It was one of the great Eagles wins of all time that's still being talked about on ESPN and sports radio around the country... Yet there really aren't that many candidates for game balls. Not that there were a lot of guys who played well, but there were some performances that were so superlative they just basically give themselves a game ball.

Michael Vick - This couldn't be easier. Vick completely took over the game at about the 8 minute mark. Seriously, he took the game over. He accounted for 4 TDs, rushed for 130 yards, threw for 242... and amazingly you would have to say he was subpar for 3 quarters. 90 of his rushing yards came late in the fourth. He just decided at some point he wasn't going to allow the Eagles to lose and he didn't. I'm not sure there's another player in the NFL that's capable of imposing their will on a game the way he did yesterday.

DeSean Jackson - Jackson caught 3 passes for 52 yards in this game. For 59 minutes and 46 seconds he was not a factor in this game. Then Matt Dodge kicked a line drive right at him with :14 left and you know what happened next.

Honorable mentions - There wasn't much good about the Eagles defense, but the run defense did it's job like it has virtually all year. The Giants run game has been dominating over the past few weeks, but was basically shut down by the Eagles. That played a big part in the Giants inability to close this game out. Because they couldn't run the ball, they couldn't grind out the clock and stem the tide of the Eagles comeback.  Another honorable mention to Jason Peters, who has played superbly since his injury earlier this season. When was the last time you heard his number called by a ref? He's completely stopped the penalties. Even better, he completely shut down Osi Umenyoria yesterday.

The Eagles got themselves a win yesterday, which means today we hand out some balls.. game balls.

Michael Vick - Another great game #7. 302 yards passing, 48 yards rushing, and three total TDs (2 passing, 1 rushing). It was Vick's third 300 yard passing game of the season and fifth game with a QB rating over 100. More than anything though, you have to love how he rallied the team when after they surrendered the lead in the 3rd quarter.

"When you get down and you know you should be winning the game by more points than what you have, then instinctively you just step up as a leader. That's my job. My job is to rally, motivate, to push these guys as hard as I can just as much as I've pushed myself. So with that said, you just got to not put yourself in that position and not make this game harder than what this is."

LeSean McCoy - 130 yards from scrimmage and two TDs. He killed the Texans on screens last night. I would like to have seen him be allowed to run the ball some more... but it was still a big game for the kid. LeSean talked about getting to the point where he knows he can make guys miss in the open field.

"It's a natural feeling. You see a guy and you know what you are going to do. You are just trying to get past them. All I need now is that extra burst to get me to that end zone."

Jason Peters - Amazingly, this guy has gotten leaps and bounds better after he was injured this season. Prior to the knee injury he was way up and down... but since then he's been the Eagles best offensive lineman by far. He talked about what it's like to block for a guy like Michael Vick.

"We just have to keep blocking and keep moving our feet. There were a couple of times tonight that I wondered why the guy kept rushing, but I guess Mike still had the ball."

The Eagles won their fifth straight matchup with the Giants last night to take over sole possession of first place in the NFC East. From my perspective, I gotta say that this win feels a whole lot better today than it did yesterday. That game was nerve-wracking... So let us commence with the game balls.

Asante Samuel - Certainly can't excuse his fumble on a needless return, but this guy continues to his big season and continues his ownership of Eli Manning. He picked off Eli twice and grabbed the QBs killer fumble late in the game to seal the Eagles win. Samuel now has four INTs in his last 4 games against Eli Manning.

LeSean McCoy - Like I said in the recap, LeSean McCoy carried the ball 14 times tonight. On 12 of those carries, he got next to nothing. On the other two, he gained about 80 yards for a touchdown and a game winning first down. Just when the Giants thought they had everyone on this Eagles offense taken care of... Shady strikes.

Jeremy Maclin - A quietly big game from Maclin, which seems to happen more often than not. Maybe it's because DeSean Jackson makes such spectacular type plays, we sometimes miss the fact that Maclin is a having a nice year. He had 9 catches for 120 yards last night. He's less than 60 yards shy of eclipsing his yardage total from last season and has already nearly doubled his TD output. With six games left he has 706 yards and 7 TDs. It's very possible, if not likely he could eclipse 1,000 yards and 10 TDs. He has more catches, yards, & TDs than DeSean Jackson this season.

A big Eagles win means lots of great candidates for game balls of the week, but I thought three stood out.

Michael Vick - I really don't know what there is left to doubt. Vick is the best QB on this team and he wasn't just on a hot streak earlier in the year. He's really a better QB now than he ever was and like I said yesterday, we'll go as far as he takes us this season. He had 93.8 QB rating, he threw for 218 yards and a TD, he ran for 74 yards and a TD, and like he's done all year converted big third downs time after time. At this point, I don't see how he's not the starting QB next season.

DeSean Jackson - Last time we saw DeSean Jackson he was being helped off the field with a dazed look in his eyes after the Dunta Robinson hit. Just a couple weeks later, he's shredding the Colts secondary again. 7 catches for 109 yards and a TD, plus those big fourth quarter end around carries that netted him another 20 yards.

