Eagles say BYE BYE to Chicago, win 19-9. Get " W" even though it wasn't a pretty site.
Jules Pilla 9-26-04

The Eagles are elevated their record to 4-0 by beating the the Johnathan Quinn led Bears, 19-9. Last week the team was running on all clylinders when they beat Detriot easily. This week the Eagle engine was clicking on half power and still managed to win the game by double - digits. That's 4 in a row by double digit. Still, the game was not a thing of beauty but more of a series of miscues and penalties. But nevertheless a " W" and that's what it is ultimately about. 4-0 going into the BYE week is not too shabby. How many of you fans had them 4-0 at the BYE week?

Don't get me wrong there were plenty of highlights and positive poiints in the game but the expectations for the Eagles are set very high, even for the Fox annoucers. Moose Johnston , ex Cowboys , had nothing but negative things to point out about the birds throughout the game. Obviously , the Eagles should have won 70-0 according to the Moose. I think his dislike for the Eagles was showing. Fox , please give us some different annoucers in the future, I get nothing from Giant loving Stockton and Cowboy loving Moose. And I had my fill of Siragusa. What does he do again anyway?

The brightest player in yesterday's game was Brian Westbrook. Wow , is he just so good and fun the watch. He carried the ball 23 times for 115 yards and his longest run was 29 yards. He also caught the ball more than any receiver on the team , even TO, He had 9 caughts for 63 yards. The Bears didn't have an answer for Westbrook in their defensive playbook. He was everywhere and carried the birds on his back in the second half.

TO had a nice game with 8 catches for 110 yards , 1 TD and 6 sit ups. When Donavan and TO hook up , they make it look easy and remind us that this is the way the West Coast offense is supposed to work.

Donovan had a productive day with 24 completions in 38 attempts with one TD and one deflected interception ( his first of the year). He commanded the offense to 19 points.

Other notables...

The team registered 4 more sacks, one each for Burgess, Lito, Rayburn and Hugh.

Four field goals for David Akers. Nice. But he missed 2 in the latter stage of the game. The wind in Chicago was playing tricks out there and probably contributed to his misses. Did you notice how his early kicks hooked in?

Second year player LJ Smith had a clunker of a game with 3 penalties, missed TD opportunity and no catches. Just one of the those things. We fans have to give him a pass for all the greats he has made in the previous 3 games.

Next week the Eagles get their BYE which means we fans will have to find another way to fill our Eagle fix. How about watching the "Complete History of the Eagles". The new DVD is out and I've got mine. But I know right now that even after watching it, I will think that this is the best Eagles team that I have seen in my lifetime. But that is a debate for Glen Macnow and Angelo Cataldi to put in their second book.

Don't forget to read our Interview with Glen Macnow of WIP fame, on his new book " The Great Sports Debate".