Since wins have been hard to come by lately... I figured it would be appropriate to hand out some well deserved kudos to a few guys that deserve it after last night's win.
Jeff Garcia - Frankly I think the media was heaping a bit too much praise on Garcia last night in post game saying he was back in pro bowl form... but I did think he was very good. There were at least 2 passes in the first half that probably should have been picked off. He really did get it together in the second half and was able to stretch the Carolina defense, be very accurate, and show some very good mobility. He certainly did not deserve the treatment he got from Eagles fans at the Linc who booed when Garcia appeared hurt but was able to pull himself up and stay in the game. When a guy shows toughness like that you show him some appreciation. I know that for some odd reason Eagles fans have a man crush on AJ Feeley, but Garcia deserved better than what he got last night.
Omar Gaither - Solid job by the rookie in his first start. He had 5 tackles and DeAngelo Williams to only 74 yards. He doesn't have quite the speed of McCoy, but he did a noticeably better job getting off blocks, stuffing the run at his edge and wrapping up his tackles at the point of attack. I didn't see anyone drag Gaither 4 or 5 yard before going down. He ceratinly did nothing to lose his spot in the starting lineup.
Donte Stallworth & Reggie Brown I thought these guys did a great job as a unit. Stallworth made one spectacular one handed grab and ran one pattern that ended in a TD where he absolutely undressed the DB that was covering him. He finished with a TD and 114 yard receiving at nearly 28 yards a catch. He was every bit the big play, field stretching playmaker he was brought here to be. Brown turned in a solid performance making both the tough, workman like first down grabs and the fly pattern TDs. He finished up with 5 catches for 79 yards and a TD.
Jeremiah Trotter - Other than one play where he was fairly late to pick up on a pass pattern to the Carolina TE(which has always been his weakness), I thought Trotter played a great game. He' had been looking more worn down and slow in the past few weeks than I ever remember seeing him and he really came back last night with an aggressive performance that really set the tone for the Eagles run defense.
There's not much more about the jobs Lito and Westbrook did. Westbrook had trouble finding holes against a very tough Panther front four but he still racked up well over a 100 yards of total offense including a TD catch. Lito had that last INT made in the film room last week.
It's going to take that kind of effort or better to keep control of our playoff destiny, which as the #6 seed in the NFC we now control.