Wow. I expected the Philadelphia Eagles to win, but not to dominate the Redskins the way the game unfurled last night in front of a national audience. Donovan McNabb was simply marvelous. The defense dominated during most of the game. Special teams played solidly, except for one play in which Jacquez Green returned a 2nd quarter punt for a 90-yard touchdown. The Eagles outgained the 'Skins 451-179 in total yards while controlling the clock for 35 ½ minutes. Washington only gained 79 yards during the second half. They also converted 7 of 15 third downs, while Washington was held to 3 for 12. The Eagles defense did not allow a single point, while forcing 4 turnovers and sacked the Redskins' quarterbacks four times. For the second week in a row, the Eagles' defense stopped another good running back, holding Steven Davis to only 53 rushing yards on 12 carries. The Redskins' Fun-N-Gun offense was no fun last night as the Eagles held Spurrier's offense to a total of 90 net yards passing. The win moves the Eagles to 1 and 1 on the season and basically puts them back on track towards the team's only goal this year, Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego.

Washington started the game moving the ball and getting 2 quick first downs. A couple of incompletions by an inept Shane Matthews and the Eagles were in business on their own 20 yard line. McNabb hit Thrash on the first play on an inside slant down the field for a 33 yard gain. Two plays later, McNabb hit Todd Pinkston along the sidelines for a 26 yard gain. Pinkston beat Hall-Of-Famer to be Darryl Green on that play. On third down on the Redskins 8 yard line, McNabb was flushed from the pocket and he simply ran it through 4 defenders for a touchdown and a 7-0 lead. The Eagles forced the Skins to punt after 5 plays and McNabb continued to move the Birds down the field. A couple completions to Antonio Freeman and Duce Staley later, the Eagles were stopped on third down at the Redskin 12 yard line. David Akers proceeded to kick a field goal and give the Philadelphia a 10-0 lead. But Lavar Arrington went offsides and Eagles coach Andy Reid accepted the penalty to give the Eagles a first down on the 7 yard line. On 2nd down, Donovan McNabb hit Jeff Thomason for a touchdown. In Philly, Jeff is also known as "TD Thomason", as all he does is catch touchdowns. The Redskins later scored their only points on a special teams play which cut the lead in half at 14-7 with 12:29 left in the second quarter. This is where the Eagles took complete control as McNabb led the Birds downfield twice to setup David Aker's field goals of 22 & 40 yards, respectively. Then disaster struck the Washington Redskins. The Redskins were forced into a fourth and 5 situation on the Eagles 35 yard line. First, one of the lineman moved early moving the Redskins back 5 yards. And if that was not enough, Steve Spurrier decided to go for it again and Shane Matthews tried to complete a long pass downfield and Al Harris batted the pass down, giving the Eagles the ball back with 56 seconds left and perhaps the best kicker in the game the chance to lengthen the lead even more. McNabb moved the Eagles just enough and with 4 seconds left, Akers kicked his third field goal of the game at 47 yards. Game, Set, Match.

Philadelphia came out of the second half and went right back to work moving the ball down field. The drive was capped by another brilliant pass from McNabb. On the play, Donovan took a cheap shot by Victor Bailey, but McNabb still completed a perfect 39 yard pass to James Thrash for the touchdown and a 30-7 lead. Thrash had a banner day as he finished the night with 6 receptions for 107 yards and 1 TD. McNabb probally had his best performance as a pro completing 26 of 38 passes and 292 yards with 2 TD passes and 1 rushing TD. Donovan McNabb showed the nation why the Philadelphia Eagles are one of NFL's elite teams which have a legitimate shot of winning this year's Super Bowl. Ten different Eagles caught passes from McNabb with Duce Staley leading the way with 7 receptions for 57 yards. Duce also rushed 15 times for 55 yards. Dorsey Levins capped the Eagles scoring with a 47 yard run for a touchdown with less than 10 minutes to go. Steve Spurrier and his assistants had no answers for McNabb or the vaunted Philly defense. The defense led by Hugh Douglas, Brian Dawkins and others took control right from the start and allowed the Redskins offense to cross midfield only once during the entire game. Levon Kirkland looked more comfortable and had 5 tackles. But the pressure from the Eagles front proved to be too much for the Redskins quarterbacks, hurrying their throws all night long. The Redskin QB's completed only 16 of 32 total passes. Jerimiah Trotter was also a none factor as he had only 6 tackles all game long. All were meaningless as the Eagles had positive yardage on every play that Trotter was involved in. The Eagles have won their first game and appear to be one of the favorites to win the NFC this year, especially now that their main competition, the St. Louis Rams have gone 0-2 with their third game next week in Tampa Bay on Monday night. We shall see how the season progresses. But I like what I saw last night. Don't worry Eagle fans, everything should be fine for the forseeable future with games against Dallas, Houston and Jacksonville before Philly's big game against Tampa Bay off the bye week.