Eagles continue their hopes

Only in week six, and the Philadelphia Eagles already found themselves in a must win situation against the San Francisco Forty Niners. Star running back Frank Gore led his young Niners squad into battle against an Eagle defense who allowed Clinton Portis to run all over them the previous week.

The 2-3 Eagles found themselves in the basement of the toughest division in football. In fact, before week 6, no team in the NFC east had lost to an opponent outside of their division.

This weekend couldn't have gone any better for a struggling Eagles team. The win less St.Louis Rams, led by interim head coach Jim Haslett went into Washington and beat the Redskins on a last second field goal. That was the first thing that went right for the Eagles this weekend.

Now, the improbable had happened already this weekend with the Rams beating the Skins. There's no way that the Cowboys could lose to the Cardinals is there? Well, the next phase of this amazing weekend for Eagles football was in play. The Cardinals had the lead 24-21 over the Cowboys in the fourth quarter. In a last minute drive, the Cowboys tied the game and sent it into overtime. The Cowboys won the toss and looked like they were going to drive down the field and win the game. They went three and out. On the punt, someone decided not to block Sean Morey (former Eagle wide out), and he blocked the Matt McBriar punt which was returned for a two yard touchdown. The Cowboys lost.

The undefeated New York football Giants played the struggling Cleveland Browns on Monday Night. Its not possible that all three NFC East teams aside from the Eagles could lose this weekend, right? Wrong! Derek Anderson woke up from his season long coma in the pocket and decided to hook up with his star receiver Braylon Edwards. And this time, Edwards decided to catch the footballs that were thrown to him instead if dropping them. The young Browns secondary picked off Eli Manning three times and returned one for a touchdown. The routed the G-Men 35-14, and they handed the Giants their first road loss in 11 games dating back to last year.

Now for the Eagles game. They looked pretty good in the first half. Just before the halftime gun, the Birds were leading 17-9 and looking to extend their lead with a David Akers field goal. Unfortunately, someone on the offensive line decided that they didn't need to block anyone, and they field goal attempt was blocked and returned for a touchdown which made the lead only one and gave the Niners the momentum going into the half.

The Eagles came out of the half as bad on offense as ever, and the Forty Niners capitalized by taking a nine point lead on a Frank Gore touchdown run and a Joe Nedney field goal. The Birds didn't even score in the third quarter, and they were letting Frank Gore run wild on them, not only in the third quarter, but in the entire second half.

Things looked hopeless, and I was just about ready to give up on the season let alone the game. But, out of nowhere, the offense started to find its groove. McNabb led the Eagles down the field for a touchdown. David Akers followed that drive up with three field goals. That made the game 33-26 with the Eagles on top. The Niners got the ball back and began a drive down the field. The Eagles defense, which has been stellar for most of the season, came up huge. Juqua Parker intercepted J.T. O'Sullivan and returned it for 55 yards and a game sealing touchdown. The offense scored 23 points in the fourth quarter in the win, and they had finally scored some second half points.

Hopefully, we can build off of this win and make a run at a division title or a spot in the playoffs as a wild card spot, but it is going to be an uphill battle in the toughest division in football. The addition of Tony Gonzales might just provide us with the boost that we need, that is if we even try to trade for him.