Philly, Baltimore victorious in sunday NFL Action

The Philadelphia Eagles and Baltimore Ravens were victorious in Sunday’s NFL wild card playoff action and will now advance to the semifinals of their respective conferences next weekend.  The Eagles used an impressive individual game from QB Donovan McNabb to secure victory over the Minnesota Vikings, while the Ravens pummeled the Miami Dolphins behind their suffocating defense to advance.

In Minnesota, the Eagles Donovan McNabb threw for 300 yards with a TD pass and one interception as Philadelphia pulled away in the fourth quarter to defeat the Vikings 26-14.  The Eagles carried a 16-14 advantage into the locker room at halftime and were unable to increase that margin during a scoreless third quarter.  The decisive play of the game occurred midway through the 4th when McNabb found Brian Westbrook for a 71 yard TD pass play to stretch their advantage to 9 points.  David Akers added a FG just after the two minute warning to produce the final margin of victory.

Philadelphia will now head to the Meadowlands next Sunday for a 1:00 Eastern tilt against the defending Superbowl champion New York Giants.  The Giants received a bye into the second round by virtue of their divisional win and split their two games against Philadelphia this season.  New York won 36-31 at Philly on November 9th, while the Eagles evened the season series on December 7th at the Meadowlands as they prevailed by a 20-14 margin.

In Miami, the Dolphins led early on a Dan Carpenter field goal in the first quarter and wouldn’t score again until early in the 4th as the Baltimore Ravens used their vaunted defense to advance to the AFC semi finals by a 27-9 score.  The Ravens pass rush made life miserable for Dolphins QB Chad Pennington, forcing the usually reliable signal caller into 4 interceptions.  Pennington had only 7 interceptions all year, and threw more in the loss to the Ravens than in his last eight regular season games combined.  Fearsome linebacker Ray Lewis said that the Ravens were undeterred by the Dolphins reputation for taking care of the football after Miami had set an NFL record with only 13 turnovers this season:

"We heard all week that they don't turn the ball over.  But we force turnovers."

It was an unceremonious end to a great year for the Dolphins, who completed an impressive turnaround by going 11-5 and winning the AFC East after a dismal 1-15 mark a year ago. 

The Ravens now head to Nashville next Saturday for a matchup against the AFC South champion Tennessee Titans.  Despite a 13-10 home loss to Tennessee on October 5th, the Ravens are nothing if not confident.  Ed Reed, who had two interceptions and a TD against Miami, underscored his team’s confidence with this foreboding invitation:

"We're going to Tennessee. Be there."