EAGLES NEWS

The Eagles came oh so close to pulling what would have been the biggest upset in NFL regular season history, in terms of the point spread. Unfortunately thanks to a couple late interceptions of A.J Feeley, starting in place of a banged up Donovan Mcnabb, the unbeaten Patriots survived and improved to an NFL best 11-0. Even without Mcnabb the Eagles offense clicked on all cylinders. Feeley completed 27 of his 42 passes for 345 yds and 3 TDs, Brian Westbrook rushed 17 times for 52 yards and a TD, and Greg Lewis made 5 catches for 88 yards and 2 TDs. Meanwhile, the Eagles defense played about as well as they could have against the Patriots #1 offense. They sacked Tom Brady 3 times, made Randy Moss and the deep pass largely a non-factor and limited the Patriots running attack to just 48 yards. Unfortunately, with the Pats unable to go deep, the underneath reciever, speedy Wes Welker, emerged with 13 catches for 149 yards, which proved to be the difference. The Patriots struck on the 3rd play of the game, as Asante Samuel intercepted Feeley deep in the Eagles own territory and returned it for a TD. The Eagles responded with a long drive capped off a by 1 yard Brian Westbrook TD run to tie it at 7. The Patriots came back to score on their 1st offensive series on a 1yd TD run by Heath Evans for a 14-7 lead heading into the 2nd quarter. Early in the 2nd quarter Feeley fired a 28 yard TD pass to Greg Lewis to tie at 14. The Patriots answered with a Stephen Gostkowski field goal for a 17-14 lead. Feeley fired another TD pass to Lewis, this time from 18 yards out for a 21-17 Eagles lead. After a long drive to end the half, it appeared the Eagles would hold the Pats to a field goal a retain a 21-20 lead at the half. Instead, with 8 seconds left Brady hit Jabar Gaffney with a 19 yard TD pass for a 24-21 halftime lead for the Pats. Late in 3rd quarter following a missed field by Gostkowski, Feeley fired an 8 yard TD pass to Reggie Brown for a 28-24 Eagles lead. The defense gave the Eagles the ball back with a chance to boost their lead heading into the 4th quarter, but they went 3 and out. Then in the 4th quarter with 7 minutes to play, after another long Patriots drive, Laurence Maroney plowed in from 4 yards out, to put the Pats up 31-28. The Eagles drove down to the Patriots 29 yard line with 3 minutes to play. They had a 2nd and 4, but rather than slowing down, milking the clock and going in for the winning score with little time on the clock they choose to go for it all, and Feeley was intercepted in the endzone by Asante Samuel. The Eagles defense held and Feeley and offense got the ball back one last time with 19 seconds to play, but Feeley was intercepted again, and the Pats ran out the clock for the 31-28 escape. In the end it was the greatest loss in Eagles history and hopefully a springboard to a playoff run down the stretch of this season, as the Eagles at 5-6 now, remain just one game out of the final playoff spot in the NFC, held precariously by the struggling Detroit Lions.