2009 Season Recap – Week Eight
This turned out to be an interesting weekend in Philly. It was the day after Halloween, and both the Yankees and Giants were in town to play at the old sports complex. The city of Philadelphia had a real shot at taking it to some New York teams and it would be the Eagles’ turn first.
The Eagles wasted no time taking it to the Giants when Leonard Weaver had a 41-yard touchdown run on the Eagles’ first drive. Little did we know what else Weaver had in store for us. Shortly after Weaver’s touchdown, the Eagles kept the momentum going by getting on the board again when Donovan McNabb hit Brent Celek for a 17-yard touchdown. David Akers PAT was blocked and the Eagles finished with a 13-0 lead after the first quarter.
The second quarter began with an Akers field goal that moved the score to 16-0 before there was a big lull in the action. With just under two minutes left in the first half, the Giants finally got on the board when Eli Manning connected with tight end Kevin Boss for an 18-yard touchdown. This cut the lead to 16-7 and it looked like the Giants could carry the momentum into halftime. However, this couldn’t have been more wrong. On his next possession, McNabb hit DeSean Jackson for a 54-yard touchdown and the momentum was back where it had been all game. To make matters worse for the Giants, the ball was returned directly to the Eagles and McNabb found Jeremy Maclin for another Eagles touchdown with less than a minute left in the half. The Eagles took a 30-7 lead into halftime and looked like a total powerhouse.
After another field goal by Akers to start the half, the Eagles’ scoring hit a drought as the Giants scored 10 in a row to end the third quarter. LeSean McCoy added his own big play to the Eagles’ offense to start the fourth quarter breaking up a 66-yard touchdown run. These would be the final points of the game in an impressive 40-17 victory for the Birds.
This moved the Eagles to 2-0 in the division and got everyone’s attention. Could the Eagles perform like this on a weekly basis? They dominated the Giants on both sides of the ball throughout the game and seemed like a force to be reckoned with. The Eagles were hitting most of their schedule and we would soon see how they would match up against strong teams.