Coming into today’s game, the Giants were looking to end a 2-game losing streak and retain their division lead. To their dismay, the Eagles completely stole the spotlight and captured a significant blowout victory to place themselves atop the NFC East. Knocking 40 points on the scoreboard and playing well in virtually all phases of the game, Philadelphia capitalized on many New York mistakes, and made some fantastic plays of their own. It would be quite difficult to explain how great of a win this matchup was for the Birds in a brief summarization, so it’s good this Eagles game will be divulged in full in this article. There were so many things that went right in this rivalry showdown and so little things that went wrong, and overall, it was a definite motivator and promising display.

The offensive unit finally showed a consistent explosiveness, maintaining a dangerous passing and running attack, and the defense yet again prevailed, totaling 3 turnovers and a pair of sacks, as well as constant pressure of Giants’ QB Eli Manning. The absence of starting RB Brian Westbrook didn’t affect the Eagles, as both rookie runner LeSean McCoy and offseason acquisition Leonard Weaver, a listed Fullback, carried the load on the ground. Donovan McNabb improved upon two straight questionable performances by tossing a trio of TDs, and rarely missed on his passing attempts. As mentioned before (which clearly isn’t enough to get the point across about the astounding performance of the team), the Eagles as a whole looked prepared, focused, and simply great. After all, they even began the 1:00 p.m. ET contest with a burst of excitement…

The opening kickoff was returned by Philly to the 40-yard line by CB Ellis Hobbs, who hadn’t broken loose for a long run-back all season. This set the offense up with a prime opportunity at striking early and putting the rival Giants in a quick hole. The team obviously learned from previous weeks in which they failed to take advantage of quality field positioning, and scored on only the 3rd play from scrimmage–a 41-yard scamper by Weaver. Up 7-0, the Eagles didn’t waste time getting the ball back, intercepting Eli Manning on New York’s following drive and subsequently adding another touchdown off of a 17-yard pass from McNabb to TE Brent Celek, who has been electrifying as a starter all season. The only negative included in this second score was the fact that the extra point attempt was unexpectedly blocked by the G-Men.

Throughout the next few series, neither team produced too many successful plays, but the Eagles were able to tack on a trio of points to their lead with a 30-yard field goal by K David Akers. Early in the second quarter, the Giants gained a bit of momentum, however, sacking Donovan McNabb and forcing a fumble. This led to a Philadelphia punt, and on the resulting offensive drive for the Giants, Eli Manning found his TE Kevin Boss in the endzone for an 18-yard TD. With the Eagles’ lead narrowed to 9 points, the Birds looked to return to their dominance experienced in the first quarter of play.

They did just that when McNabb dropped back to pass and found a wide open DeSean Jackson for a thrilling 54-yard touchdown. This gave the 2nd-year receiver a score of over 50 yards in each of the first seven Eagles games, and opened up Philadelphia’s somewhat surprising early dominance of the Giants to a 23-7 lead. As if that promising play weren’t enough, the Giants threw their second interception on the following drive, and McNabb found another of his young receiving targets–this time rookie Jeremy Maclin–for a touchdown. Heading into halftime, the Eagles held a favorable and confident 23-point margin of score separation.

To open the 2nd half of this NFC East clash, the Giants made a costly mistake and fumbled the kickoff, which led to another Eagles score–a 35-yard field goal by Akers. Later in the third period, New York began to claw back into reach by totaling 10 points over the next few drives, off of a 42-yard field goal by K Lawrence Tynes and a goal-line rushing TD by backup RB Ahmad Bradshaw. It seemed as if the Eagles were trying to hand the game to their rivals when they fumbled a kickoff and failed to convert on drives with penalties and silly mistakes, but regained momentum when LeSean McCoy took a late-game hand-off 66 yards for an amazing rushing touchdown. The play was designed to merely keep the clock running and draw the contest to a close, but turned into a much bigger result. After another defensive stand and a few plays with backup QB Michael Vick at the helm of the offense for some “time-wasting” plays, the Eagles happily came out of their home stadium with a convincing 40-17 rout of the Giants.

