Posted on 10/19/2003 3:27:20 PM PDT by litany_of_lies
Box Score:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/boxscore?gameId=231019019
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Twenty-five years ago the Philadelphia Eagles stunned the New York Giants with "The Fumble."
Now they have "The Punt Return" to rub in the Giants' faces.
Brian Westbrook scored on an 84-yard punt return with 1:16 to play, leading the Eagles to a 14-10 victory over the Giants on Sunday.
Until the return, the Giants' defense dominated the game between the two struggling NFC East powers. It had limited Donovan McNabb and the Eagles (3-3) to 134 total yards and one second-half first down.
All the Giants (2-4) needed to do to ice the game was have Jeff Feagles get off a punt and then rely on the defense to protect the lead, which New York took on a 1-yard touchdown pass from Kerry Collins to Jeremy Shockey in the third quarter.
But once again, New York was done in by its special teams. In the playoffs last year against San Francisco, the Giants had botched snaps on field goals and earlier this season against Dallas they blew a squib kick.
Feagles got off a wobbly punt that Westbrook caught, eluding a tackle by Giants special teams gunner David Tyree. Westbrook, who also scored on a 6-yard run in the first quarter, was beyond anyone within seconds. He outran Feagles to the sideline in front of the Giants' bench and then tiptoed along the sidelined to get past a last-ditch tackle by Marcellus Rivers before scoring.
The crowd of more than 78,000 was initially stunned and then they started booing.
Collins got New York to the Eagles 44-yard line with a quick 20-yard pass to Amani Toomer, but Philadelphia didn't allow another first down. Bobby Taylor broke up a fourth-down pass to Shockey, sending New York to another excruciating loss.
It was much like the feeling 25 years ago when quarterback Joe Piscarik fumbled as the Giants were running out the clock. Herman Edwards picked up the ball to give Philadelphia an unexpected win.
This win puts the Eagles back in the division chase and leaves the Giants desperate after a third straight close loss.
Brett Conway added a 39-yard field goal for the Giants, who trailed 7-3 at the half.
Collins set up the Giants' touchdown with an 11-yard third-down scramble that got the ball the Eagles 12.
Turnovers and mistakes have hurt both teams this season, and this game was no different.
The Eagles took a 7-3 lead following a first half that was as hard to watch.
Westbrook gave Philadelphia the lead by capping a 10-play, 89-yard drive with a 6-yard TD run. The big gainer was a 41-yard pass interference penalty against Ralph Brown, who was starting at cornerback for the injured Will Peterson.
Conway got New York on the board with a 39-yard field goal into the wind that just cleared the crossbar. Cornerback Will Allen set up the score by intercepting a third-down pass by McNabb at the Eagles 29.
McNabb finished 9-of-23 for 64 yards.
The half also saw the Eagles lose a fumble on the game's opening possession and the Giants botch a reverse and lose 20 yards.
Also late in the first quarter, Giants guard Rich Seubert broke his right leg.
If you knew ANYTHING about football, you would know that the Eagles WRs are the worst in the league. Defenses laugh when they have to go against them. Makes for a tought time as a QB when that happens.
Even after all that, McNabb is playing like shit this year. He's a shadow of the dominent QB he was the first 10 games of last year.
Yes, and it's fun watching the Phillie pundits twist themselves into pretzels to avoid criticizing McNabb. I don't know what McNabb is, but I know what he isn't: a hundred and fifteen million dollars.
There have been reports that he has been bothered by a nagging thumb injury.
Bring on the Champs!!!! Bring on Tampa!!! Bring on Ol' Sappy!!!
If the media thought they would be held to any kind of journalistic standard, they would be bending over backwards to be objective about McNabb.
They don't want to damage his ego by taking him out of the game.
Poor baby.
I remember that game well. I was watching the game with my father (both Iggles fans). With only seconds left to play, I got up to change the station (we didn't have remote control in those days!) when my father said "wait...leave it on....it's not over yet!" I told him that Pisarchek would just take a knee, and run out the clock. Instead, for whatever reason, he tried to hand the ball off to Larry Cszonka. The ball was fumbled and scooped up by Herman Edwards (the current Jets coach) who ran the ball in for the touchdown in what became known as "The Miracle of The Meadowlands".
Just got a PVR from our local cable folks (great deal...$5.00/month) and saw that this game was on ESPN Classic multiple times over the weekend. Great ending! Lifelong (suffering) Iggles fan, Rush was/is right and Donovan needs to be benched with a 51.1 QB rating.
1. The Giants deserved to lose. They ran three give-up plays and didn't even try to make a first down after an awful Eagles punt. Then, they didn't even try to kick it out of bounds at the 20, and instead kicked the ball to the only threat the Eagles have. They played like wusses at the end of the game, and the football gods punished them.
2. My soon-to-be 5-11 Redskins lost to both of these sorry teams.
3. The Cowboys are 5-1. Add two wins against the Redskins, and they're 7-1, needing only to go 3-5 in the rest of their games to have a good shot at the playoffs. If they split the rest of their non-Redskins games, they should win the division.
4. Is anyone ready for a Titans-Cowboys Superbowl? That's my prediction.
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