very effective Donovan McNabb. And since Westbrook was not a factor, McNabb proved to all that he is world-class quarterback and he may be able to lead this team to the Promised Land. Two more wins and his legacy will be complete.