The All Saints Day Massacre--Eagles 40 Giants 17

This was a really fun win. We were aided by some poor decisions by the Giants (particularly one specific player who happens to be the highest paid in the league), but still you have to call this game an all around great win. The team was excellent in all three phases.

I loved the decision to incorporate Weaver so much, which apparently was not featured in the game plan worked out in practice earlier in the week (unless Weaver was dissembling about not having carried the ball much in practice last week). That was a good way to cut McCoy’s workload a bit. Moreover, because he carried it so infrequently, when the Birds used a single back set with him in the backfield it seemed to telegraph passing play to the Giants D.
On his 41 yard touchdown rumble (the longest rush of his career), Weaver lined up as a single set back with two tight ends, in what must have appeared to the Giants to be a max protection passing formation, with WRs Jackson, Maclin, and possibly TE Celek likely receivers for the 2nd and 7 play. The Giants D originally showed a cover two look but then brought in safety C.C. Brown for a blitz. When Brown didn’t get there in time, it was just a simple running play and with the extra TE in, we got a hat on a hat—seven blockers to handle the Giants’ front 7. Celek got just enough of Justin Tuck (and perhaps got away with a negligible hold), and that gave Weaver just enough of a hole to squeeze through a small hole and a last gasp attempt by Tuck to arm tackle our big back, who then was off to the races—great call but great execution too. The other 3 DBs (aside from blitzer Brown who continued to usnsuccessfully pursue Weaver all the way downfield, although he ran a lot further b/c of his blitz) were playing pass all the way, which meant Weaver had a lot of space to work with once he got to the second level. With just enough of a touch block from both Jackson and Maclin, Weaver had only to beat the safety running at him from the other side of the field and Brown pursuing him from behind. End result: the beginning of a very fun day. Nice play call on that one, and great blocking and great running. This was the beginning of a long day of Mandy Reidinwheg outsmarting the Giants D and Bill Sheridan repeatedly.

For the team's next big play, Asante Samuel capitalized on a bad play call and a terrible decision by Eli. Travis Beckum, who apparently barely touches the ball except on plays just like this one, ran a bad route (lazy and soft into his break, and not using his body to block a potential defender), so Samuel jumped the route, recognizing that he had zone help behind him from Akeem Jordan.

Some other thoughts on the impressive defensive performance:

Nice tackling by Sean Jones in both the run and pass games. We used him a lot as a blitzer and he was effective. It will be interesting to see how he and Macho split time when Harris returns.

Great penetration by Trent Cole on pass and run plays—a superb game by the best defensive lineman we’ve seen in Philly since, dare I say it, White, Simmons, and Brown (think about the other possibilities: Harmon—Cole’s way more disruptive; Fuller—didn’t do it here for all that long; Douglas—Cole’s so much better against the run; Simon—do I need to bother?; Kearse—not a complete pass rusher, had only one move and lost his speed after his 2005 ACL tear)

Witherspoon’s been making some nice plays to take on OL blockers and hold his ground in the run game, and he’s looking to be a very good blitzer. Seeming like we really fleeced the rams on that trade (pun intended).


Love Quintin Mikell’s tackling and he’s pretty solid in coverage, but can we work on the hands drill with him, he dropped two big INT opportunities on the same 1st quarter drive.

The Giants seemed to have some success on sweep plays run at Parker, especially before our lead forced them to pass a bit more. It will be good for our run D when we get Abiamiri back.

A shout out to Clemons for his second-effort sack. He stuck to it after missing the first time and the coverage gave him time to make it happen. I especially like that he’s going for the ball the entire time as he’s trying to make the sack, Cole coming at Manning’s legs was key too, forcing manning back into Clemons. The Eagles rushed six, one being Jones on a delayed blitz. Clemons was just too fast for Giants tackle Kareem MacKenize, and Clemons's initial pressure extending the play gave Cole, Babin, and Witherspoon time to beat their men and ultimately limited where Eli could scramble and forced him to slow down enough for Clemons to get back to him before Eli could make a downfield play.

On the first giants td, Mikell bit on double move, although I’m not sure if he was supposed to have help from Foukou who looked lost on that play.


On the Demps interception, it was just a horrible throw and read (Nicks was wide open on the edge), but his fellow backfield mate (and fellow Quintin) Mikell dropped a couple, so give Demps credit for bringing in the catch. Nice to see Demps getting on the field more and contributing. I know the Eagles once had high hopes (if not quite high apple pie in the sky hopes) for Demps. It would be great for the future of this defense if they can solidify the free safety position with some combo of Demps and Harris.


Coming back to the offense, both the O-Line and McNabb looked great—perhaps his best game of the season—excepting the batted balls. That needs to be corrected. Luckily Mcnabb’s first batted ball was not intercepted—it could have totally changed the momentum of the game. Heads up play by McNabb though to swipe the ball back from tuck. Mcnabb has too many passes batted. On timing pass plays I’d like to see a bit more push from Jamaal Jackson, both consecutive red zone deflections in first quarter were by guys being blocked by Jackson (the second one by Robbins is actually a double team by Jackson and Stacey Andrews), but still, it’s on McNabb to make sure he gets the ball over the line. Don also needs to adjust more if a screen is sniffed out, and perhaps consider a run towards the sideline and then toss it out if you have to, which would help with the batted balls, at least one of which was on a screen.

Aside from this, he was great. He had good protection (including some nice blitz pickup from Weaver and an improving McCoy) and McNabb took advantage. Mcnabb made a great play fake on a pass to Alex smith in first quarter, and then released the ball at just the right time, showing no fear of the hit after the catch.

Also, let’s hope we see a continued inclination for early running calls. Even though most (excepting Weaver's TD) weren’t all that successful, it kept the D honest for later play fake passes.

Through much of the first half, Corey Webster was doing a damn solid job covering Jackson. Even on Jackson’s nice slant catch, Webster blanketed him to prevent run after the catch. Then a couple minutes before half, Jackson got wide open. Webster seemed confused about his assignment, and tried to come up and help on Celek in the flat which was a big mistake. Then C.C. Brown gave Jackson way too much space to the outside, since he expected Jackson to run a cross and Jackson made a nice move. Also give McNabb credit for hitting Jackson in stride with a perfect throw.

Moments later, Maclin’s TD was just a spectacular catch by Maclin, after a perfect throw by D-Mac that gave Maclin a chance to go up and get the ball. Maclin has really impressed me with his ability to snatch up balls like this.


Last but not least let’s remember the great special teams play (aside from the Babin fumble), with notable praise for Rocca’s punt, some nice Hobbs returns, and great Tracy White tackling in kickoff coverage. Also, did you notice that Jordan and Gocong both saw some significant special teams action.