Nov 08 2008
NY Giants and Philadelphia Eagles
Sunday night’s premier event in the NFL is the matchup between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles. The Giants carry an impressive 7-1 record and rank second in the NFL while the Eagles have a 5-3 record and are ranked 14th in the NFL. The defending Superbowl Champs find themselves in an unexpectedly difficult division this season. Though they sit atop the NFC East rankings, the Washington Redskins are at 6-3 which puts in second place in the division; a mere one game ahead of the Eagle. Dallas sits in last place in the division with a 5-4 record. This is a tough division this year with the second, third, and fourth places all very tight.
While the Giants are the obvious favorite to win tomorrow, they will not have an easy go of it. They stroll into Lincoln Financial Field to face a re-energized Eagles team that hasn’t lost since October 5th. The Giants are led by Eli Manning with 12 touchdowns through 8 games with 5 interceptions and a passer rating of 89.7. Manning will no doubt be looking to his superstar wide receiver, Plaxico Burress. It will be up to Burress to avoid the capable coverage that will come in the form of Asante Samuel. Manning however has several other weapons on the receiving side in the form of Amani Toomer and Kevin Boss. This combined with an unbeatable rushing quartet in the form of Brandon Jacobs, Derrick Ward, Ahmad Bradshaw, and Reuben Droughns (who has yet to see any play time) will inevitably test the Eagles defense. The emergent rushing prowess of Brian Westbrook that exploded on the Philadelphia scene in 2006 when he nearly doubled his rushing yards from the year before has been nearly unstoppable as he has led the rushing yards matchup in three of the teams eight games so far this season. Since the explosive 2006 season, Westbrook has exceeded his rushing totals each year. Couple that with teammate, Correll Buckhalter taking the rushing title in two of the teams matchups this season. What this means is that of the eight mathups so far this season, the Eagles have won the rushing matchup five times. Perhaps a more impressive stat is that the Eagles have won six of the eight receiving matchups using four different players. Having thrown 10 touchdowns in 8 games with 4 interceptions and passer rating of 92, Donovan looks healthy and capable.
Sunday night’s game will be an thrilling matchup that may see the Eagles tie the Redskins for second in the division with the Cowboys being only one win back. And with Romo taking snaps this week, he may very well be back in action after this *BYE* week.
