MVN: Most Valuable Network

-Food and football on Thanksgiving Day, photo via MPR625's flickr photostream Creative Commons License

Thanksgiving Day is always one of my favorite days of the year. It's easy to be in a good mood when you're eating the best meal of your life and recalling things you are thankful for. However, this year was shaping up to spoil the party. The Eagles were playing the Cardinals in the night cap of the day's NFL action that featured the Cowboys tar and feathering the Seahawks and the Titans taming the Lions. The Eagles entered the game 0-2-1 in their last three games.

Thankfully, the Eagles did not spoil my dessert. After a week of controversy following last Sunday's benching of McNabb and beating from the Ravens, Andy Reid reinstalled McNabb as the team leader with a newfound sense of urgency. Brian Westbrook looked rejuvenated, possibly from knowing that the team had a plan for him that didn't involve his use as a decoy or lame duck at the line of scrimmage.

The final score was 48-20 when all was said and done. In a complete reversal of both teams fortunes, it was McNabb who shined in the game while Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner struggled. Warner came in looking like the league's MVP and left looking more like a LVP. Both players passed the ball 39 times. McNabb completed 27 passes to Warner's 21. McNabb's completions resulted in 260 yards to Warner's 235. Warner threw three touchdowns, but McNabb had four. The biggest difference, however, was that Warner threw three picks and McNabb didn't turn the ball over.

The game started out with the Eagles following the standard NFC East formula of establishing the run early. Instead of having only two tailbacks active and one of the two banged up with injury while losing the other to injury during the game, Andy Reid dressed three tailbacks and used a power back in Kyle Eckel to gain a big first down in short yardage early in the game. Eckel finished the game with 27 yards on six carries and Lorenzo Booker added 21 yards on four carries. The star of the game though was Brian Westbrook and his 110 yards on 22 carries. He also caught three passes for 20 yards, two of which went for touchdowns. B-West added two rushing touchdowns in the game after not getting into the end zone for the entire month.

When you can run the ball, it opens up the entire offense. McNabb took advantage of a softened Cardinals defense and hit seven different receivers. DeSean Jackson continued to show why he's the Eagles best receiver with six catches for 76 yards and a touchdown. Hank Baskett and Kevin Curtis caught five balls a piece and Jason Avant caught four passes for 25 yards and a touchdown. Not among the seven receivers to catch a ball was Reggie Brown. Brown only has 13 catches this season after grabbing 61 balls last year.

Defensively, the story of the game was the job that the secondary did on Warner and the Cardinals receivers. They boast the best pass catching tandem in the league with Larry Fitzgerald, Anquan Boldin and Steve Breaston. Fitzgerald had five catches for 65 yards and two scores, Boldin had five catches for 63 yards and no touchdowns and Breaston finished with six catches for 45 yards and a score. However, it was the three picks that turned the tide of the game, starting with Joselio Hanson's pick in the Cardinals first drive off of Stewart Bradley's deflection. Hanson started for an injured Asante Samuel, rather than Lito Sheppard. That moved paid immediate dividends.

Quintin Mikell led the Eagles with six tackles and he also picked off Warner. Brian Dawkins had the third pick to cap off the Eagles secondary's big game. Kickoff returner Quintin Demps also played safety in dime coverages, while Sheppard and Sean Considine rotated in as well.

Although the Eagles didn't sack Warner, that is partly due to the fact that he has a quick release and is the league's best quarterback under pressure. Warner was hurried into throwing those interceptions. The Eagles didn't blitz nearly as much as was expected. Rather, they dropped players into coverage and rushed four most of the time.

They also did a solid job against the run, limiting rookie rusher Tim Hightower to seven yards on seven carries. The Cardinals are geared for the air attack though, but with more players in coverage it would figure to soften the Eagles D against the run. The Eagles started the season strong against the run until Clinton Portis ran gangbusters on them in week 5.

The only piece of bad news was the broken ankle suffered by Max Jean-Gilles.  Nick Cole finished out the game at his right guard spot.  Shawn Andrews has been out with a back injury and it's unknown if he can return before the end of the season.

With four games remaining in the season, the Eagles are now on the edge of the radar for the NFC playoff picture. They play three of the four games against division rivals. Next week, they travel to the Meadowlands to take on the Giants. Following that, they host the Browns on Monday night football, December 15th. They are at Washington on Sunday, December 21st before closing off the season at home against Terrell Owens and the hated Dallas Cowboys on December 28th.

With the Eagles 6-5-1 and several teams ahead of them, the Eagles are going to have to win more than two more games to get in. 8-7-1 is not going to cut it. If they take things one game at a time and play like they did against the Cardinals, then perhaps the Eagles can pull it off. Jobs are on the line and there's no better job security than winning.

It's amazing how healthy you are when you win and how injured you are when you lose. There's a bounce in the Eagles right now that hasn't been seen in a month. Maybe those black uniforms and Black Friday have something to do with it.