You knew it would come down to this.
It was to be the last game of the season for both the Giants and Eagles until world events caused some changes to be made. When you first saw what the schedule makers put together, as a Giants fan, your attention was drawn right away to that date way out in December that read "Giants at Eagles, Dec 30". Before any footballs had even been thrown this season, people were picking the Eagles to win the NFC East, and you knew that one game, on that one date was going to be big, real big.

Last year the Eagles just wouldn't go away.
Including the 21-3 wild card win against Tampa Bay, the Eagles were neck and neck with the Giants all last season, with a winning record of 12-3 against their other opponents. The Giants beat them twice in their regular season games, but just like in a bad horror film, the Eagles came back at them on last time, and the Giants had to kill them off once again before advancing to the NFC Conference game against Minnesota.

This year the Eagles were picked to win the division.
Knowledgeable people expected them not only to have it done by now, but to have had an easier time doing it. Sure, the Eagles are still on track to win the division title, but it has somehow become a laborious task, especially in a division where all the rest of the teams hold records of .500 and below.
The Eagles on defense have given up less points than all the other teams in the NFL, which is quite an achievement, so you have to look at their offensive unit. To give McNabb better targets, they dumped both starting wideouts, and added former Redskins wide receiver James Thrash, and rookie wideout Freddie Mitchell, noted to be "a first-round pick with speed".
Throw in running back Duce Staley, back from a serious foot injury that sidelined him for the final 11 games of last season, and this team should be dominating other teams from start to finish. Could it be they're not using quarterback Donovan McNabb the way they should?

Whose pocket is McNabb in?
Last season Donovan McNabb led all quarterbacks with 629 yards rushing, The Eagles decided that McNabb would be more effective with the passing game working from the pocket, but are they playing into their opponents hands by doing this?
Here's a quote from one noted player after the Giants recorded their ninth straight victory over the Eagles last season.
"We forced him to be a pocket passer," Sehorn said. "That's not their scheme. Their scheme is to move him around and do a lot of things with him. He is a gifted player. You want to put him in one place, and we made him stay in one place."

The results.
It probably doesn't matter that the Eagles say they want McNabb in the pocket. Either by design or necessity in getting them to 9-7, McNabb has used his feet to move the ball 75 times for 434 yards. That's nearly half as much as their running back Duce Staley, who's run the ball 158 times for 581 yards or 3.7 yards a carry, compared to McNabb's 5.8 yards per try. Duce Staley has been shut down with a total of 92 yards on 45 carries in the Eagles last three games. It looks like Donovan McNabb will always be a big part of the Eagles running game.

The top receiver on the Eagles.
So who's the top receiver on this team? Who benefits from McNabb "staying" in the pocket? Is it the two new deep threats we told you about earlier, Thrash or Mitchell? No. Is it Todd Pinkston who early on was among the league's leaders in yards per catch?. No. Is it Donovan McNabb? Believe me, he would if he could, and we don't doubt that a short bloop pass from McNabb to McNabb would be very effective, but it turns out that running back Duce Staley has the most receptions on this team with 61, followed by Thrash with 56, and Pinkston with 40.

No Sehorn.
The Giants will be without veteran cornerback Jason Sehorn for this game and possibly for the rest of the season, thanks to a severely sprained right ankle he sustained in last week's win over Seattle. Rookie Will Peterson will start at left cornerback for Sehorn. In the Giants one-point loss to the Eagles on Oct. 22, Peterson was beaten for a touchdown by James Thrash with 1:52 remaining, for an Eagles 10-9 win. That was two months ago and Peterson has a bit more experience under his belt since then.

Special teams.
Special teams play has been hurting the Giants for the past two seasons, including last Sunday when Ron Dixon fumbled one kickoff to set up the Seahawks' go-ahead touchdown, and misjudged another. Jim Fassel last week talked about the possibility of benching Dixon, who last year in the playoffs, returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown against these same Eagles.
The Giants have to watch their coverage against Brian Mitchell who handles both punt and kickoff returns, and can cause serious problems for them in this game.

Notes:
Eagles have never held teams to less than 200 points in a season with a 16-game schedule.
They break that record If they hold the Giants and Tampa Bay to a combined 26 points or less over the next two games.

Giants at 7-7, are 2 games behind the first-place 9-5 Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC East.

Next Game
Jan 6, Greenbay at Giants 1:00 PM.

For those very organized fans.
If you use a Palm Pilot and want to keep the Giants schedule, and actually the whole NFL schedule on it, there is a free download available here at PFL.

Last Week's review, game 14 - Giants 27- Seattle 24

Stop in and visit "Mike's Keys to the Internet" at  www.myhost.com/miked

Website by Mike