First off, congratulations to Andy Reid on his 100th career NFL win as head coach. He became just the 34th coach in NFL history to achieve this hefty goal, but only five have a higher winning percentage than Reid. Secondly, Donovan McNabb was simply magnificent, completing 16-of-21 passes for 264 yards and 3 TD’s to go along with an almost perfect QB rating of 157.2. It was his second best of his career. Eagles rookie wide receiver Jeremy Maclin also had a huge day, catching 6 passes for 142 yards with two 40+-yard TD’s. And lastly, Asante Samuel had his first multi-INT game since Nov. 25, 2007, when he twice intercepted AJ Feely in Foxboro as his Patriots barely beat the Eagles 31-28. But both of these teams put on a performance not worthy of admission to the game itself. The Eagles defense, time and time again committed atrocious penalties, allowing the sorry Bucs offense to continue drives. Of the 10 penalties, 8 were on the defense. All but 1 of those (an offsides call) gave Tampa Bay a first down. Here is a very negative staggering stat: Tampa Bay ranked 31st in the NFL in third down efficiency (22%) was 9-of-18 on third downs against the NFL’s best rated third defense.

Tampa’s QB Josh Johnson actually did not play that bad of a game for a rookie against this defense. Though he threw 3 costly INT’s, mostly due to an aggressive pass rush, Johnson still managed to complete 26-of-50 of his passes for 240 yards and 2 TD’s. Both of the touchdowns were to Kellen Winslow. The young QB led the Bucs too in the rushing department as he ran for 40 yards, due mostly to being flushed from the pocket. The Eagles defense was relentless in that aspect. The Eagles D did manage to sack Johnson three times. The defense basically shut down the Bucs running game and their elite back in Cadillac Williams. Williams managed just 8 yards on 10 carries. If you discount the QB’s rushing yards, the rest of the Bucs’ backs gained just 45 total rushing yards. The Eagles had their problems on the ground too as they managed just 76 rushing yards. In fact, McNabb was the Eagles leading rusher with 30 yards. Brian Westbrook added just 18 yards on 6 carries, but he did score his first TD on the ground for the first time this season and his first in 9 games.

The Eagles won this game with the quick strike offense. On the Birds first possession, McNabb was flushed from the pocket, and scrambled 13 yards for a first down. On the next play, McNabb threw a bomb and connected with a 51-yard TD reception to rookie Jeremy Maclin. Then a few of those defensive penalties helped the Bucs to drive deep into Eagles territory, but the defense made a stand on 4th-and-1 on the 23-yd line. McNabb then connected on a nice pass to Brent Celek to his left. The tight end then hurdled a startled Ronde Barber en route to a 38-yard gain. Three plays later, McNabb found Maclin open again down the middle for another 17 yards. That setup a short pass to newcomer Leonard Weaver and the full back rumbled into the end zone for his first TD as an Eagle. The play went for 20 yards and gave Philly a 14-0 lead. That spunky Josh Johnson led a quick-strike offense at the two-minute warning, completing passes of 31 yards to Antonio Bryant and 24 yards to Kellen Winslow. That setup a 9-yard pass for the TD with 2:00 left. The Eagles next possession looked eerily similar to their first. McNabb began with another scramble away from pressure for a gain of 17 yards. Next play, another long bomb down the middle to Maclin was successful as the rookie beat both safeties to score a TD on the 40-yard pass play. Asante Samuel climaxed the first half with his first INT of 2 in the game.

The second half was a world of slop. Dropped passes, incompletions and penalties highlighted most of the third quarter. But halfway through the quarter, Asante Samuel setup another Eagles TD with his second INT of the game, returning the ball to the Buccaneers 27-yd line. After a 20-yard pass to Westbrook, the back then ran up the middle for a 7-yard TD run. For all in tense of purposes, this game was over after that play. Sure, Tampa added a late game TD and the Eagles added a last second safety to make the score 33-14. You never felt threatened by Tampa the rest of the way. The offense was pretty sharp most of the game, but did not really control the clock. Seems like, the second the offense was moving the ball, it quickly ended with a big-play TD. The Eagles travel to Oakland next week as the Raiders were just pounded into submission this week by the Giants. It should be another easy victory as they are already 14-point favorites on the road. We shall see.