Quintin Mikell delivered a pretty hit on Bengals WR Antonio Chatman that ended up with Chatman being carted off the field on a stretcher. Mikell said he felt bad for celebrating the hit before he knew Chatman was still hurt.

"I felt bad," Mikell said after the Eagles' 13-13 tie with the Bengals. "I was celebrating and I was sorry because I didn't know what happened."

"After I saw him on the ground, I was really worried," Mikell said.

The refs made a terrible call on a roughing the passer penalty in overtime on Sheldon Brown that moved the Bengals within striking distance of a game winning FG. Brown was flagged for leading with his helmet, despite the replays showing he clearly did not.

"I really don't want to get into officiating," Brown said. "My job is to play the game. I don't play the game to be dirty. I don't play the game to hurt people. I just play it through the whistle. The league will probably see it that way . . . I think I hit him with the shoulder pad. We wear shoulder pads for a reason."

"I believe in protecting the quarterback - I do believe in that," said Brown, which is farther than most defensive players will go. "And I do believe in protecting players. But when it's crunch time, this situation is almost like a basketball game where they let the tick-tack foul go and they let the players determine [the outcome].

"But . . . when it's happening fast, the official has a job to do. He's going to call it like he sees it. I can't argue that."

Despite the poor call putting them within 50 yards of a game winning FG, Bengals kicker Shayne Graham pushed it wide.

"I thought I hit it good," he said. "It started out inside the upright. I guess I didn't play the wind enough. It's hard to explain. I just didn't make the kick, but that's what I am supposed to do. I feel bad for these guys because they really fought hard today and our defense did a great job."

Sav Rocca, who has been fantastic this year, had a really bad day yesterday.

"I was just trying to get them between the hash[mark] and the boundary, but that wind just kept dragging it across, and they went out of bounds, obviously," Rocca said of his late boots. "That's probably the hardest wind I've had to punt in."

The game started with a west-southwesterly wind measured at 15 mph that knocked the 38-degree temperature down to a 29-degree wind-chill reading.

"I tried to lower my ball drop a little bit" to drive through the wind, Rocca said. "I couldn't get any to come off right. Obviously, you want to put your best punt down there, so you can give your team the best opportunity."

Yesterday I wondered why Jim Johnson left Joselio Hanson to cover TJ Houshmandzadeh on the TD play rather than sticking Asante Samuel on him. It sounds like TJ was wondering the same thing.

"It was easy, the nickel guy was playing me outside; it was real simple," Houshmandzadeh said. "You (media) probably could have scored on that one."

Finally, Trent Cole had a big day in his return to his hometown.

"I saw people I know in the stands hooting and hollering for me," Cole said.

About his sacks and pressure, Cole said, "They put the tight end on my side. So I was down over the tight end and getting a double team. Later they used a guard to help the tackle against me."

The Eagles have completed 8 regular season games and therefore have hit the mid point of their season... So I figured it would be a good time to take a little poll on who we think has been the biggest surprise of the first here. Here are the nominees.

Darren Howard - This is a guy whose place on the team was in serious doubt coming into training camp. Many fans wanted to keep Jerome McDougle over him... Fast forward to right now and Darren Howard is leading the team in sacks with 6.5. That's the 5th most in the NFC. Howard's versatility rushing the passer from both the inside and outside is exactly what the Eagles expected to get when they signed him to a big free agent contract in 2006.

Desean Jackson - A second round pick that's leading the team in recieving has to be considered a suprise. Jackson leads all NFL rookies in recieving yards and he's second in receptions. He also leads all rookies in return TDs and punt returns over 40 yards. Halfway through the season, Jackson is a legit rookie of the year candidate and a major weapon on this offense.

Sav Rocca - Last year we saw some promise from the Austrailian but we also saw quite  a bit of inconsistency. Not this year... Rocca is in the top 5 in the NFC in punting average and punts inside the 20. He leads the NFC and is second in the NFL in punts placed inside the 10. Rocca has always had the big leg, but his directional punting and ability to place punts have improved by leaps and bounds this year.

Juqua Parker - Most of us were happy to have Juqua around as a backup or situational type defensive end... but how many of us can say we were comfortable with him as a starter? 9 weeks ago not all of us, but right now we all are. Juqua is having a career year with 4.5 sacks plus and INT for a TD. Aside from just the sacks, Juqua has brought constant pressure and has really become that threat opposite Trent Cole that we all wanted last year. Teams can no longer double team or pay attention only to Cole. Parker has become a legit threat on the other side of the line.

Those are my nominations for the biggest surprise of the first half. Did I miss anyone? Feel free to write in someone in the comments.

For his excellent performance in the first quarter of the season, our own Aussie import Sav Rocca has been named NFC special teams player of the month. Good on ya Sav!

Eagles punter Sav Rocca will be named NFC Special Teams player of month tomorrow. Rocca led the NFL with a 44.1 net average in September, including punts of 65 yards (a career long), 64 and 61. He also placed seven of his 18 punts (39%) inside the 20-yard line. Rocca becomes the first Eagles punter to earn player of the month honors. Eagles K David Akers twice earned those honors in November 2000 and October 2007.

