Eagles Take Charge in NFC East, For Now...

The Eagles came up with a stop when they needed it the most. With the Cowboys only 3 yards away form sending the game into overtime, Drew Bledsoe threw a game-ending interception, and the Eagles grabbed control of the division, for now anyways.

The Eagles beat the Cowboys by continually getting pressure on Drew Bledsoe with its defensive line and timely blitzes. They recorded seven sacks and forced five turnovers. The depth of the defensive line, even without Jevon Kearse, is the backbone of the team, and could be the reason make another Super Bowl run. Philly's run defense is also improved this year, despite looking atrocious in the first half against the Cowboys. Although injuries have already hit the defense pretty hard, with cornerbacks Lito Sheppard and Rod Hood both missing, the defense is playing well as a unit and backups like Joselio Hanson are doing a good job of filling in.

The Eagles' stock is soaring now, but Eagles' fan shouldn't start celebrating too much, because they have played a much easier schedule than both Dallas and New York.

New York has lost to Indianapolis and Seattle (both good teams) and beaten Philly and Washington. Dallas has lost to Jacksonville and Philly and beaten Washington (who the jury is still out on) and Tennessee. The Eagles have beaten three horrible teams in Green Bay, San Francisco, and Houston and one good team in Dallas, and of course lost to New York. The conclusion is that although it appears the Eagles have separated themselves from the rest of the NFC East, things will probably will become cluttered once the Eagles start playing some tougher teams. They have yet to play either of the two good AFC South teams (Jacksonville or Indy), and would be fortunate to gain a split again them. Not to mention the horrible back-to-back-back road trip through the rest of the NFC East to finish the season. The Eagles must have atleast a 2 game lead or hope that one or two of the teams they play in that brutal stretch is eliminated from the playoff hunt, and has only pride to play for.

The Giants finally played a complete game, totally dominating the Redskins in the NFC East "undercard", as ESPN anaylists refered to it. It was a mostly uneventful game, with both teams struggling to move the ball for much of the first half, until the Giants broke through. Washington had shown considerable improvement on offense the last couple weeks, highlighted by a high-scoring overtime win against Jacksonville last week. But the key to that game was how they got Santana Moss involved.

Moss caught three touchdowns, including the game-winning TD against Jacksonville, but mysteriously had only 3 catches for 39 yarda against New York. With Santana Moss, he's such a dynamic playmaker, all you need to do is get him the ball with some space 7-8 times a game, and he will make things happen. If you're Dan Snyder, you got to be wondering what on Earth you brought in highly-respected offensive coordinator Al Saunders for when the best player (in my opinion, although some may say Clinton Portis a.k.a. Dolemite Jenkins) on your team can't even get the ball.

Another key to the game was that Eli Manning was very accurate, connecting on 69 percent of his passes. Manning is not typically a high-percentage passer, so it remains to be seen of this performance was an anomaly or a sign of things to come. He just may have the best combination of receivers in the NFC East to throw to, in Jeremy Shockey, a reborn Amani Toomer (just two years ago Toomer went the whole season without catching a TD), and Plaxico Burress. The only problem is Shockey and Burress can be headcases at times, so when the Giants face adversity, these two are usually quick to point the finger at others.

New York's matchup in Atlanta should be a good measuring stick for them, as we can see if they match the same defensive intensity they showed against Washington...