NFL Week 5: Eagles vs. Niners Has a Philadelphia Reunion Of Its Own

With all the media attention surrounding the homecoming of QB Donovan McNabb, it’s easy to understand how everyone is drawn to that subject. However next Sunday, a former Eagle will host the Philadelphia Eagles as a member of the San Francisco 49ers.

Yes, this player isn’t listed as a starter for the Niners, and he isn’t venturing back to Philly to call it a “homecoming”, but this man did spend eight seasons with the Eagles and is just as highly regarded in Philadelphia as McNabb.

That’s right, how could we all forget about legendary running back Brian Westbrook!

Now as a member of the Niners, Westbrook is the backup to veteran brickwall Frank Gore so the Eagles defense won’t have to worry about him as much but there is a problem with him being our opponent which could pose a bigger problem.

Before the loss to the Redskins, there was discussions about who had the bigger advantage; the Philadelphia Eagles or McNabb, and many ESPN commentators made the game day decision to say McNabb would have the upper hand but still somehow picked the Eagles to win the game.

Now if you think the trading of McNabb was disrespectful, imagine being Westbrook for a second who was out-right released from the team, not being provided the same treatment and at least get traded. Nope, they cut their ties with him and threw him to the wolves—and he knows this system every bit as good as McNabb.

Now chew on this, despite their losing record, the Niners have more skill players at their disposal on offense than the Washington Redskins do. If you don’t think for a second that Gore is not licking his chops at the chance to steamroll the Eagles defense the way this Ryan Torain guy did—you better think again!

He’s seen rookie free safety Nate Allen get flattened in the Jaguars game, and now after Sunday he’ll see strong safety Quintin Mikell getting absolutely leveled by Torain.

Yep, Gore is going to lower his head HOPING to put an Eagle on their back, and guess who’s going to help him do it—that’s right, Mr. Westbrook.

He’ll inform him, I’m sure, of certain packages the Eagles are likely to still have in their playbook, and whereas he might not have ever seen the late Jim Johnson’s bible the Birds call a playbook, he still faced it for eight training camps.

I know, Sean McDermott is the defensive coordinator but seriously, do you really think he went in there and completely negated what J.J. left behind—I don’t think so!

It is definitely a hybrid of coach Johnson's successes and his own creations but a Jim Johnson defense is just a way of life in Philly. My point, Westbrook has a good enough idea of what to expect from the Eagles next Sunday.

Unless the defense can learn how to tackle in the matter of a week, well then us fans could be in for another long Sunday next week—thank god it’s QB Alex Smith and not McNabb.

I’ll reserve my score prediction until later in the week once Andy Reid states whether or not QB Michael Vick will be playing. His MRI results came back NEGATIVE today so that is extremely good news, but there was no mention of if he’ll be ready and able to play against the Niners.

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