Eagles host Giants Gameday Open Thread

New York Giants @ Philadelphia Eagles
Lincoln Financial Field - Philadelphia, PA
Time: 1:00pm ET
TV: FOX | Radio: 94.1 WYSP, Sirius 127
Uniforms: Green jerseys with White pants

For Giants perspective check out Big Blue View.

For some pre game video goodness, check out NFL Films' Steve Sabol discussing the importance of Brian Westbrook.

Fun fact for you... The Eagles will be honoring Duce Staley at halftime today as he officially retires. He'll be brought out on the field by some former teammates. Last chance for the "DUUUCE" chants!

Prediction: Eagles 17, Giants 16 - In the past two weeks, our backup AJ Feeley has thrown 7 interceptions . In those same two weeks, the Giants' starter Eli Manning has thrown 6 picks. Conventional wisdom would tell you that if McNabb can come in and simply not mistakes then the Eagles should have a decent shot at winning this game. The Giants are also pretty banged up on defense with safety Gibril Wilson out and middle linebacker Antonio Pierce a game time decision. RB Brandon Jacobs also will likely be a gametime decision. The Eagles on the other hand seem to getting healthier. McNabb, Mikell, & Bunkley who were out last week will all be back. More often than not these late season games are decided by who is the most healthy, and this week that favors the Eagles.

The Eagles health going into this game is in stark contrast to the last meeting between these two which the Giants won 16-3. The Eagles were without Lito Sheppard, William Thomas, Brian Dawkins, LJ Smith, and most importantly Brian Westbrook. The Eagles offense mananged just 3 points and the Giants sacked McNabb 12 times including 6 from Osi Umenyoria. Certainly the presence of Westbrook means more than three points and the presence of William Thomas means no more 6 sacks. Umenyoria has 3½ sacks in eight games when lining up against Thomas. If McNabb can move the offense as well as Feeley but avoid the turnovers the Eagles should be in good shape offensively.

On defense, this is an interesting matchup. On one side you have Eli Manning who is leading the NFL in picks(17) and on the other side you have the Eagles defense who is dead last in interceptions(7). Something has to give. Manning is going to make bad decisiona and he's going to make bad throws, that's just obvious. The question is whether the Eagles defense can do anything about it. Last week, Matt Hasselbeck threw two passes between the numbers of Eagles defenders and they weren't able to hang on to either pass. So the key this week will be take what the Giants give us. Minnesota punished the Giants and Manning for their mistakes, Chicago didn't... so it's no surprise that the Vikes blew them out and the Bears lost late. I honestly don't feel all that confident in this Eagles defense to intercept passes, even against Eli Manning. That said, they did intercept him once earlier this year but Manning gives you at least one pick every game automatically. He's thrown an INT in all but 2 games this year and has thrown more than one 5 times.