EAGLES NEWS

The Birds renewed their fierce rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys tonight in Dallas, as they looked to continue their march toward the playoffs. It wasn't easy, thanks to turnovers and defensive miscues, but the Birds were eventually able to do just that. Offensively, Desean Jackson and Lesean McCoy were both huge. Jackson had 4 catches for 210 yards and a TD, including a near Eagle's record breaking 91 yard TD reception. McCoy rushed 16 times for 149 yards and although he never got in the endzone, he was instrumental in helping the Eagles run out the clock in the end. For his part, Mike Vick was solid completing 16 of 26 passes for 270 yards and 2 TDs, while running 8 times for 16 yards and a TD. He did throw 2 interceptions though, only one of which was his fault, that a better team might have cashed in on. Defensively, they were a little bit better than last week, forcing 2 turnovers, and stuffing the Dallas run game. They also put ample pressure on Jon Kitna on a good number of the plays. In the end, it was just good enough for the Birds to get a lead and hang on in the end.

The Eagles started things off with a bang as Vick fired a bomb from about his 20 to Desean Jackson inside the Dallas 20, setting up Vick to take it in himself a few plays later for a quick 7-0 lead. Dallas battled back though, using a couple Eagle's penalties to move down the field for the score to tie it at 7 after the first quarter. Midway through the 2nd quarter the Eagles finally put together another long drive, capped off by a Vick 2 yard TD pass to Tod Herremans,the right guard, of all people for a 14-7 lead. The Eagles weren't quite able to put together another scoring drive for the remainder of the half, but Jon Kitna toughed out one more drive to close out the half with a 50 yard boot by David Buehler, cutting it to 14-10 at the half. In the 3rd quarter it was Dallas who struck first, scoring 10 unanswered points off Eagle turnovers for a 20-17 lead. After Akers booted a couple field goals, including a 50 yarder of his own to tie it at 20, just one play turned around all the Dallas momentum, as Vick hit Jackson on a short crossing pattern, just in front of Terence Newman, and then watched as Desean raced 91 yards for a score and a 27-20 lead.

A couple plays into the next Dallas drive, Dmitri Patterson intercepted Kitna, setting another Aker's field goal for a 30-20 lead. Still it wasn't over yet as Kitna drove to another TD on the following drive to cut it to 30-27. It was Lesean McCoy after that though, as he ran through Dallas and ran out the rest of the clock to close out an important 30-27 win, an impressive display for an Eagle's team not known for its running game. With the win the 9-4 Eagles stay first in the NFC East and 3rd in the NFC.