The Eagles 2nd round pick from the University of Houston finally got his chance. Kevin Kolb in his third year now had a career day as he completed 31 of 51 passes for 391 yards. Well, maybe not a career day yet as it was just his first start in the NFL. But he sure looked damn good as the Eagles QB Sunday. I personally did not have too much faith in his ability until that 3rd-and-2 play 9:13 minutes into the first quarter. Just before the Eagles third offensive play, we saw the Saints QB Drew Brees masterfully move the Saints right through the Eagles defense, as the linebackers could not cover the tight ends. The still hated Jeremy Shockey caught three passes for 27 yards and Danny Thomas caught the first pass of the game for an 11-yard gain. Brees marched the Saints 74 yards in 8 plays with the quarterback finding Marcus Colston open for a 15-yd TD. Well back to Kolb; he struck right back with a 71-yard bomb to second year sensation DeSean Jackson and just like that, the game was tied at 7. The rest of the half remained pretty close as the Eagles were down just 17-13 at halftime.

As I said, Kolb was not bad, but still made a few mistakes, but by then this game was just about over anyway. He did have 3 INT’s, but they were basically irrelevant to the outcome. To me, his biggest mistake came in the second quarter with the Saints ahead 10-7 as the QB led a nice 15-play, 68-yard drive. The Birds were set to take the lead as they had the ball first-and-goal at the 10. Kolb could not get the ball closer than the 5-yard line before facing 4th down. An Akers’ 23-yard FG made 10-10. A golden opportunity wasted. That was when the defense and mostly special teams mistakes started the Eagles in the wrong direction. Just after the 2-minute warning, the Eagles defense forced a punt and Philly would get the ball back with plenty of time for the offense to try to take the lead. Except that Jackson fielded the punt from his 2-yd line. If he would of just left the ball go, it would have bounced into the end zone for a touchback. His decision ended with 2 penalties as the receiver returned the ball to the 31-yard line. So Philadelphia started at the 3-yard line instead. The Eagles offense failed to get a first down and a Sav Rocca punt (49 yards) gave the Saints excellent field position at their 46-yard line. Two long passes to Reggie Bush (29 yards) and Marcus Colston (25 yards) and the Saints had a 17-10 lead. But somehow, Kolb led the team in just 43 seconds into FG position, where David Akers booted a 32-yard FG as time expired.

The second half started out with disaster as Ellis Hobbs fumbled away the kickoff. Brees attacked like a tiger. Throwing an 11-yard TD for a 24-13 Saints lead. Two plays after the Eagles got the ball back, linebacker Scott Shanle picked off a Kolb pass and Drew Brees was back in business. He quickly made it 31-13. Later in the third quarter, Hobbs made up for his mistake partially with a nice 68-yard kickoff return. Kolb took full advantage of the team’s good field position and found Jason Avant open on the back of the end zone. That made it 34-20. The Eagles got the ball back, but a 1-yd run by Westbrook and two incompletions later, the ball was back in the possession of New Orleans. All game long, the field position was always in the Saints favor. Time after time, the Saints started at mid-field. This time was no different and 6-plays later, Reggie Bush ran one in from 19 yards out on a misdirection play and the Saints were marching on to victory with a 41-20 lead. You cannot give a really good QB field position where he only has ½ the field or less to score. Special teams made sure that the Saints would good field position all game long. The Hobbs fumble and Kolb’s first INT in the third quarter put the Eagles to rest as Brees converted Eagles’ gaffs into 14 quick points. Just as the Green Bay game a few seasons back, the Eagles gave away free points to a team that does not need any extra help. The defense did not attack as they did last week against the Panthers. There was no real answer to how to stop these high-powered Saints, thus we are now 1-1 again to start another season with Andy Reid as head coach.