Despite a slow start to both halves, the Eagles topped the Vikings 26-14.
Tavaris Jackson was awful, clearly not being ready for the big game with all of our eyes on him. He had a bad completicion rate, struggled mightily in the face of the predictable pressure in his face, forced too many balls into coverage, and threw a pick-six to Asante' Samuel on a jumped-route. In fact, he was quite lucky that was the only interception he threw, as Philadelphia's defenders had chances to catch floating, poorly-thrown balls all night. Anytime the Vikings got into a third-and-long, you knew the punting team would be making an appearance one play later. Adrian Peterson had some long bursts and two touchdowns, but the Vikings could only give him twenty carries, as the Eagles defended him nicely and he got hurt early in the first quarter, perhaps convincing coach Brad Childress to keep him on the sidelines more often.
The Eagles were not exactly a juggernaut on offense tonight, but got the job done. It was fairly easy considering the good field position that they usually had to begin drives, a combination of good punting by them, the speed of rookie DeSean Jackson in returning punts, and the poor punt-coverage of the Vikings, a common trend of their season. Although they gained very little on the ground, credit coach Andy Reid with sticking with the running game to keep a balance on offense, which opened up the passing game some. I was a little surprised that, with Pat Williams out, they couldn't get anything with the running game, though.
McNabb completed some big plays, the biggest on a seventy-one yard screen touchdown to Brian Westbrook, who used his good blocking and field vision to get into the endzone. For the most part, though, McNabb was able to find some open receivers even while under a good amount of pressure from the defensive line. He did commit two turnovers though, one being an interception and the other a forced fumble by Jared Allen. Philadelphia didn't manage to get more than nineteen points on offense because of their inability to convert on third down after driving down the field and tiring the Minnesota defense, something that needs to be fixed by next week, or else…
So, the Eagles will now travel to New York next week for what should be an epic match-up with the Giants. They have to be disappointed to be playing a team that beat them just a few weeks ago, possibly creating a scenario where both number-one seeds lose in the divisional rounds.
This is, on the other, a good outcome for the Cardinals, who will now travel to the warmer state of North Carolina to take on the Panthers, another game featuring high-profile offenses and, at times, shaky defenses that should be plenty entertaining.
