Rough Draft

Super Bowl Bound

W00t! The Eagles are headed to Jacksonville for Super Bowl XXXIX. The 4th time was a charm and the Eagles finally win an NFC Championship game by beating the Atlanta Falcons 27-10.

The Eagles defense played an awesome game. Atlanta was one of the top rated rushing teams in the NFL and the Eagles held them to 99 rush yards. Vick was held to 26 rush yards on 4 attempts, most of which was in the first half. The Eagles defense put Vick under pressure all day and sacked him 4 times. Also of note is that both of the Falcons scoring drives were kept alive by penalties against the Eagles. One was a penalty on third down that gave the Falcons an automatic first, and the other penalty negated an Eagles interception.

Jeremiah Trotter is arguably the biggest factor in the Eagles greatly improved run defense. Reid moved him to middle linebacker following the Eagles loss to the Steelers in which they gave up 200+ rush yards. After that the Eagles held opponents under 100 yards rushing 5 out of the next 6 games.

The Eagles offense looked pretty good today as well, putting up 27 points against the Falcons. Westbrook was quiet in the first half, but they got him the ball constantly in the second half, and he delivered. There were a couple drives that the Eagles could have scored on and put the Falcons out of game even sooner. McNabb played pretty well, but overthrew open receivers several times. I think it says a lot about the Eagles offense that they made it to the Super Bowl even without Terrell Owens. He was undeniably a huge reason for the Eagles success throughout the season, but the other Eagles receivers, especially Greg Lewis and Freddie MItchell really stepped up in his absence.

The Eagles goal this year was not just to get to the Super Bowl, but to win it. So as McNabb said to the Philadelphia fans at the ceremony for NFC Championship trophy following the game, "Enjoy this now, but we're not done. We'll be bringing something else back for you."