What more can you ask out of team in its first game than what the Eagles did today? Absolutely fantastic performance in all facets of the game from the Birds today. The offense hitting on multiple big plays, the defense smothering, and the special teams turning in maybe the best performance I've seen from the Eagles in years.

Onto the headlines!

It always come down to Donovan

You don't need to look any further than the first pass Desean Jackson caught to see the difference in McNabb from this year to last year. Last year, he simply would not have thrown that pass. How many times did we all say that it looked like a guy had to be wide open for McNabb to throw it to him last year? Not today though... He was still as smart as ever with the ball, but he trusted his recievers to make plays and he trusted himself to make a throw to a guy that wasn't wide open. McNabb threw for more yards today than he has on any opening day in his career... and he only played a little over 3 quarters.

Now McNabb certainly had plenty of help today... The offensive line gave him all day to throw(he was not sacked), his WRs ran free play after play and made tough catches when they needed to. Plus, look at how helpful it was for McNabb to have a healthy LJ Smith, who hauled in 5 passes including a TD.

For anyone thinking the Eagles would struggle without their top 2 WRs... For the first time since 1960 the Eagles had 3 WRs with over 100 yards. It was just that kind of day

McNabb finished the day 21-33 for 361 yards and 3 TDs. He also now owns the lowest interception percentage in NFL history. That's the least amount of INTs per pass attempt in NFL history.

Defense nearly perfect

Actually, the Eagles first team defense pitched a shutout. The Rams scored their FG against the

The Eagles defense held the Rams to just 87 yards of total offense in the first half. Pressure was the name of the game and the Eagles front 7 simply imposed their will on the Rams. Against the run, against the pass... the Eagles defense played on the Rams side of the ball and disrupted everything they tried to do. Bulger had no time to let anything develop, Steven Jackson had someone in his face whenever he touched the ball...

It's hard to single out any one guy on the defense who stood out. This was just one of those games where everyone did their job well. The Rams didn't score until there were 9 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter

Desean's dazzling debut

The rookie from Cal was the unquestioned standout of the preseason and so far it looks like that was no fluke. Desean showed no signs of slowing down as he turned in quite possibly the best debut from an Eagles rookie WR ever. Forget rookie WR, that was one of the best debuts from any Eagle rookie period. He was a constant threat on both offense and special teams racking up 206 total yards.

Jackson led the team with 6 catches for 106 yards averaging over 17 yards a catch. Desean is the first rookie to go over 100 yards recieving on opening day since Anquan Boldin.

Special teams looking special

I can't say enough about how well the special teams played as a unit today. Much of that success started with Sav Rocca. Three of his four punts ended up with the Rams pinned inside their own 20(2 inside the 5). There was tremendous hang time, smart angled punts, and heads up coverage on two plays from Quintin Demps.

Desean Jackson took about a half to get his feet under him as an NFL punt returner. He made some questionable decisions in the first half... but really hit his stride in the second. On consecutive returns in the 3rd quarter he had an 18 yard return that was one man away from probably going for 6 and a 69 yard return that gave the Eagles first and goal.

Eagles fans do us proud

I lost count of how many times the Rams offensive line jumped offsides. Certainly part of that was due to the job the Eagles front seven did penetrating play after play... but the fan factor can not be discounted. The crowd was loud, proud and made it difficult for the Rams' lineman to hear anything. Big assist to the Philly faithful for this win.

Ironic play of the day

How about the guy the Eagles brought in to play fullback but moved to defensive line lead blocking for a guy the Eagles brought in to play RB but moved to fullback? Dan Klecko paved the way for Tony Hunt's goal line TD run in the 3rd quarter.

Before I get into the meat of the Patriots game, I'd like to briefly offer a word or two about the Panthers game.  The weather made for an ugly contest which I firmly believe would have been canceled were Joe Buck and Troy Aikman not in attendance and I wonder why we didn't see a 70-30 run-pass ratio from both teams.  As far as what was learned from the game - and I can't remember where I read this - I think John Fox surmised it best:  "What did we learn from the game?  Their third string is better than our third string." 

On to the Patriots then.  I think it's easy to forget, but the first thing to remember is the league MVP was sidelined with a foot injury.  Peter King, in his Monday Morning QB column, had this to say about Matt Cassel:

2. I think for years we've all assumed the most indispensable player in football was Peyton Manning, because he played every snap for the Colts and they never had a backup quarterback. But have you seen Matt Cassel try to run the Patriots' offense in the last two weeks? That is some ugly football. I think the Colts stand a better chance of winning with Jim Sorgi than the Patriots do with Cassel.

That noted, I think that this was the Eagles most complete game of the preseason and offered tremendous promise for the real games to come.  After the break, I run down what I saw from the offense, the defense and the special teams.

