The Philadelphia Eagles blew out the New York Jets 45-19 Sunday evening at Lincoln Financial in a game that was pretty much never in doubt. After going just 1-5 at home prior to this game, the Eagles handed the season ticket holders a pretty nice Christmas present with this one.
The Eagles jumped out to a 28-0 lead before the game was even halfway through the second quarter. The Jets would score 13 unanswered to end the first half, but the Eagles put up another 17 in the second half to erase what little doubt there may have been. The big story from the game will be the record breaking effort from LeSean McCoy, who rushed for 102 yards and three TDs. His second TD broke the Eagles single season records for both rushing TDs and total TDs, both of which have stood for 66 years. McCoy's 20 total TDs leads the NFL.
Shady has another Eagles record within his sights as well, with another 239 yards over the next two weeks, he'll surpass Wilbert Montgomery's franchise record of 1,512. Even if he doesn't reach that one however, this has to go down as arguably the greatest single season by an Eagles back. Just to put McCoy's season into perspective, he is one of just four players in NFL history to record 19 TDs in a season before their 24th birthday. The others are Eric Dickerson, Gale Sayers and Emmit Smith... all hall of famers.
Speaking of other NFL leaders, Jason Babin collected three more sacks to put his total at 18, which also leads the NFL. He's a half sack ahead of Jared Allen, who was shut out today against the Saints. Babin is also just 3 sacks shy of Reggie White's single season franchise record. Granted, Reggie got his 21 sacks in a strike shortened, 12 game season, but the pass rushing effort we've seen from Babin this year is something special.
It was a great effort all around by an inspired Eagles team. You can only wonder what may have been if they had started playing like this earlier. Still, their playoff hopes are certainly more alive than they were when the day began. They were eliminated from the wildcard today, but the NFC East became that much tighter. The Giants blowout loss to the Redskins means that the Eagles path to the postseason is pretty clear.
They need to beat both the Cowboys and Redskins to finish the year. They need the Jets to beat the Giants next week and they need the Giants to beat Dallas the following week. In that scenario, the Eagles would finish 8-8 and win all tiebreakers. It's a longshot for sure, but it's a shot.