Philadelphia Eagles Defense Hangs Tough In Close Win Over The 49ers

The Philadelphia Eagles advance to a 3-2 record, and even though that record matches two other teams in the division they are still in third place, but are ahead of the Dallas Cowboys by two games who have a record of 1-3 (yep, "America's Team" right? Whatever! Back to a team that wins.)

Defensive coordinator Sean McDermott knew that even though the 49ers were entering this game winless, the Eagles would still have to play error-free football in order to move the Birds in the right direction and his unit answered the call last night.

In a sort of true Jim Johnson fashion, the Eagles defense bullied Niners QB Alex Smith from start to finish and recorded five turnovers in the process.

QB Alex Smith gave the Eagles two interceptions. The first came in the second quarter when CB Dimitri Patterson made a beautiful turn around catch and beat Niners WR Ted Ginn Jr. to the punch—Patterson was immediately tackled at the 3-yard line.

The second INT came at the end of the game as DT Trevor Laws blasted QB Alex Smith just as he released the ball and CB Trevard Lindley was there to seal the deal.

The other three turnovers came off of fumbles, but the most impressive one in my opinion was during the 49ers' first drive of the fourth quarter.

After opening the quarter with a missed David Akers field goal, San Francisco started with golden field position at the Eagles 48-yard line. QB Alex Smith was lined up in shotgun formation on a 2nd-and-5 when rookie Brandon Graham was charging for the sack before Smith seemingly dropped the ball.

Safety Quintin Mikell recovered the ball and took it back 52 yards for six points—and yes, the David Akers extra point attempt was good as well.

There were a few surprises for me personally last night.

Firstly, kudos to the defense for their performance overall, but looking at it a bit further they deserve further congrats for holding RB Frank Gore to just 52 yards rushing while also causing him to fumble twice.

Remember, they gave up just over 70 yards last week to Redskins back Ryan Torain, so the run game is holding their own and did against a proven veteran last night.

Second, I was expecting to see a lot more of RB Brian Westbrook and almost felt let down at the end of the game. The fans were calling for Alex Smith to be pulled for his play but none of them seemed to care how Gore was playing.

We should have been hearing calls for B-West to be in the game also in my opinion.

Lastly, QB Kevin Kolb played pretty good football last night. He was far from great but he did lead the Eagles to a road game victory. I saw some glimpses of what we saw just a season ago but he still has a way to go.

Kolb won the game but it was against a struggling team.

Next week the Eagles will face their first true challenge (team-wise) of the 2010 season as the they host the red hot-lanta Falcons.

It will mark the first time this season the Eagles will square off with a winning team and let's not forget, this marks the third straight week of reunions within the Eagles franchise.

First Donovan McNabb and the Redskins, followed up by Brian Westbrook and the Niners, now next week we have Michael Vick facing his former team. Yes, I don't have a doubt in my mind that Vick will be playing, but nothing official as of yet!

This column was also featured on Bleeding Eagle Green!