EAGLES NEWS

Coming off an injury plagued 6-10 2005 season, the Eagles enterd this season with a lot of questions. Well, after a solid 24-10 victory over the Houston Texans to open the season consider those questions answered. Yes, things started out a little shaky as the Eagles defense allowed the Texans to score a touchdown on the opening drive of the game, but the Eagles never panicked and by halftime it was 14-10 Eagles, and the Texans had missed their chance for an upset. Now that you know how the Eagles fared as a team, let's talk about some individual performances. Donovan Mcnabb started shaky as well, firing an early interception, but he settled down with the rest of the Eagles and wound up passing for 314 yds and 3 touchdowns. Donté Stallworth has been with the Eagles for only a couple of weeks now, but today he looked like he had been there all along, with 6 catches for 141 yards and a score(a 42 yard strike from Mcnabb on a beautiful play fake). Not to be outdone though, is the Eagles running game as Brian Westbrook (71 yards, 17 carries) and Correll Buckhalter(50 yards, 8 carries) combined for 121 yards, not great, but pretty good for a team that usually relies on it's passing game. The Eagles defense looked pretty good too, sacking Texans QB David Carr 5 times, and keeping the Texans off the scoreboard for the entire 2nd half. They also held the Texans to just 70 yards rushing, which is a lot better then they ever did last year. Just to summarize, the Eagles certainly looked like a much improved football team today, but they made a few mistakes and didn't play as well as they could have. I mean they played well enough to beat the Texans, but they didn't blow them out as they would have in the past. If they hope to get back on top, they are going to have to raise their level just a little bit, because they are going to need everything they've got next week against the Giants. If they win that one then they will make me a believer, but until then I'll just be content with this week 1 victory.