This should be a good hard hitting football game to end play on Sunday in the NFL.  The Eagles will probably come out throwing against the Bears who are allowing 249.7 yards passing per game this season.  Look for Donovan McNabb to spread the ball around so that the Bears can’t focus on stopping any one receiver.  The Bears will need to blitz McNabb or they will be at his mercy as WRs Desean Jackson, Hank Baskett and Greg Lewis are all off to good starts this season.  It’s up in the air as to whether or not Brian Westbrook will be available or not in this game but Correll Buckhalter is a very capable replacement for him both catching and running the football.  The Bears do have one of the best run defenses in the NFL so far this season holding their opponents to only 71.3 rushing yards per game and 3.4 yards per carry.

The Bears are conservative on offense but that might change tonight as the Eagles will gang up to stop rookie RB Matt Forte.  The Bears are averaging 152.0 yards rushing per game this season but the Eagles are only allowing 45.7 yards rushing per game and 2.4 yards per carry so something has to give here.  If the Bears have trouble running the football they will be in deep trouble against a Eagles’ defense that already has 13 sacks this season. 

PREDICTION:  PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 24, CHICAGO BEARS 13

The Eagles won this football game on defense, plain and simple.  Safety Quintin Mikell led the Eagles in tackles last Sunday with 9.  Safety Brian Dawkins was impressive in this game with 7 tackles, a sack and a fumble recovery.  LB Omar Gaither pitched in with 7 tackles and 1.5 sacks.  DE Juqua Parker had a huge game as the O-Line of the Steelers just couldn’t contain him.  He finished up with 5 tackles and 2.5 sacks in this game.  The Eagles sacked Steelers’ QBs an amazing 9 times last Sunday!  The Steelers finished up with 33 yards rushing on 19 carries (1.7 ypc) and they completed 17 of 32 passes for 147 yards.

The offense played just well enough to help the Eagles win this football game.  Donovan McNabb completed 24 of 35 passes for 196 yards with 1 TD and 1 interception.  McNabb left the game for a short time and Kevin Kolb got some action but it didn’t go too well for him.  He completed 2 of 3 passes for 18 yards but he threw a interception.  Correll Buckhalter replaced a injured Brian Westbrook and he looked good in rushing for 43 yards on 10 carries (4.3 ypc).  He also caught 6 passes for 44 yards (7.3 avg) with a TD grab.  Hank Baskett had a solid game leading the way for the Eagles in the passing game with 8 grabs for 85 yards (10.6 avg).  The Eagles finished up with 65 yards rushing on 23 carries (2.8 ypc) and they also completed 26 of 38 passes for 195 yards.  The Eagles are now 2-1 on the season with this win.

This is a tough matchup for the Steelers as the team strengths that they have on offense are equalled by the Eagles’ defense.  The Steelers want to run the football to help protect Ben Roethlisberger’s injured throwing shoulder but that won’t be easy.  The Eagles are only allowing 52.0 yards rushing per game and 2.7 yards per carry so Willie Parker (243 yards rushing, 4.6 ypc) will have to earn every yard.  The Eagles are loaded at CB with Lito Sheppard, Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown and those guys match up very well with Hines Ward and Santonio Holmes.  With that in mind look for Heath Miller to get a lot of looks over the middle for the Steelers in this game.

The Steelers back seven will have to be ready to do battle with the quick hitting offense of the Eagles.  The Eagles have scored 75 points in two games this season and they are averaging 429.5 yards of offense per game.  To stop the Eagles the Steelers’ defense will have to contain Donovan McNabb in the pocket.  They will attempt to do that with blitzing but that could hang them out to dry against Brian Westbrook on screens and in the flats.  Westbrook is the real engine of the Eagles’ offense as he has 149 yards rushing and 46 yards receiving this year.  Westbrook has also scored 5 of the Eagles’ TDs this season and he will put big time pressure on the Steelers’ linebackers.  The Eagles will also try to loosen up the Steelers’ defense with short tosses to L.J. Smith over the middle of the field.  Make no mistake though, the Eagles will be throwing the ball deep to rookie WR DeSean Jackson, Hank Baskett, Greg Lewis and Reggie Brown.

