Posted on 12/06/2004 9:03:15 AM PST by Libertarian4Bush
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Donovan McNabb usually puts up these numbers playing video games.
McNabb threw a career-high five touchdown passes in the first half and finished with a team-record 464 yards passing, leading the Philadelphia Eagles to a 47-17 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
Brian Westbrook had 11 catches for 156 yards and three TDs and Terrell Owens caught eight passes for 161 yards and one score. McNabb set a team record by completing his first 14 passes and finished 32-of-43.
"Statistically, it felt like playing a video game," McNabb said. "We were clicking on all cylinders. We spread the ball around. Everyone contributed. We sent that message out that week in and week out we come ready to play."
Meanwhile, Brett Favre threw two interceptions that led to Philadelphia's first two scores. His streak of games with a TD pass was snapped at 37, second in NFL history to Johnny Unitas' 47 straight.
The four-time NFC East champion Eagles (11-1) matched the best start in team history. They have won nine games by a double-digit margin and hold a two-game lead over Atlanta for first place in the conference.
Since losing to Pittsburgh 27-3 last month, the Eagles have won four in a row by at least 20 points, outscoring their opponents 151-50.
"I don't think there's any defense that can stop us," Westbrook said. "We can only stop ourselves with penalties and mistakes."
The Packers (7-5) snapped a six-game winning streak, but remained tied with Minnesota for first place in the NFC North.
"We can throw this one in the recycle bin," Favre said. "We didn't play very well. We didn't give much of an effort."
A rematch of a thrilling playoff game 11 months ago, this one never lived up to its hype. The Eagles scored four TDs in the second quarter, led 35-3 at halftime and rested most of their starters with 8:18 left.
The Packers were 72 seconds away from going to the NFC championship game last January, before the Eagles converted a fourth-and-26, tied the game in regulation and won in overtime. Philadelphia then lost the NFC title game for the third straight year, while Green Bay fired its defensive coordinator and agonized over the loss throughout the offseason.
For one quarter, this game was competitive.
McNabb lost a fumble inside Green Bay's 25 on Philadelphia's opening possession, but Favre was intercepted by Brian Dawkins on the ensuing drive.
Three plays later, McNabb and Owens connected on a 41-yard catch-and-run TD. Owens caught the ball at the 26, streaked down the left sideline, broke one tackle and leaped into the end zone for his 14th touchdown, breaking the team's single-season record.
"I just thank God for Donovan. It's special. I can't put into words what he means to me," Owens said.
Favre drove the Packers to Philadelphia's 15 early in the second quarter, but was intercepted by Sheldon Brown at the 7. McNabb then led the Eagles 93 yards, tossing a 9-yard pass to Westbrook for a 14-0 lead.
McNabb threw a 41-yard TD pass to Westbrook on Philadelphia's next drive, giving the Eagles a 21-0 lead. McNabb executed a perfect play-fake to fullback Josh Parry, who has no carries this season, and hit a wide-open Westbrook in the flat.
McNabb's 6-yard pass to L.J. Smith gave the Eagles a 28-0 lead, and his 12-yard toss to Westbrook made it 35-0 in the second quarter.
David Akers kicked four field goals in the second half.
Packers backup quarterback Craig Nall threw TD passes of 1 yard to William Henderson and 17 yards to Javon Walker in the fourth quarter.
Favre finished 14-of-29 for 131 yards. Running back Ahman Green wasn't a factor in his first game after sitting out with bruised ribs last week.
Eagles coach Andy Reid broke Greasy Neale's franchise record with his 67th win in his sixth season in Philadelphia.
"We're certainly not as bad as we looked," Packers coach Mike Sherman said. "We're a lot better than we played."
Game notes The 1949 Eagles finished 11-1, before winning the NFL championship. They started 11-1 in 1980, finished 12-4 and lost the Super Bowl. ... Green Bay hasn't won in Philadelphia since 1962, losing seven straight. ... McNabb has a career-high 28 TDs passes this season. ... Owens became the first Eagles player to reach 1,000 yards receiving since Irving Fryar in 1997. He broke the team record with his seventh 100-yard game. ... Favre's record streak of starts moved to 220, counting playoffs, and is almost 100 more than Ron Jaworski's previous NFL quarterback mark of 123. ... Favre has thrown seven picks in his last five games
True enough. But any overconfidence fueled by the easy regular season should be tempered by the memory of three straight NFCCG losses.
Also, the disparity between the Eagles and everybody else in the NFC so glaring, it's hard to imagine anyone beating them. There's no 2002 Bucs defense or 2003 Panthers defense out there to stop McNabb, Owens and Westbrook. The Vikings could get healthy and give them a run offensively, but the Eagle defense is head-and-shoulders above Minnesota's D.
Obviously, the AFC is another story altogether. All of AFC's big three (NE, Pitt and Indy) could give the Eagles fits in Jacksonville.
