EAGLES NEWS

This is not the way the Eagles were supposed to start the season. They were supposed to go into Lambeau field and thump the Packers easily. Instead a special teams collapse led to heartbreak. It started badly for the Eagles when, after forcing Green Bay to punt, Greg Lewis, muffed his 1st punt return attempt. Of course, the balled bounced off the hands of several players, and rolled into the endzone where it was recovered by a Packer. Just like that it was 7-0 Green Bay. The Eagles next possession then ended with Donovan Mcnabb throwing a pick in Green Bay territory. That of course, led to a Packers field goal and it was 10-0 Packers. Early in 2nd quarter, Mcnabb finally started hitting his targets, leading the Birds on a 13 play, 62 yard drive, including a 37 yard pass to Kevin Curtis, to set up a David Akers field goal, cutting the lead to 10-3. Later, with about 6 minutes to play in the half, Mcnabb led another long 97 yard drive, punctuated by a 9 yard touchdown pass to 2nd year man Jason Avant, to knot it up at 10. Mid-way through the 3rd quarter, Mcnabb hit a couple big 3rd down completions, on a 59 yard drive, resulting in another Akers field goal to put the Birds up 13-10. The Packers countered with a field goal of their own to tie it at 13. The two teams then traded scoring chances in the 4th quarter, until late in quarter, as the Eagles seemed to catch a break when they forced Green Bay to punt with under 2 minutes to play. Unfortunately, J.R Reed who replaced Lewis, muffed a fair catch, and the Packers recovered inside the Eagles 30 yard line. A few plays later Green Bay kicked another field goal to go ahead 16-13 with 2 seconds to go and that's how it ended, as the Eagles failed to score on the ensuing kickoff. As if this loss weren't enough, Lito "one more for the road" Sheppard went down with an MCL sprain during game and is now day to day. So, just to recap the Eagles, defense played well, allowing just 215 yards of offense and 6 points, while the Eagles offense struggled somewhat, gaining just 283 yards, and scoring only 13 points, and the special teams, other than Akers, was a debacle.