EAGLES NEWS

After dismantling Dallas last week to clinch the final playoff spot in the NFC the Birds traveled Minnesota to begin their playoff run against the NFC North champion Vikings. Not surprisingly, with two of the league's best run defenses on display it was a defensive tussle throughout. Thanks to a few more big plays and stud defense in the second half, the Eagles eventually found away to win out. Offensively, the Birds didn't have their best day with the run game totally stuffed, but to their credit they stuck with it, consistently mixing in enough run plays all day long to keep the defense honest. In his first playoff start since losing the superbowl 3 years ago, Donovan Mcnabb had a solid day, basically providing most of the Eagles offensive output, as he completed 23 of 34 passes for 300 yards and a TD. Defensively, it was yet another virtuoso performance for the Birds. Tarvaris Jackson was limited to just 164 passing yards and an interception, aside from one 40 yard run, Adrian Peterson was virtually shutdown with just 83 yards on 20 carries, and Vikings collectively were totally shutdown in the 2nd half with zero points and less than one hundred yards of offense. Early on neither team could get much going, although the Eagles did manage to put together a few solid drives, both resulting in long David Akers field goals of 43 and 51 yards for a 6-0 lead. Minnesota finally got untracked early in the 2nd quarter as Adrian Peterson finished off a long drive with a 40 yard td run for a 7-6 lead. The Eagles answered with another Akers field goal for a 9-7 lead. Then on the ensuing Vikings possession Asante Samuel intercepted Jackson and raced 44 yards for a TD and a 16-7 lead. The Vikes came right back on their next possession with a long drive capped off by a 4 yd Peterson TD run to cut it to 16-14. Thanks to some stout defense the score stayed that way until about the middle of the 4th quarter. There Mcnabb slung a screen pass to Brian Westbrook who then ran off an electrifying 71 yards for a TD and a sudden 23-14 Eagle's lead. From there the Birds simply ran down clock and after Jackson and center Matt Birk botched a snap and the Eagles recovered, Akers booted his 4th field goal of the day to provide the final winning margin, 26-14. So the Birds head to New York for a date with the Giants. It should be a classic NFC East tilt.