He we go again. Eagles leading by two and "Mr. Clutch", Giants quarterback Eli Manning, takes over. A quick flash forward over a penalty or two and the game rests on the right leg of Giant's kicker Lawrence Tynes, who is perfect on the year and 1/1 in the game at this point.
The kick is up, and it is wide left. Let the celebration begin! But why is Andy Reid smiling? Oh no Andy, you tried icing Tynes after he missed the kick 50 feet to the left? Say it ain't so. Round two and Tynes gives it another shot. The kick is up, and right away my heart, along with every Eagles fan's sank. A dead on kick after what was an embarrassing attempt just a few moments before. But wait! The kick is short! Time to celebrate again in the city of brotherly love after the 19-17 Philadelphia win.
It could not have been a worse feeling for Reid. Knowing Tynes' kick was not even close and calling timeout nearly half of a second before the ball was snapped must have been a tough pill to swallow. But lucky for Reid and the Eagles, the second time was not the charm.
Now, lets take a closer look back. For the first time this season, the Eagles played a game in which they didn't cough up any turnovers, the defense came up solid when they needed to (not counting pass interference calls), and the Birds only allowed 57 yards on the ground.
But, just because we can never fully praise the Eagles, we have to hit on their negatives. The special teams on defensive kick returns was horrendous, allowing the Giants to start on the 50 yard line nearly every drive, or so it felt.
Along with the special teams, I do not have too much to say about the offense besides the inability to put six points on the board when in the red zone. With what I was sure would come back to bite the Eagles later on, they had to settle for a field goal after a 1st and goal on their own 2 yard line. We must realize that running the ball three times on the goal line will not work everytime, especially against the New York Giants.
But all in all, it was a good night for Philadelphia. A win is a win, and seeing Tom Coughlin and every Giants fan in Philadelphia with their head down just adds to the spectrum. The win over New York makes that eight of the previous nine meetings between the two teams a win for the Birds. And even more bittersweet is that it fell on a night in which Philadelphia celebrated one of the best to ever put on a Philadelphia jersey, free safety Brian Dawkins.
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