The Big Game

As promised, here's an analysis of Sunday's game in Jacksonville. I'll keep it brief -

Let's start with how the two teams fared against their common big name opponent - the Steelers.

Both teams lost - the Eagles were reasonably healthy and had TO at 100%. They could only score 3.
The Patriots didn't have their starting running back, lost their pro-bowl corner early, didn't have Deion Branch, a starting receiver, and lost both of their offensive tackles early. They still put up 20.

The Eagles secondary is somewhat overrated - sure Lito Sheppard intercepted 6 passes, but he also got burned for more than 800 yards worth of completions (opponents seem to like testing him). Not exactly a shutdown corner.
Like the Pats, their D-line makes the secondary better, but the Eagles linebackers aren't as talented or deep a group as the Patriots have.

Other than TO, most of the Eagles receivers struggle against physical secondaries. Backs like Westbrook, who often is compared to Marshall Faulk, don't pose as much of a matchup problem for the Pats as the so-called experts like to think (they seem to have forgotten just how effective Faulk was in the '01 game). The Patriots are going to force McNabb to have to win the game and he doesn't have the horses to do it.
The Pats front three mauled Pittsburgh's O-line two weeks ago. The Eagles line isn't as good.

This game is going to be a cross between the two AFC games the Pats played to get here - both scheme and the team's abilities to raise the intensity of their physicality will play factors.

The bottom line, however, will be the fact that, based on watching the AFC and NFC postseason games, none of the NFC teams was playing as good, hard, or mistake-free football as the Patriots, and that includes the Eagles.

To borrow a Belichickism, the Eagles were leaving too many points on the field to beat a quality team.

Patriots 30, Eagles 13