House Of Pain Take Two — Eagles’ Domination of Houston Is A Good Start

The first week of NFL football is always a crap shoot on which successful team in the previous season will fall from grace and which low team will turn heads; beating solid teams through-out the season. The Eagles (even though going 6-10 in 2005) were expected to dismantle the lowly Houston Texans in Houston. With a new coach and coming off a league worst 2 and 14, the Texans were expected to come out with a lot of energy and ready to make a statement in their house. The Eagles had other ideas.

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Correll Buckhalter
Buckhalter’s story continues to progress and becomes more and more amazing. Coming off two possible season-ending knee surgeries to play in his first meaningful game in 2 years, Buckhalter carried the ball eight times for 50 yards and clearly kept the Texans defense off balance being a change of pace from the quick Brian Westbrook. It is extremely encouraging to see Buckhalter bounce off tackles and continue to fight after being hit. If he stays healthy, the Eagles will be proven right to not pick up a big back in the preseason.

Defensive Line
The talk of the defense has been about the incredible depth of the line and excessive substitutions during the game. Apparently it is working because the Eagles defensive line had a field day in the Texan backfield, taking David Carr down 5 times and holding the Texan running game to 70 total yards on 20 carries. What may have been the most relieving success was seeing defensive end Jevon Kearse get his first sack of the season blowing past a tight end assigned the daunting mismatched task of stopping the “freak.”

Donovan McNabb and Donte’ Stallworth
There was many questions surrounding McNabb and Stallworth. How would McNabb react coming off a terrible season in which the team was self destructing? And how would he mesh with newly-acquired weapon Stallworth in such a short time? McNabb started off the game looking shaky, throwing an interception in the first possession. Once he settled down, McNabb went 24-35 for 314 yards, with 3 touchdowns and one interception. He also found Stallworth six times for 141 yards and a touchdown. The combination of McNabb and Stallworth showed amazing timing for the amount of time they have been working together and from the looks of it, are going to be a force in the NFC all season.

Andy Reid
Reid clearly learned from his mistakes last season as he ran the ball at a sustained rate and made excellent adjustments to put the game out of reach for the Texans. One thing that was noticeable was the effectiveness of the play-action pass that McNabb used to hit a wide open Stallworth. The success of the play-action was partly due to the Eagles’ established early run game and good acting on the parties involved. Another noticeable feature was after the Texans failed to convert on fourth down late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles effectively ran the ball and completed short passes to control the clock and not let the Texans touch the ball again. This may seem like football 101 to some people, but controlling the clock has not been the Eagles strong suit in past years.

Brian Westbrook
How quick is Brian Westbrook? The man single-handedly makes this offense tick, gaining 132 all-purpose yards and one touchdown. He almost eludes mentioning because this type of production has become such a staple during Eagle drives, that a hundred-plus yards and multiple touchdowns is just what is expected now from him without a second thought.

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Intensity
Though it is understandable that opening on the road is a difficult feat, the Eagles should still be concerned with their lack of intensity at beginning of games. Against the Texans they gave up a long drive and touchdown and on offense they turned the ball over. Luckily the team wakes up and realizes its time to play during the second possessions, but against a good team, giving up early points could be a death wish.

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The Houston Texans are hardly on the level of competition the Eagles will be facing this year. The birds weathered the emotional storm of a home opener statement game and prevailed, answering a lot of questions. While the Eagles were looking sharp and putting up monster statistics, the rest of the NFC East struggled. Both the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants had quarterback struggles throwing multiple game blowing interceptions. Both team’s defenses looked sharp but the inability to stay mistake-free and poor offensive line play lead both teams to the loss column. On Monday Night Football, the underachieving Washington Redskins looked just that; losing the national game to former Eagles’ offensive coordinator, Brad Childress, and the overachieving Minnesota Vikings.

Next on the Eagles plate is the division rival New York Giants. The Giants are coming into Philadelphia trying to avenge a opening season loss to the Indianapolis Colts; whose no-huddle offense simply wore down the Giants team. It should be a excellent divisional match-up that should land in the Birds’ favor if they pressure young Eli Manning into forcing more turnovers and play with the cohesiveness that they showed in Houston.

Edited by L. Olivia Piotti

Photo by AP Photo/Dave Einsel