Sunday, September 21, 2008

Eagles Show some D!

Wow...after getting torched for 41 points by the Dallas Cowboys, basically losing a game because they just couldn't get off the field, the Eagles ABSOLUTELY DOMINATED the Pittsburgh Steelers today at the Linc. The score wasn't impressive -- 15-6. But the scoreboard did not reflect the dominance the Birds' defense put on display.

9 sacks (and hell the only reason it wasn't 12 or 13 was because Big Ben managed to scramble forward for a 1 or 2 gain a few times, plus two sacks were wiped out by penalties)
3 turnovers, including another pick by Asante Samuel, and a classic flying-Wolverine Dawkins leaping sack/forced fumble/fumble recovery with put the Eagles in position to kick the final FG and put the game truly out of reach.
1 Safety - just some insurance points, but helped pushed the overall lead to 9 pts by the end.
33 yards rushing! Against the Steelers???? you gotta be kidding me.
2/13 for 3rd down conversions allowed. The funny part is - there were no punts in the first half.

Pressure all day long, and when the Steelers did try some of Pitt's bread-and-butter running plays, blam! Stewart Bradley would knife in from him MIKE position and kill the play. No running game = no balance for the Steelers = JJ teeing off on Big Ben.

The biggest worry: the status of Brian Westbrooks right foot. Not much information came from the post-game press conferences except the X-rays were negative, so his ankle/foot does not have broken bones....could still be a bad sprain though, and we might be w/o #36 for a while. I hope not.

Both McNabb and RB Tony Hunt were also banged up. Hunt got clocked in the head from behind on the opening drive (he fumbled of course to add some insult to the injury), just when it looks like the Eagles would start with an awesome, ram-it-down-the-Steelers-throat drive to begin the game. 5 had three Steelers collapse on top of him during an ill-called flea-flicker to end the first quarter.

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