Still trying live that one down. Fact is, Any Reid has been outcoached twice in the playoffs: Carolina & Tampa Bay. Of the 2 I really can't figure out the Tampa Bay loss. It was obvious from the start of that game that TB was using the Jumbo Lineup / No Huddle to trap the Eagles into a run defense lineup -- then they'd pass. I still have visions of Levon Kirkland's feeble attempts at pass coverage. And Reid never adjusted -- Pathetic.
As Chris Berman says, "That's why they play the game."
Yeah, right. [Rolling eyes.]
Do they still have to have a judge on duty in their stadium during games?
The adjustment was Jim Johnson's to make, and he did it about halfway through the second quarter. The Bucs scored three points the last 38:00 of the game.
McNabb's goal-line interception on a stupid, rushed play is where that game was ultimately lost.
The Eagles probably still have a judge & holding cells in their stadium (whatever it's called). And I think we've found one of their detainees :-))
That entire sentence has not one shred of truth in it. You should go do some research.
Right now, the AFC leads the NFC 32-18 (64%) in head-to-head matchups. This breaks down as:
Couple that line of successful predictions with your observation above that this may be the year for the Eagles.
Unfortunately for them, the Eagles are feasting off a pathetically weak division and conference. This is the kind of team losses in a first round playoff game, but even if they make it to the Super Bowl, the stronger AFC team should easily win.
No, Judge Seamus is gone. But we do like to throw live grenades at Santa Clause, nuns and handicapped orphans.
True. While the Eagles have managed a 2-1 record against the AFC so far, they barely eked out a win at Cleveland, let Baltimore stay close at home, and got crushed by Pittsburgh on the road.
No disrespect to our future opponents, but The Pack really looked like it was going to be our last test. Hopefully someone will step up and give us a challenge in the Playoffs, because this team will play down to it's opponents on occasion (see the OT game against the Browns). We need something to shake us out of a potential sleepwalk.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
just to throw some numbers out there, for a team to win a division at 7-9 would require the division itself to have, realistically, about 23 wins and 41 losses (using an example of 7-9, 6-10, 6-10, 4-12). given that the divisional games will fall 12-12, that means the division's teams have to be 11-29 outside of their division. in the NFC west, they're 2-10 vs. AFC, and can be reasonably expected to finish 3-13 vs. AFC. this would still require them to go 8-16 (just .333) in same-conference, non-division games.
hopefully the weak NFC West is just a short-term consequence of realignment. as free agency redistributes players, who, at least to some extent, want to be in places where they can win, there will be more balance. think of how dominant the AFC East would be if the Colts HADN'T been removed from it...!
odd things tend to happen when you play in St. Louis...
The CW is that the new alignment has made wild card spots a lot harder to get, that loss of one spot to the fourth division winner really makes it hard. As you kind of point out with your math, in the old way if each division had a clear #2 team then chances were they'd get the wild card spots, now if each division has a clear #2 then two of them will be watching the wild card round on TV.
Current format being 8 divisions, or the wild card? I doubt it when there were 6 divisions and 6 total wild card births, the 8 division format is pretty new so not yet.
Sorry for the double hit but I forgot to read the last half of your post.
The Eagles schedule looks easy because it is. Being in the NFC East they've got lame opponents for the double hits. For the in conference rotation they drew the NFC North which is a train wreck (although with the NFC that's a fill in the blank sentence, all the divisions are wrecks). For the AFC rotation they got the North which has toughies in Pitt (only loss for Philly) and Baltimore (a squeaker but a win) and two highly mediocre Ohio teams. Which just leaves the strength of schedule games which are Carolina who's been destroyed by injuries and later the oh so goofy Rams. It's not going to wind up as soft a schedule as last year's Cowboys (5 games against the 4 worst teams in the league) but it's still pretty easy. It's an aldente noodle of a schedule, some hard bits but mostly soft.
A sore loser? Ha! Considering I'm not a Green Bay fan (I'm a Pats fan - winners, unlike Phillie)... Wrong on one count.
Contempt for a team and a city? Pshaw. I have no contempt for the Eagles, nor any contempt for the City of Philadelphia (except for it's Left-wing politics, much like Seattles). I do, however, have contempt for fans of the Eagles - not all fans, but certainly ones like you. You are 0 for 2...
Havn't won anything? Whoa! Ya finally got something right! Now, do me the couresy of not blaming me because Phillie hasn't won a sports championship in decades, ok? It's not me.
Final Score - 1 for 2. Better luck next time.
Absolutel..but the records are misleading.. Look, I'm thrilled at my 9-3 Jets..they're in the drivers seat for the wild card..but if I take the combined records of the 9 teams they beat, ( and NOT counting the Fish twice), it's 36-50...THat's means they'll go out in the first round..The NFL's schedule, which lets last season's weaker teams play each other..can cause a skewed W/L record..
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