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The Eagles pick up their first win of the preseason with a 24-13 come from behind win that saw the Eagles score all 24 of their points in the 4th quarter. This was kind of a weird game to evaluate with the 58 minute lightning delay in the middle of the first quarter. Both first team offenses looked pretty out of sorts when they came back from the delay. The Eagles first team was held scoreless and Carolina's first offense managed just 3 points. I was encouraged by the play of our reserves, who I thought got outplayed last week in Pittsburgh. They made the difference tonight.

Stock Up

Sav Rocca - Although he was the guy who shoveled that pass straight into the Carolina player's arms on that comically bad fake FG try... I thought Sav had a nice night. With a wet ball on a soggy field he put two punts inside the 10 and pinned the Panthers back deep. Another punt he booted 58 yards. Rocca ended up putting 5 of his 7 punts inside the 20.

Brian Dawkins - Laid a masive hit on Muhsin Muhammad in the end zone to knock loose a pass that would have been an easy TD. Vintage Dawkins.

Desean Jackson - If not for his play, his stock goes up just for the sheer amount of work he put in tonight. Jackson played the whole game! He had a few drops in the first half but his game leading 7 catches for 71 yards made up for those early drops. Once again he got open with ease, made catches all over the field, and showed an uncanny ability to read zones and find space in the middle of the field. Desean even did a nice job blocking downfield for Tony Hunt on that great TD run at the end of the game. He also had one really nice 27 yard punt return where he flashed some impressive moves... but unfortunately fumbled at the end.

Tony Hunt - The kid from Penn State looked good out there tonight. His spectacular 51 yard run at the end proved to be the winning score. He showed, vision, some moves, and did a nice job breaking a tackle on that a run. It was a big play for Tony and he certainly made a strong case that he deserves a roster spot. Before the big run he had a few nice, tough runs as well. He ended up with 5 rushes for 79 yards and caught one pass for 9 yards.

Kevin Kolb - Really bounced back from an up and down effort last week. Kolb's passes looked very nice, he looked composed, and his best throw of the night might have been ne where he hung in and took a big hit so he could make a beautiful pass down the middle of the field that could have been a TD had it not hit Hank Baskett in the head as he had trouble finding the ball. Kolb's 30 yard TD pass that hit Greg Lewis in stride in the corner of the end zone was a thing of beauty. He also did an impressive job running the no huddle offense on the last drive that was capped by the big Tony Hunt run. Kolb was the victim of a few bad drops from recievers but ended up 14 of 27 on the night for 155 yards, a TD and an INT.

Michael Phelps - 2 more golds. The guy is a freak.

Stock down

Max Jean Gilles - Did a great job filling in for Andrews in the first game, but he had a real rough night tonight. Four penalties on the night for Max. That's just unnacceptable.

Lorenzo Booker the KR - He fields two kickoffs and drops both. Combine his struggles tonight with his muffed kick in the Pitt game and Booker may just have lost himself the KR job. I know it was a rainy night and I'm sure th ball was slick, but I guarantee we'll play plenty of games this year where it's slippery and the ball is wet. Lorenzo Booker the RB had a nice night with 6 rushes for 25 yards.

Donovan McNabb - First, I have to say that the recievers were pretty poor in the first half tonight. I counted at least 5 or 6 clear drops, with a couple coming from Kevin Curtis. Overall though, McNabb was way off target tonight, especially after the delay. He was throwing balls high, low everywhere. Like I said, it was a wierd first half and the hour delay makes it hard to really evaluate... but it was clearly not a great night for McNabb. He finished 11 of 24 for just 98 yards.

Anyone related to special teams - The players, the coach... all of them. Really poor night especially in the first half. There was the silly fake FG that led to a TD. A couple penalties, poor blocking, several fumbles/bobbles, a missed 40+ yard FG by moustacheless Akers... It was just an all around bad night for the special teams.

Rookie Watch

Actually a pretty damn good night for the rookies. Desean Jackson as we said had a fantastic game. Quintin Demps' blitz and pass tip are what set up the big INT retirn at the end of the game. Speaking of that INT, kudos to rookie UDFA Justin Roland for picking that off taking 71 yards to the house. Roland also recovered a fumble, so it really was a nice night for him. Speaking of that fumble, it was none other than Andy Studebaker who forced that fumble and had another solid game. Bryan Smith looked very quick off the snap and made one particularly good tackle on special teams were he flew down the field and made an ankle tackle that held the return to no yards.

It was nice breezy day at Lehigh and some cloud cover provided relief from what would have been the oppressive heat. A crowd of over 6,000 showed up on a Sunday to watch the second to last day of live hitting at camp. Later on, considerably less people stuck around for the special teams session...

Brian Westbrook returned from the viral illness that held him out of the previous days practice. He didn't take a ton of reps, but the previous reports from camp have said that Westbrook hasn't been taking a lot of reps period. When he caught his first pass the crowd a cheered and one guy yelled "Andy, give him his money!" drawing laughs from the stands and the sidelines.

After the jump catch my full report and observations

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