A 4th quarter comeback. A win in a close game. A road win in the conference... It wasn't the prettiest game of the year, but it was a big win and the team showed some real guts tonight.
It really was great to see the Eagles finish this one off. Both offense and defense making plays at the end of the game... it's something we haven't seen from this team is far too long, but sometimes all you need is to get that monkey off your back. The Eagles did that tonight.
That said... I can't really write a recap of this game without acknowledging the monumentally bad game from Jay Cutler tonight. Let's be honest, there were Bears receivers running wide open down field past our secondary and had Jay Cutler been able to put a ball on target for at least one of them this could have been a different game. That was the worst QB play I've seen from an opponent all year. I don't know what was up with him tonight, but the Eagles secondary won't be able to get away with the things they did tonight very often.
Much more after the jump
You wanted a run game, you got a run game
The Eagles rushed for 157 yards as a team tonight led by rookie LeSean McCoy who gained 99 yards on 20 carries. He averaged 5 yards a pop and scored what ended up being the decisive TD. The kid did fumble tonight, but bounced back and seemed to run even better afterward. He looked much more decisive hitting the hole(especially in the second half), and overall looked like a guy that is going to have a future in this league as a feature back.
Short yardage? No problem.
Of course, you can't talk about the Eagles run game tonight without mentioning Michael Vick, who had by far his play as an Eagle tonight in the first quarter when he broke a run on third and short for over 30 yards. He also ran a sort of option play later in the game where he handed off to McCoy who gained a first down on a third and short. It was finally an instance where the defense was worrying about Vick and the handoff fooled them. There was also a McNabb sneak for a first down and a great effort play from McCoy who was hit and the line of scrimmage and through a great second effort just nudged the nose of the ball across the line for a first.
Gutty performance from Sheldon
Definitely have to give credit to Sheldon Brown, who still has never missed a game in his NFL career. Despite suffering a hamstring injury last week, Sheldon got himself on the field tonight and really played hard. To be fair, he was beat a few times down the field but Cutler was so terrible he couldn't take advantage of it. Brown did make a number of good pass breakups and had a great tackle at the end of the game which prevented Earl Bennett from getting out of bounds.
Good stuff from the good young wideouts
Despite his fumble, Desean Jackson had yet another impressive outing tonight. He caught 8 passes for 107 yards including a 48 yard TD. He had a 53 yard punt return and threw in a 10 yard first down run on an end around for good measure.
Desean's big day overshadowed another solid outing from Jeremy Maclin who hauled in a solid 6 passes for 64 yards.