Asante Samuel - We all know about the two picks. That's always been what Asante Samuel does, he gets picks... but I want to call attention to the job he did in coverage yesterday. He owned Garcon. I saw a stat that said Manning threw at him twice in the first half. One was incomplete, the other was picked off. This has been a theme all year. I believe the Titans threw at him just three times all game. He's not just a gambler who picks off passes anymore, he's become more of a shut down corner this season than we've ever seen from him.

There's really not many candidates for a game ball from an Eagles perspective here. In fact, I could only come up with two.

First, David Akers. He was 4-4 including two 46 yarders yesterday. Plus, I'm pretty sure that every one of his kickoffs were touchbacks. Really big bounceback performance from him after his puzzling three misses against the Falcons last week.

The second and final candidate is rookie WR Riley Cooper who caught three passes for 51 including his first NFL TD. The highlight of the day, for the Eagles at least, was his spectacular 37 yard grab that probably should have been an interception. This was just a great individual play on his part.

This was a big win for the Eagles because not only did they keep pace with the Giants atop the NFC East, they also got a real statement victory against the team who held the NFC's best record coming into this game. Finally, we had a game where the offense and defense (and special teams!) actually all played well. So here we go with the game balls.

King Dunlap - Talk about exceeding expectations. We were forecasting disaster this week after the way Dunlap struggled against the 49ers. Falcons fans were basically licking their chops at the thought of King trying to handle John Abraham. But the big mismatch never materialized and Dunlap had himself a really solid game. He did have one hands to the face penalty, but didn't give up any sacks by my count and Kevin Kolb rarely seemed to get any pressure from his blind side. It takes a pretty tough hombre to go out there and play as good as he did after dogged on all week. Nice job. (Note - this still doesn't mean we need him out there every week.)

Trent Cole - It turns out there was a major mismatch in a DE vs LT battle today... Which I mentioned this morning mind you (cue self congratulatory back pat). Trent Cole just owned Falcons LT Sam Baker today. He sacked Matt Ryan twice and was in the backfield seemingly every play. He had 5 tackles and was credited with a forced fumble. He was a beast today.

Jeremy Maclin - So DeSean Jackson is dominating to the tune of two TDs when BAM, he's knocked out of the game. The offense is going to suffer right? They can't be as explosive right? Enter Jeremy Maclin. 7 catches, 159 yards and 2 TDs later and Jeremy Maclin is celebrating arguably the best game of his career.

Kevin Kolb - What can you say about a guy who throws for over 300 yards, completes about 80% of his passes, and has a career high 3 TDs on the day? He was great and what's more impressive is the way he did it. He read the Falcons defense clearly, he saw the field well, he went deep, short and medium and did all with accuracy. Kolb played a hell of a game there's a reason ESPN is now trying to drum up a "new QB controversy in Philly." Kolb's play has warranted that discussion.

The Eagles went on the road this week and got themselves a very important win to keep pace with the rest of the teams at the top of the NFC East. Here are your top performers for week 5.

LeSean McCoy - Accounted for 138 yards of total offense. Averaged 5.1 yards per carry and had this shifty 29 yard TD.

Kevin Kolb - 21-31 for 253 yards and a TD for a QB rating of 103.3. Was much more poised and crisp than we saw last week. Even converted a 3rd and 18 with his legs. That's an important thing to see from week to week with a young QB, growth. Ironically, his opposite this week Alex Smith, is a guy that continually makes the same mistakes. We've now seen Kolb make consecutive starts twice in his career and the second was always markedly better than the first. Will he get a chance to make a 3rd consecutive start this week? [Note by JasonB, 10/11/10 3:48 PM EDT ] I guess since he played so much last week, I forgot that Kolb didn't start vs Skins...

Nate Allen/Trevor Laws - I don't really want to hand out game balls to anyone on the defense after that one, but it's worth acknowledging what these two young guys did on the final San Francisco drive. Allen was brought on a blitz on second down and while he didn't get to the QB, he did leap up to just tip the pass away. Had he not, Frank Gore was standing wide open with nothing but green behind. Had he caught that pass, it very well might have been game over.

Trevor Laws was of course the guy who made the game winning play as he chased down Alex Smith and hit him just as he threw. The hit forced an errant pass that went straight into the arms of rookie Trevard Lindley. Game was over.

Every week we'll giving out a game ball to the Eagles player who most impressed us on the previous Sunday. He may not have been the flat out best player on the field, but the guy still made  a big impact and probably surprised some.

This week, it goes to Trevor Laws. The guy the Eagles actually selected above DeSean Jackson had spent two rather unimpressive seasons in the NFL prior to this one. Then this offseason we started hearing all the stories about how hard he'd worked in the offseason and how impressed all the coaches were with him... Blah blah stuff we've all heard before.

But then, Laws started to really play the part. He had a great camp and won the #3 DT job. He's been getting pressure in the first couple games, but he took over against the Jaguars. To the point where he seemed to get more snaps that Mike Patterson & Broderick Bunkley. He had his first career sack and was credited with knocking down two passes. I actually thought he had two sacks, but apparently he was only credited with a tackle for loss when he brought down David Garrard for a two yard loss early in the game.

Laws talked about getting his first career sack after the game.

I came in today and played like I feel like I should have been playing for my whole career, got my first sack which is a great feeling out there.  I went camp healthy for the first time this year.  I've been banged up the last couple of years and it's all about having a healthy body for me."

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