It's Short! Giants 17 Eagles 19

Building up a love for the Eagles is one thing, but building up a hatred for other teams is somewhat more difficult.  After all, I've got no real reason to dislike, in this case, the New York Giants, aside from the fact that they play in the same Division as Philadelphia...and that's hardly a crime! It makes beating them doubly important, but it's still no reason to particularly dislike them.

It so happens, that the Giants are one of the teams that I illogically don't like much.  Maybe it's Eli Manning's dullard persona and Tom Coughlin's remonstrating with officials - which reminds me of an elderly man explaining to his local councilor that there are too many foreigners on the estate.  Whatever it is, the Giants are a team I don't care much for, but I don't feel the hatred and rivalry that other Eagles fans feel.  Hopefully, a few Divisional matches will soon rectify that.

"They come over here"

Having said that, this encounter wasn't especially fiery.  The returning officials helped and there were none of the mass brawls that were liberally scattered throughout the first 3 weeks of the season.  Also, it wasn't a particularly noisy crowd, in fact I thought the atmosphere at the Week 2 Ravens game was better.  Nonetheless, it was an enthralling game that ebbed and flowed like all good NFL match-ups.

The key for the Eagles was that we didn't turn the ball over, Vick was solid throughout and his decision making was massively better than in previous games.  We also used LeSean McCoy more in the second half and he did what he does best.  It felt like a more controlled game all round from the offence.  More of the same will see us win plenty more games this season.

The Defence played as they have done all year, gave very little away. There are a few concerns over the coverage on kick returns, but Alex Henery was immaculate on field goals and it was the most satisfied I've felt after an Eagles game this season.

We also had the 3rd close finish of the season and the 3rd time the Eagles have prevailed.  this time it was due to a short field goal following a Pass Interference call. Supporting the Eagles certainly isn't doing much for my stress levels.

However, I couldn't really summon much hatred for the Giants. There wasn't a big  "incident" in the game to stoke the fire, there wasn't even much red mist from Coughlin.  In truth, the game didn't really have the feel of a rivalry match up. But you know what?  I don't really care! There are a few teams that Gillingham have a rivalry with and I've never been able to summon up much hatred for them.  I'm more interested in my team keeping their own house in order and I don't particularly care who it is they beat.  It may be different when we play the Cowboys, but for now I just want the Eagles to win whenever they play.

The next 2 weeks see the Eagles appearing on Sky's NFL coverage, so as well as looking at the Eagles  game, I'll also be reviewing Sky's big game coverage.

I'm now off to find out some reasons why I should despise the Giants!