I was at Lincoln Financial Field this afternoon to see the Philadelphia Eagles pretty much put to rest every worry their fans had about them for the entire offseason, at least for a day, defeating the Rams 38-3.
All I heard all offseason was that the Eagles needed to go out and get a "big time receiver." Then, the team's top two receivers (Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown) went down with injuries.
So what happened in the first game? Three different receivers had more than 100 yards receiving, including rookie DeSean Jackson, and even such unheralded names as Greg Lewis and Hank Baskett were all over the field and the stat sheet.
What else happened? Donovan McNabb was nearly flawless, the offensive line protected him, the defense shut down the Rams' run and pass offenses, and even the special teams performed well.
An only-in-Philly moment: With the Eagles up 38-0 in the fourth quarter, the Rams got the ball and made two straight long completions. Yes, there was booing.
However, I was surprised to see people at an Eagles game checking the Phillies' game on their phones and even cheering when the Phils-Mets score was shown on the scoreboard. Never seen anything like that before; usually it's people at Phillies games doing "E-A-G-L-E-S" chants.
With Tom Brady going down with a likely season-ending injury- and the Colts not looking great against the Bears- the league is suddenly wide open. It's going to be quite a season.
Posted by Stephen Silver at September 7, 2008 11:00 PM