With their fifth win of the season, the Eagles now prepare to face their third division combatant in the Dallas Cowboys. This matchup will take place back again at home for the Eagles, in Lincoln Financial Field, and will be played on Sunday evening at approximately 8:20 p.m. ET.. Further analysis and evaluation of today’s game will be released throughout the week, but for now, take a look at the Eagles’ statistical leaders from the matchup, some of their key players, a scoring summary of the contest, and a look at some interesting things that you may have missed while viewing the game:

Statistical Leaders

Passing: Donovan McNabb (QB): 17-23, 240 yards, 3 TD

Rushing: LeSean McCoy (RB): 11-82 yards, 1 TD

Receiving: DeSean Jackson (WR): 3-78 yards, 1 TD

Receiving (cont.): Brent Celek (TE): 4-61 yards, 1 TD

Defensive: Akeem Jordan (OLB): 6 tackles

Defensive (cont.): Sean Jones (FS): 5 tackles

Kicking: David Akers (K): 2-2 FG, 4-5 extra point

Punting: Sav Rocca (P): 3-44.0 punt yard average

For a complete statistical breakdown of the game, click here.

Key Players:

• QB Donovan McNabb: McNabb’s overall play from the past few games drew some criticism throughout the days leading up to this afternoon’s game, primarily because of too many off-target and inaccurate throws, as well as inconsistent decisions that have supposedly affected the offense in a negative manner. Well, with today’s performance, the veteran QB may have silenced some of the critics, as he managed to pass only 6 incompletions along with a total of 240 yards and 3 TDs. His two fumbles were certainly not good, but they were overshadowed by his great day through the air and the fact that OT Jason Peters didn’t execute consistent blocking of the defenders that stripped McNabb of the ball.
• FB Leonard Weaver: Weaver came into today’s matchup with only 5 carries, and left with 13. If that doesn’t at least hint at a good game, then perhaps this will: the offseason free agent addition rushed for 85 yards and a 41-yard score in relief of rookie starting RB LeSean McCoy, the replacement of the injured Brian Westbrook. Besides his phenomenal day in the offense’s running attack, Weaver was also the lead blocker on many of McCoy’s runs, and was, as usual, on the field to assist pass block for Donovan McNabb. He likely won’t see as many touches as he did today once Westbrook is re-inserted into the lineup, but proved to be the versatile player he was signed to be with his performance.
• CB Asante Samuel: Although Samuel, one of the team’s starting coverage men, only recorded 2 tackles, he did an excellent job containing New York’s top receivers, Domenik Hixon and Steve Smith (Hixon caught only one pass; Smith was held under 70 yards after exploding onto the Giants’ offensive picture in previous weeks). To go along with that, Samuel also forced a fumble on a solid tackle, and picked off his 5th pass of the season. It appears already that the former Patriot and Pro-Bowler is on pace to once again lead the club in interceptions and be one of the league’s best CBs.

Did You Know…

• …that Eagles’ 7th-round Draft pick and backup LB Moise Fokou saw significant defensive action when starting OLB Chris Gocong was injured and left the game for several drives? The rookie failed to make any tackles, but was a determined pass rusher and always seemed to be around the Giants’ ball carrier. The highlight of Fokou’s appearance was undoubtedly his recovery of a fumble by New York on a kickoff late in the game.
• …that the Birds frequently used a three-Safety formation this afternoon while on defense? Sean Jones was the starter at FS in place of the injured Macho Harris and Quintin Mikell manned his typical SS role, but reserve 2nd-year player Quintin Demps was brought onto the field often as a “center field-type” Safety. This formation has been used before, but was executed quite a lot today, and resulted in an interception by Demps and nearly Mikell as well.
• …that because of their victory, the Eagles now hold the spot atop their NFC East division? The Giants fall to 5-3 with the loss, and therefore drop below the Birds, who now sit at 5-2. Despite their new rank, the Eagles will need to be aware of their other rivals, the Cowboys, who are tied with them. In what should be another tension-filled, exciting matchup, the Eagles will get a chance to dethrone Dallas and keep the lead for themselves when they play the Cowboys next week.

Scoring Summary

1st Quarter
	TD	L.Weaver 41 yd. run (D.Akers kick) (3-60, 1:34)
	TD	B.Celek 17 yd. pass from D.McNabb (kick blocked) (3-10, 0:52)
2nd Quarter
	FG	D.Akers 30 yd. Field Goal (15-72, 6:56)
	TD	K.Boss 18 yd. pass from E.Manning (L.Tynes kick) (8-89, 5:04)
	TD	D.Jackson 54 yd. pass from D.McNabb (D.Akers kick) (1-54, 0:16)
	TD	J.Maclin 23 yd. pass from D.McNabb (D.Akers kick) (2-43, 0:29)
3rd Quarter
	FG	D.Akers 35 yd. Field Goal (4-4, 0:48)
	FG	L.Tynes 42 yd. Field Goal (5-18, 2:14)
	TD	A.Bradshaw 1 yd. run (L.Tynes kick) (8-23, 4:06)
4th Quarter
	TD	L.McCoy 66 yd. run (D.Akers kick) (4-90, 1:41)