EAGLES NEWS

After an embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens in their last game the Birds returned to action tonight in their first Thanksgiving day game in several years against the Arizona Cardinals. Depite his recent struggles Donovan Mcnabb got the start at QB and boy did he deliver, completing 27 of 39 passes for 260 yards and 4 Tds. Brian WestBrook finally looked healthy again rushing 22 times for 110 yards and 2 tds and catching 3 balls for 20 yds and 2 more tds. Finally Desean Jackson had another solid night, with 6 catches for 76 yards and a td. Basically the Eagle offense was as a calm and efficient as it had been all year, as they even converted on a 3rd and 1. Defensively, it was a surprisingly stellar night for the Birds, with Omar Gaither and Asante Samuel out of the lineup . Although they blitzed sparingly, they were able to keep Kurt Warner uncomfortable all night ,and intercepted him 3 times. They also forced the normally reliable Anquin Boldin to drop a few balls and lose a fumble and held the Cards rushing attack to just 25 yds on 10 carries. Simply put they had Arizona's number tonight. Essentially the Eagles jumped out early and never looked back. Westbrook scored 3 quick touchdowns, catching 2 and running for another, to put the Birds up 21-0 early in the 2nd quarter. Late in the quarter Warner finally hooked up with Larry Fitzgerald for a TD pass to cut the lead to 21-7, before David Akers booted a 42 yard field with a second left in the half, for a 24-7 hafltime lead. Late in the 3rd quarter Westbrook ran in his 4th TD of the game for a 31-7 lead. A few minutes later Warner fired a td pass to Steve Breaston to cut it to 31-13, before Akers finished off the quarter with another field goal for a 34-13 lead. Early in the 4th quarter Warner hooked up with Fitzgerald again to cut it to 34-20,but that would be as close as Arizona would get. A few minutes later Mcnabb hit Desean Jackson with a td pass for a 41-20 lead. Finally with just over 5 minutes to play Mcnabb sealed the deal with a td pass to Jason Avant for a 48-20 lead. From there new bruisng Eagle fullback Kyle Eckel, who made the distance on that 3rd and 1, helped to run out the clock for the 48-20 win. So the Eagles move to 6-5-1 overall and for now stay alive in the playoff race. They were a totally different looking team tonight, just overwhelming the NFC West leading Cardinals, but only time will tell whether or not this was a sign of things to come, or just a blip on the radar screen.