It was classic Rope-a-Dope strategy by Bill Belichick and Tom Brady… lay back on the ropes and absorb and observe everything your opponent has to bring against you early…then adjust and counter. It worked brilliantly for the Patriots.
After a fast start, the Eagles fizzled.
Brady threw for 361 yards and three touchdowns and the New England Patriots beat the Eagles 38-20 Sunday evening.
Filling in for the injured Michael Vick for the second straight game, Vince Young couldn’t keep Philadelphia’s fading playoff hopes alive despite throwing for a career-best 400 yards passing. The Eagles (4-7) are all-but-mathematically eliminated from playoff contention in a season that began with Super Bowl expectations.
Angry fans made their feelings known about coach Andy Reid, chanting “Fire Andy!” in the second half.
The defending NFC East champions fell to 1-5 at home and have lost eight of nine at the Linc, including a playoff loss to Green Bay last January.
Down 10-0 early, the AFC East-leading Patriots rallied behind Brady. New England (8-3) scored on five of its next six possessions, excluding a kneel-down at the end of the first half.
Brady finished 24 of 34, Deion Branch had 125 yards receiving and Wes Welker caught eight passes for 115 yards and two TDs.
Brady, a two-time NFL MVP, has completed 67.3 percent of his passes for 1,232 yards, nine TDs and no interceptions in four career games against Philadelphia.
Young led the Eagles to a 17-10 win against the Giants last week in his first start in nearly a year. He put up decent numbers against the worst-ranked defense in the league on Sunday against the Pats, but couldn’t overcome another inept performance by the Eagles’ defense.
Young finished 26 of 48. It was just his third career game over 300 yards.
Vick broke two lower ribs in a loss to Arizona on Nov. 13. He got hurt on the second play of that game and stayed in, but hasn’t practiced the last two weeks. It’s uncertain whether Vick can play when Philadelphia visits Seattle on Thursday night.
Brady engineered a 70-yard drive capped by Ben Jarvis Green-Ellis’ 4-yard TD run to cut it to 10-7. The Pats converted two third downs on the drive, including two by penalty. Helped by a missed call, New England’s defense then forced a three-and-out. Young was sacked by Rob Ninkowich, who spun the quarterback down by pulling his facemask. But the referees didn’t see it, eliciting loud boos from the crowd when the replay was shown on the video screen.
One play after just-signed Tiquan Underwood dropped a wide-open pass, Brady connected with Branch for 63 yards to the Eagles 1 on a third-and-13. Green-Ellis scored on the next play to put the Patriots up 14-10.
Antwaun Molden intercepted Young’s deep pass intended for DeSean Jackson on Philadelphia’s next play and returned it 27 yards to the Eagles 34. But the Patriots couldn’t convert the turnover into points. Stephen Gostkowski missed a 39-yard field goal wide right.
No problem for Brady and Co. The Eagles went three-and-out again, and the Patriots went to a no-huddle when they got the ball back. Welker blew past the secondary and Brady hit his wide-open target in stride for a 41-yard TD pass to give New England a 21-10 lead.
DeSean Jackson dropped what should have been a 4-yard TD pass and the Eagles settled for a 22-yard field goal to get within 21-13.
It was the second time in the first half that Jackson appeared to shy away from contact and dropped a pass across the middle. Fans let him hear it with a chorus of boos. Jackson, a two-time Pro Bowl pick, is in the final year of his rookie contract and has been unhappy that he didn’t get a new deal. He dropped a deep pass that should have been a TD in the third quarter.
The Patriots got the ball to start the second half and Brady led them into the end zone again, tossing a 9-yard TD pass to Welker for a 31-13 lead. Brady threw a 24-yard TD pass to Rob Gronkowski to extend it to 38-13 in the fourth quarter.
Young came out firing. He tossed a 22-yard pass to Brent Celek on the first play from scrimmage. Then he connected with Riley Cooper for 58 yards to the Patriots 4-yard line. LeSean McCoy ran in from the 2 to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead.
Young hit Jackson for a 44-yard gain to the Patriots 36 on the first play of the next series. The Eagles’ drive stalled at the 25 after three consecutive dropped passes, and Alex Henery kicked a 43-yard field goal to make it 10-0.
Besides Vick, the Eagles didn’t have leading receiver Jeremy Maclin or nickel cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. Cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha didn’t start after injuring his knee in practice on Thanksgiving Day, though he played in some situations.
The Patriots played without three starters: cornerback Devin McCourty, safety Patrick Chung and center Dan Connolly.
I’m still processing this as yet another big home loss… I haven’t even yet opened up the can of disappointment that tastes like all playoff hopes are over for the Eagles in 2011. It just seemed we were “better than that” and all our bad luck had been spent early… Now it seems like we were never as good as we had thought we were… It is a shock to a team that was “all in” for 2011, and to the fan base that believed we were on to something big.
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