The Birds, inlcuding the wounded, Donovan Mcnabb and Brian Westbrook, returned to action this afternoon against the winless Tampa Bay Bucs. For Mcnabb the return from his rib injury could not have been better, as he completed16 of 21 passes, for 264 yards and 3 TDs, including 2 40 + yard bombs to rookie WR Jeremy Maclin. For Westbrook the return wasn't quite so sweet, but he did compile 6 rushes for 18 yards and a TD, and 2 catches for 17 yards, which is a start at least. Ultimately the star of the offense on this day was Maclin, who caught 6 balls for 142 yards and those 2 TDs. Maclin was so good, the Birds didn't even really need Desean Jackson today, who caught exactly 1 ball for 1 yard. That's how many weapons this offense has. The number 1 reciever was basically shutdown and they still rolled to 325 yards of offense and 33 points. Other contributors on offense, include Brent Celek who chipped in with 4 catches for 58 yards, and new Fullback Leonard Weaver, who scored his 1st TD as an Eagle, on a 20 yard pass from Mcnabb. As for the defense it was solid, which is really all it needed to be against an admittedly god awful Buccaneer offense. They sacked QB Josh Johnson 3 times and forced him into 3 interceptions. Early on Tampa did manage to put together a TD drive to cut the lead to 14-7, but after that they starting committing penalties, and Johnson just couldn't get comfortable in the pocket, which made things easy for the Birds. Individually, it was Trent Cole leading the way as usal with 7 tackles and a sack. Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown were also huge with an interception each. Early on the Birds had a 14-0 lead thanks to Mcnabb's 1st 2 TD passes. Then Tampa cut it to 14-7, before Mcnabb hit hus 3rd TD pass to make it 21-7 at the half. In the 2nd half Westbrook got his score from 7 yards out to make it 28-0 and an Akers' feld goal made it 31-7 heading into the 4th quarter. Tampa Finally got on the board again in the 4th quarter to cut it to 31- 14 before a safety with 58 seconds left pushed the Eagle lead to 33-14 and put away the win. So the Birds move to 3-1 overall and continue their good start to the season.
1 comment:
The defense is looking strong and McNabb is looking better than ever after his month off. Now all there is to see is wether or not they can do it against a good team.
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