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Philadelphia Eagles 17 New York Giants 10

It was announced on Friday that Eagles' starting quarterback, Michael Vick, and starting receiver, Jeremy Maclin, wouldn't be playing in last night's game against the New York Giants. With the Eagles at 3-6 and likely needing to win at the very least, 6 out of their final 7 games to have a chance at making the playoffs, this bit of news seemed to be the end of the Philadelphia Eagles this year. Vince Young was going to make his first start of the season. His only pass attempt prior to last night's game resulted in an interception against the Washington Redskins.

Fast-forward to last night's game - There is no quarterback controversy in Philadelphia. Vince Young did throw 3 interceptions and had a fourth reversed via replay. The Eagles offense wasn't nearly as crisp as they have been for most of the season, rushing for only 136 yards and 60 of that coming on one run by tailback LeSean McCoy late in the 4th quarter to seal the 17-10 victory for the Eagles.

I do have to give a bit of credit to Young. The guy seems to be a slight step up from Tim Tebow. He's anything but an accurate passer, although, he has shown steady improvement in that area throughout his career. The guy has an awkward throwing motion, poor mechanics and can be awful for 3.5 quarters, yet seems to find a way to come up big in the final few minutes of a game. He's clutch. He showed that in college while at Texas and also in his time with the Tennessee Titans. After the Giants tied the Eagles last night 10-10, Young led the Eagles on a Tebow-like final drive of the game, where the team chewed up nearly 9 minutes of clock en route to the game-winning touchdown. So, while he didn't play a great game overall, Vince Young came up big when the team needed it. While I still believe he's best suited as a back-up to Michael Vick for this team, he perhaps bought him some interest from other teams after his contract with the Eagles expires at the end of this season.

At the end of the game, however, the big story wasn't about Vick or Maclin's absence. It wasn't about Young's clutch drive. It was about the Eagles' defense. Philadelphia has shown flashes of coming together as a defensive unit this year, but more times than not, have been anything but stellar, especially in defending the run. The Eagles spent a lot of money in the off-season for defensive help and while they've been fairly solid in the secondary and have been able to garner pressure up front with their line, their Achilles heel has been their young linebacking corps and stopping the run. Last night was the best defensive performance of the season thus far by the Eagles. They were ranked in the bottom third of the league in rush defense going into last night and allowed just 29 yards on 17 carries, an average of 1.7 yards per carry. Eli Manning also only completed 18 of 35 pass attempts. The Eagles held onto the ball for over 36 minutes, running 15 more plays than the Giants. The Eagles are now 12th in pass defense and 14th in rush defense.

Up next for Philly is a home game against the New England Patriots next Saturday late afternoon. The Eagles will go into the game at 4-6,  2 back of New York and Dallas. It'll be interesting to see if Vick and/or Maclin are able to come back for the game. If so and the defense continues to play well, Philly will have a shot at moving within a game of .500. If not, then they'll likely fall to 4-7 and need to win their final 5 games to have any shot at the playoffs.

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