Hail Victory!

Whew! We made it.

I can honestly say I never lost hope or faith. The Eagles may have given us a scare in the first half, but I never doubted for a minute that we would wrap this season up with the win we needed.

In the first quarter, my seven-year-old told me that he "felt" like we were going to lose. From the looks of things on the field, it was hard to argue with him. That was atrocious and the Eagles were playing inspired. The skins were just plain flat, but it didn't matter. As a fan, you must have faith. They could have ripped Brunell's left arm off and beaten Portis with it until he was dead-dead-dead and they still would have won. Why? Because Gibbs and Bugel would not have accepted anything less.

There is no better Tandem in the history of the league at half time adjustments. The Eagles were ripe for the pickin', and the Coaches knew it, but their team was unfocused. "Hey fellas - in case you haven't heard - this IS a playoff game. Get your $#!& together or go home". First drive of the second half - 6 plays, 72 yards - TOUCHDOWN!

But enough of the rah rah stuff, we have serious business to deal with and serious problems to contend with.

First, the injury list may not be as long as some teams, but it sure as hell is scary. Thank you Mrs. Sponge for the DVR (TiVo) for Xmas. With the aid of this wonderful invention, I was able to watch Mr. Portis injure his shoulder 23 times from 3 different angles (with all of that, I still can not pinpoint exactly what caused him to go to sideline, yes he landed on it weird, but it just didn't look that bad).

Mark Brunell is not 100%, he is not 90%, I don't think he was even 75% for that game. No question Gibbs did the right thing in starting him and keeping him in throughout the game (maybe I would have pulled him for the last 2 minutes). Question - Who's heart stopped, jumped out of their chest, smacked them in the face and then crawled back their chest when Brunell ran for that first down with 5:40 left in the 4th? Mine. Yeah, we needed that first down, but all I could see was Patrick Ramsey lining up under center in Tampa next week.

In addition, our secondary is hurting badly and now Shawn springs is out (MRI on the groin will confirm what we already know - he is not going to play this weekend).

And finally, Tampa Bay. Of all of the NFC teams this is the second scariest (the first being Seattle in Seattle). Chris Simms is looking better every week and they have the confidence coming into the game of previously beating us this year.

Was this weekends game a good game? No, not really - the second half showed that the skins have heart, but c'mon we were playing a completely decimated Eagles team and we seriously almost lost. If we play like that next week, Tampa will eat our lunch. Let's not make Chris Simms look like a pro bowler again. Ever.

Ski, Good luck and Godspeed. Thank you for all of the postings regarding Mel's picks from the Tony Kornheiser show - I made a ton of cash with them. I truly hope we kick your ass in your own house next week.