EAGLES NEWS

After an embarrassing loss to the Saints in their home opener, the Birds returned to the Linc this afternoon looking to get back on track against the Kansas City Chiefs. They did so and more. With Brian Westbrook, Donovan Mcnabb, and Kevin Curtis all missing from the Eagles' offense, no one was expecting a whole lot from them today, even against a very bad Chief's defense. That makes the fact that they amassed 420 yards of offense on the day all the more impressive. That also shows the ridiculous depth this team has on offense. Kevin Kolb picked up the slack at QB with yet another 300 yd effort, this time completing 24 of 34 passes for 327 yards and 2 TDs, including a 64 yd TD pass to Desean Jackson. Even without Curtis, the Eagles' receiving was superb. Jackson hauled in 6 balls for 149 yards and a TD, Brent Celek caught 8 balls for 104 yds and a TD, and the rookie Jeremy Maclin chipped in nicely with 4 catches for 33 yards. The rookie Lesean Mccoy was dazzling in place of Brian Westbrook, rushing 20 times for 84 yards and a TD. Oh and lest it be forgotten Micheal Vick made his long awaited debut with the Birds today as well. He didn't do a whole lot, rushing once for 7 yards, firing 2 incomplete passes, and acting as a decoy on some effective plays, but this 1st game was really more about him shaking off the rust of a 2 year layoff then really getting all that involved in the Bird's offense. So anyway it was simply a very impressive afternoon for the Eagles offense. Of course it really wasn't the offense that was problematic last week, it was the defense that really let the team down. This week the defense did an about face, overwhelming the Chief offensive line, to the tune of 3 sacks and 5 hits on QB Matt Cassel. The Birds also limited Kansas City to just 196 yards of offense, 99 rushing, and 97 passing. Essentially they once again looked like the dominant defense that picked apart the Panthers in week 1. Just like in that game they blitzed constantly and were on the attack all game long. Blitzing is exactly what they didn't do against the Saints and it's what they should do a good amount of in every game from here on out. They're just too strong and too fast to waste time dropping back into prevent defenses. Now as for the game it really was never all that close. The Birds scored on their first 2 drives, on a 5 yard run by Mccoy and a 1 yard scramble by Kolb. Kansas City made it close with Cassel and Micheal Bradley hooking up for a 13 yd TD pass to cut the lead to 14-7. It was just about all Eagles from there. Kolb answered the Cassell TD pass on the Bird's next drive with the 64 yd pass to Jackson. After a couple of David Aker's field goals, late in the 2nd quarter and early in the 3rd, pushed the lead to 27-7, Kolb led another long drive early in the 4th quarter capped off by a 35 yard TD pass to Celek to put Kansas City away for good with the lead 34-7. Jeff Garcia came in off the bench to finish off the game from there and promptly fumbled the ball away to set up a Chief TD, but it was too little too late and eventually Garcia came back in to run out the clock and finish the 34-14 Eagles win.