PREDICTION:  PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 24, PITTSBURGH STEELERS 17

The Eagles played well on offense but the defense and special teams conspired to lose the game last night.  Donovan McNabb had a stellar game last night completing 25 of 37 passes for 281 yards with 1 TD pass and 0 interceptions.  He also carried the ball 5 times for 20 yards (4.0 ypc).  Brian Westbrook was also very busy as he carried the ball 18 times for 58 yards (3.2 ypc) with 2 TD runs (both 1-yarders).  He also caught 6 passes for 45 yards (7.5 avg) with a 6-yard TD grab.  WR DeSean Jackson had a solid game catching 6 passes for 110 yards (18.3 avg) last night but he screwed up big time celebrating before he got into the end zone.  The Eagles finished up with 78 yards rushing on 23 carries (3.4 ypc) and they also completed 25 of 37 passes for 259 yards.

CB Sheldon Brown led the Eagles’ Defense with 8 tackles.  Linebacker Chris Gocong scored a TD recovering a Tony Romo fumble in the endzone.  The Cowboys finished up with 68 yards rushing on 24 carries (2.8 ypc) and they also completed 21 of 30 passes for 312 yards.  The Eagles also screwed up on special teams as rookie RB Felix Jones returned a kickoff 98 yards for a TD last night.  The Eagles are now 1-1 on the season after this tough loss.

These two teams split the series last year with the Cowboys outscoring the Eagles 44-27.  Both teams are coming off of impressive wins with the Eagles winning 38-3 over the Rams and the Cowboys pounding the Browns 28-10 in Cleveland.  The Eagles rolled up 522 yards last week but they weren’t playing a defense near the caliber of the Cowboys’ unit.  The Eagles will keep Brian Westbrook busy as the Cowboys appeared vulnerable against the run allowing 5.1 yards per carry.  Zach Thomas will likely have the job of chasing Westbrook all over the place and if that’s the case the Eagles have an edge there.  The Eagles will likely use a lot of 3-WR sets with Hank Baskett, DeSean Jackson and Greg Lewis who all went over 100 yards receiving against the Rams last week which will put a lot of pressure on the Cowboys’ corners.  Roy Williams better also come to play because L.J. Smith will likely get his fair share of passes.  If Donovan McNabb has time to throw the Cowboys’ defense could be in big trouble.

The Cowboys will likely run the football to open up the passing game.  Marion Barber and Felix Jones could get a lot of action against the Eagles this week despite the fact that they only allowed 36 yards rushing (2.4 ypc) last week against the Rams.  WR Terrell Owens always has his old team circled on the calendar but the Eagles have three really good corners and they don’t want to get beat by T.O.  With that in mind TE Jason Witten and WR Patrick Crayton could have big games just like they did last week against the Browns.

PREDICTION:  DALLAS COWBOYS 30, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 27

The Eagles looked super against the hapless Rams yesterday.  The offense held onto the football for 35:10 and they rolled up 522 total yards on offense.  Donovan McNabb didn’t play the whole game and he still completed 21 of 33 passes for 361 yards with 3 TD passes.  Kevin Kolb finished up the game and he was effective too completing 5 of 6 passes for 53 yards.  RB Brian Westbrook was a dual threat as usual as he rushed for a TD and caught a TD pass.  He carried the ball 19 times for 91 yards (4.8 ypc) and he also caught 2 passes for 1 yard (0.5 avg).  McNabb spread the ball around well as the Eagles had three receivers go over 100 yards in this football game.  Rookie WR Desean Jackson was outstanding in his NFL debut as he caught 6 passes for 106 yards (17.7 avg).  Greg Lewis had perhaps his best NFL game of his career with 5 grabs for 104 yards (20.8 avg).  Hank Baskett only caught two passes but one of them was a 90 yard TD as he finished with 102 yards receiving yesterday.  TE L.J. Smith also got in on the action on Sunday with 5 catches for 39 yards (7.8 avg) with a TD grab.  The Eagles finished up with 108 yards rushing on 32 carries (3.4 ypc) and they also completed 26 of 39 passes for 414 yards.  The offense looked like a well oiled machine against the Rams yesterday.

