I think the simple truth with Philly is they are a feast-or-famine offense that thrives on the deep play but is not good at sustaining drives that don't involve 40-yard, quick-hitting gainers. One reason for this, I believe, is because of McNabb's mediocrity in the intermediate passing game. He has a good deep ball but is erratic over the middle. You never know how he'll play in this part of the game, and it's difficult to sustain drives because of it.
Conversely, our defense rarely gets abused deep, much less on multiple occasions. So bottom line is we match up well against their offense.
What does all this mean? Well, anything can happen. All it takes is Newman getting beat once and Hamlin slipping on another play, and we've given up 14 points we weren't accounting for. Football is funny like that.
In many ways, today's shutout was misleading -- shutouts always are. Philly had some opportunities where they didn't capitalize, and next week they might capitalize on each and every one of them. Maybe Maclin doesn't drop the pass and they go on to score. Maybe Jackson's deep ball is thrown better. Maybe McNabb doesn't drop the snap and they get a field goal, and maybe Akers doesn't miss from 50.
That all adds up to 20 points, which still wouldn't have been good enough today, but could be next week.
But the other side of that pancake is we too left points on the field between Suisham's miss, Romo missing on Ogletree deep, etc.
Bottom line is I like where we stand, but am no way going to be insanely overconfident. I realize anything can happen.
