Eagles 38 - Rams 3 "Blowout"

If the first game of a season sets a tone, the message the Eagles sent out on Sunday was this: They are back. Using a combination of an explosive offense, a shut-down defense and a special teams unit that pounced on opportunities to bury the Rams in bad field position, the Eagles rolled to an impressive 38-3 win at a sun-drenched Lincoln Financial Field. If you are an Eagles fan then you should be in a great mood today. Everybody feels excited. A 38-3 win to start a season does that to you. It sure feels a lot better to open a season on a positive note. We shouldn't get too high after a win and we shouldn't get too low after a loss, but we all know how hard that is to do so; it's OK if you are sky high right now and think the Eagles are going to beat every team that lines up on the other sideline this season, enjoy the moment, and drink up the optimism. There was everything to love about the win over St. Louis. The win was nothing short of total. The Eagles did just about everything right in taking apart the Rams. Donovan McNabb looked great. The offensive line was very, very good. The receivers, all of them, made big plays all over the field. The defense shut down the Rams so completely that the secondary had very little work and only a few opportunities to get some takeaways. The mark of a contending team, however, is not to play that way for one week. The best teams play well every week and give themselves a chance to win every time out.
It was beautiful to observe. The Eagles took the opening kickoff and moved 80 yards in six plays and one penalty, using a 47-yard pass down the right sideline to rookie DeSean Jackson to open things, working in a 10-yard gain to L.J. Smith and finally showing some red-zone efficiency with a 1-yard shovel pass to Brian Westbrook for a touchdown and a lead. And it got better after that. Defensively, the Eagles outmatched the Rams. Steven Jackson gained a paltry 34 yards in the first half and quarterback Marc Bulger was harassed into a 6-of-15, 72-yard outing. Darren Howard (two tackles, ½ sack, one tackle for loss, one quarterback hurry) was a force at left end and at tackle in the nickel. Asante Samuel had three pass breakups and nearly two interceptions. Stewart Bradley (nine tackles, one sack, two tackles for loss, one quarterback hurry, one pass defensed) led the charge against Jackson and the power running game. Trent Cole gave left tackle Orlando Pace fits. The cornerbacks stepped up. The safeties stepped in. And McNabb pulled the ball from Westbrook's belly and dropped back to pass. He saw a wide-open Hank Baskett along the left sideline and fired a strike to Baskett, who stepped away from safety Corey Chavous and raced into the end zone for a shocking and exhilarating 90-yard touchdown catch and run. It was one of those great days, along with openers like the Pickle Juice game in Dallas and the Terrell Owens Show that kicked off the 2004 season. McNabb was simply brilliant, completing 21 of 33 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns. The receivers, minus starters Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown, spread around the wealth and made big plays, all of them. Jackson, Baskett and Greg Lewis all went over 100 yards receiving.
Well I guess Jackson decided to try and answer my questions about him. He caught a 47-yard pass on the first drive and finished with six catches for 106 yards and had punt returns of 18 yards and 60 yards. If he can put in that kind of game against a team like Dallas then I will admit that I was wrong about his size.
What do you take from this game? Well, you know the Eagles have a lot of ability up and down this roster. There are going to be more difficult challenges ahead – Monday night in Dallas just can't get here fast enough to provide an early-season litmus test – and the Eagles are going to have to rise to the occasion. The opener was more than satisfying. It was, really, perfect. We all needed this. The Eagles are trying to build something here. They are trying to get back that swagger that seemed to dissipate after the Super Bowl loss. It was one game, only one game. And the Eagles downplayed its importance afterward, as expected. But it sure beat talking about a loss to open the season. And for 60 minutes, the Eagles showed us all what they are capable of doing in all three phases of the game. Great Game Guys and lets all hope this continues.

Check in later in the week for my analysis of the upcoming Cowboys game.