Eagles Beat Tampa Bay

The Eagles moved to 3-1 on the season with a 33-14 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Lincoln Financial Field. While the Birds struggled to get their running game going, it was a break out game for rookie WR Jeremy Maclin.

Maclin had 6 receptions for a 142 yards and two touchdowns. His first score was on a 51 yard pass and catch from Donovan McNabb in the first quarter to open up a 7-0 lead. His second touchdown came late in the 2nd quarter on a 40 yard pass from McNabb giving the Eagles a 21-7 lead heading into halftime.

As Maclin continues to work his way into the offensive scheme, he will become a dangerous compliment to WR DeSean Jackson and TE Brent Celek who had 4 catches for
58 yards in this game as well. Donovan McNabb, back after missing the last two games with a fractured rib, looked sharp completing 16 passes on 21 attempts for 264 yards and 3 TD's with no interceptions.

The Eagles' defense was solid limiting the Buccaneers to 303 yards of total offense, giving up 85 yards on the ground and 218 yards in the air. Tampa closed to within 7 points in the second quarter when Kelin Winslow scored on a nine yard pass from Josh Johnson, but that is close as they got as the Eagles outscored them 19-7 from that point on.

Overall, it was a total team effort against a team they were expected to beat. Tampa was never seriously in this game as the Birds controlled both lines of scrimmage from the start. There may be some concern with the running game as they only ran for 76 total yards with McNabb accounting for 30 and Michael Vick adding in 10 of his own late in the 4th quarter. Brian Westbrook, who was back after missing the last game with a leg injury, only carried the ball 6 times for 18 yards. They will definitely need more production than that from Westbrook as the season goes on.

With the Raiders and Redskins the next two games on the Eagles schedule, Philly has a great opportunity to move to 5-1 before hosting the 5-0 N.Y Giants in a crucial NFC East showdown on November 1st.