The Defense was also outstanding for the Eagles yesterday as they held the Rams to 166 total yards on offense and they sacked QB Marc Bulger 4 times.  Linebacker Stewart Bradley and safety Quintin Mikell led the way for the Eagles’ Defense yesterday with 9 tackles and 1 interception apiece.  The Rams finished up with only 36 yards rushing on 15 carries (2.4 ypc) and they also completed 14 of 26 passes for 130 yards.  This was just a warmup game for the battle next Monday Night against the Cowboys.

The St. Louis Rams actually match up pretty well with the Eagles right now due to injuries.  The Eagles will likely be without Reggie Brown and Kevin Curtis so Donovan McNabb will have to dig his way down the depth chart.  The Eagles will likely keep the passing short to the TE and RBs without a proven receiver active for this football game.  The Eagles will likely try to get the ball in Brian Westbrook’s hands at least 25 times in this game and challenge the linebacking corps of the Rams.  Will Witherspoon will likely be able to plug the middle for the Rams behind DTs Adam Carriker and LaRoi Glover which means that the Eagles will try to bump the running game outside.  OLBs Pisa Tinoisamoa and Quintin Culberson will have their hands full trying to contain Westbrook.  If the Eagles offensive line can contain DEs Leonard Little and rookie Chris Long then McNabb might try to get the ball deep to rookie speedster DeSean Jackson which will put big pressure on CBs Tye Hill and Fakhir Brown.  The Eagles need either Hank Baskett, Greg Lewis or Jason Avant to step up in this game.  TE L.J. Smith will likely be the player who catches the most passes in this game for the Eagles as he will challenge safeties O.J. Atogwe and Corey Chavous.

The Rams will likely come out trying to run the ball with Steven Jackson early and often.  That means that middle linebacker Stewart Bradley must be kept clean by DTs Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley.  Jackson will also put huge pressure on outside linebackers Chris Gocong and Omar Gaither in the passing game.  The Eagles probably have the best set of corners in the NFL with Asante Samuel, Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard but that doesn’t mean that the Rams won’t attack them with Torry Holt and Drew Bennett.  The key will be giving QB Marc Bulger enough time to throw the ball and that will mean keeping DE Trent Cole out of his face.  Randy McMichael could be a secret weapon in this game for the Rams as Brian Dawkins is getting up in years.

PREDICTION:  PHILADELPHIA EAGLES 31, ST. LOUIS RAMS 28.

I really like the Eagles this season and I think they will get back to the playoffs.  With that in mind I would take the over with the Eagles in 2008.  I just think they did a great job in bringing in new talent in the offseason and it will pay off in the win-loss record in 2008.

The Eagles have claimed 26-year old linebacker Torrance Daniels off waivers from the Giants.  Daniels played in all 4 preseason games for the Giants this season and he made 4 tackles and defensed 1 pass.  In his two year NFL career, Daniels has played in 10 games and he has six tackles.  To make room on the roster the Eagles cut linebacker Rocky Boiman.  Boiman played in all 4 preseason games for the Eagles and he made 4 tackles and defensed 1 pass.

The Eagles have released running back Ryan Moats.  The reason for Moats’ release is because they didn’t need him to return punts anymore due to the arrival of rookie DeSean Jackson.  Moats carried the ball 12 times for 36 yards (3.0 ypc) for the Eagles this preseason and he also caught 1 pass for 7 yards.  The Eagles will probably have Moats’ phone number on speed dial in case anything happens to DeSean Jackson this season.