One More Week

That certainly worked out a lot better than the last Eagles' playoff game in a dome against a team with a power rushing offense.

The funny thing is it seems like a lot of Eagles fans aren't even that fired up about this win.  I could be misreading the zeitgeist, but I had the intergoogle open during the game and there was a LOT of gnashing of teeth going on.  Even though the Eagles led most of the way and disaster was always potential, rather than imminent.

The Eagles didn't look dominant today, but is that what we expected?  They were playing on the road against a team that won 10 games and trotted out a really impressive run defense.  Their coaching staff knows the Eagles almost as well as they know themselves.  Their defensive gameplan was particularly well-devised.  I just hope Steve Spagnuolo was too busy interviewing for head coaching positions to take notes.

In the end, the Eagles pulled out a 12-point win.  The defense only went net minus seven, and didn't allow a point after halftime. 

They also -- and this was huge -- came out hitting at the beginning and kept knocking heads all the way through the last possession.  That was really fun to see.

The other guys will ably cover the story lines and recaps, but I do want to make one more point.  DeSean Jackson ran out of bounds a couple times today on punt returns when it looked like he maybe could have toughed out a few more yards.  Dodging the punter looked particularly bad.

But you guys have to think back to the beginning of the year, when Jackson took a LOT of big hits because he was still learning the ways of the NFL.  He wasn't going to make it through the season, so during the bye week, it seemed like the coaches really focused on getting him to get down and avoid the big hits.  I imagine the conversation went something like, "Dude, you're inrreplaceable.  Get the %$#!#@ down." 

We need DeSean healthy.  If he's not out there, this offense loses it's big-time deep threat and the guy who requires a whole lot of double teams when he's running down the sidelines (we saw again today how successful throwing those passes to Kevin Curtis generally is). 

So cut him some slack.  It's not a toughness issue.  He's just trying to stay in one piece so he can help this team win.