The Eagles offense finally came out flying, putting up 42 first half points on the way to shellacking the Detroit Lions 56-21. The Eagles offense scored 8 touchdowns. The Lions had 3 turnovers; 2 fumbles and 1 INT. But the Lions only gave the ball away to Philadelphia deep in its own territory just once. That fumble took place halfway through the fourth quarter. The score was already 49-21 and most of the starters were on the bench. The Eagles recovered the fumble at the Lions 17-yd line. Two plays later, rookie RB Tony Hunt scored from 1-yd out making it 56-21 and that TD was Hunt’s first of his NFL career. Donovan McNabb was fabulous, throwing for 381 yards with 4 TD’s and no INT’s. He only had to throw 26 passes all day, completed passes of 63, 43 and 39 yards during the first half. It was a day when all of McNabb’s weapons seem to contribute. Running back Brian Westbrook rushed for 100 yards on 14 carries and added 111 receiving yards on 5 catches. Kevin Curtis caught 11 passes for 221 yards. Each had 3 TD’s and all of them were in the first half as the Eagles struck fast and often on the way to a 42-21 halftime lead. The Eagles had 3 touchdowns in each of the first 2 quarters. The 42 first half points are also a new team record.

McNabb threw for 327 net passing yards alone in the first half and finished the game with a perfect 158.3 QB passing rating. Curtis had 95% of his yards in the first half as he caught 9 passes for 205 yards. The Eagles defense held their own too, sacking Lions QB Jon Kitna 9 times. Though the Eagles secondary allowed Kitna to throw for 446 passing yards, though the net yardage was 393. Kitna managed just 2 touchdowns and threw 1 INT. Twenty-five percent of his passing yards did come on just one play, a 91-yard TD pass to Roy Williams. Williams also caught a pass for 54 yards, setting up the Lions first TD. He finished with 204 passing yards. But the Lions defense had no answers for the Eagles offense, which moved the ball as efficient as ever seen.

The Eagles first possession took just 1:59 to strike first. A 10-yd punt return by Reno Mahe gave the Eagles excellent field position at their own 44. Westbrook ran play #4 straight up the gut for a 25-yd TD. Detroit struck right back to tie the game at 7-7. McNabb then led the offense on a 10-play 77-yd TD drive. Westbrook scored from 5-yards out, though he fumbled right at the goal line. Detroit challenged the call and the referee ruled that the ball had crossed the goal line first before the fumble. Eagles 14, Lions 7! Three plays and out went the Lions offense and the next play for the Eagles offense resulted in a 68-yd TD bomb from McNabb to Curtis for the first of his 3 TD’s of the day. A nine-second drive! The next Eagles possession took a little bit longer, 4:02. Again McNabb found Curtis open in the endzone. Then just a minute later, McNabb found a wide-open and uncovered Kevin Curtis again, this time for a 43-yard TD pass along the sidelines. Detroit would strike back for 2-staright touchdowns, before Westbrook caught a screen pass and somehow escaped the Lions defense and ran all the way for 43 yards and a 42-21 lead.

Game. Set. Match!! The second half was just a formality. Just play it and don’t get hurt. Except, Brian Westbrook took a shot to the stomach and it was later diagnosed that he had suffered a pretty bad abdominal strain. Also, OT William Thomas suffered a mild knee sprain. These injuries could cost the Eagles next week up in New Jersey. Was it those flashy light blue and yellow uniforms blinding the Lions into submission? I only saw two other games like this, one three years ago against the Packers. The other back in 1995 as Eagles QB Rodney Peete led the Eagles over these same Lions in a NFC Wild Card Playoff game at the Vet. Eagles won that one, 58-37. The score read 38-3 at halftime, and both teams were just playing out the clock as the Lions scored 4 late fourth quarter TD’s. We’ll see if the Eagles offense can keep up this pace of scoring or was it those fancy flashback uniforms?