Eagles 20
Bucs 10
PHILADELPHIA – The Giants had best beware. The Eagles aren’t planning to make the race for the NFC East championship a close one. Behind a rugged defense and an opportunistic offense, the Eagles ended Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak with a 20-10 victory yesterday at the Vet.
At 4-2, the Eagles will entertain the 3-3 Giants here next Monday night with chance to separate themselves from their division rival, who was idle yesterday. If the Eagles put together the kind of persistent effort they did against the Bucs yesterday, the Giants will have their hands full.
Donovan McNabb ran for one touchdown, threw for another and David Akers kicked two field goals as the Eagles won a defensive struggle. This was considered one of those springboard games that could send the winner on to a special season and leave the loser feeling mediocre.
Though the Bucs had won five straight since a season-opening loss to the Saints, that mattered little in Philadelphia where Tampa has been eliminated in the playoffs the last two seasons by the Eagles in the wild-card round. The two defeats were largely attributed to an offense that failed to score a touchdown in either game.
Under new coach John Gruden, Tampa’s offense has shown signs of improvement, but it hadn’t faced a defense the caliber of the Eagles.
With the Bucs defense ranked first in total defense and the Eagles ranked third, it wasn’t surprising when the game began as a defensive struggle as only two of the first 15 third-down situations were successfully converted. But the Eagles were able to claim a 10-7 lead at halftime when McNabb found wide receiver Todd Pinkston streaking down the right sideline for a 42-yard touchdown pass. It came with 2:29 remaining in the second quarter and was the first touchdown allowed by the Bucs in more than 13 quarters.
Turnovers had set up the game’s earlier scoring. A fumble by fullback Mike Alstott on the Bucs’ second offensive play of the game was recovered by linebacker Barry Gardner at the Tampa 14. That led to a 30-yard field goal by Akers that put the Eagles ahead 3-0. But the Bucs cashed-in a turnover of their own when linebacker Derrick Brooks scooped up a fumble by McNabb and returned it 11 yards for a touchdown – his fourth of the season – at 5:39 of the first quarter.
At that point, with both defenses dominating play, Tampa’s 7-3 lead looked like it would hold up until halftime. But after a 29-yard punt return by Brian Mitchell, the Eagles used the good field position to test the Bucs deep. Pinkston, running a go route, beat safety Dexter Jackson and hauled in a perfect.