Eagles vs. Saints, 2nd Quarter

- 1st and 2nd and goal fail. One more chance here for a touchdown.

- And Aaron Stecker drops it. Brees did some nice work with his feet, rolled out, bought some time, and put it on the money for Stecker... no dice. Here comes John Carney, for a challenging 23-yarder. It's good. 6-0 Saints.

- I was about to type that there was absolutely no chance that the Eagles could convert that 3rd and 9... and then Jeff Garcia goes deep and finds a wide open Donte Stallworth, double-moving the pants off of Saints CB Fred Thomas. Wide open, perfect throw, and suddenly, the Eagles lead. Fred Thomas is going to need some help out there.

- Right after the first touchdown of the day, FOX comes back with the first "This is Our Country" commercial of the day. I don't think that's a coincidence. And if the number of viewings of that commercial has to equal the number of touchdowns, then I'll go back to a touchdown-free afternoon. Gladly.

- 3rd and 7, the Saints with a nice little drive building... they go with a draw play to Reggie Bush, an odd call on the 3rd and 7, but it works. 1st down Saints, at the Eagles 30.

- The Saints are inside the 10, and here comes another touchdown. I can feel it. The give to Reggie Bush, he bounces it around the opposite end... and he's in. Impressive work from Reginald Bush, and we've got a virtual shootout on our hands now. 13-7, Saints. 5:19 left in the quarter. Solid drive by the Saints.

- 3rd and 11 here for the Eagles, crowd making a lot of noise... Saints blitz, Garcia holds tough in the pocket and gets the ball to Reggie Brown. Great job on the blitz pick-up by the Eagles line, and Fred Thomas, again... that didn't look good.

- Another 3rd down, another blitz, another great job by Garcia. This one to Hank Baskett. There are times when Jeff Garcia looks really, really good. Eagles at the Saints 20.

- Oh, Brian Westbrook... that's not good. Perfectly set-up screen by Jeff Garcia, but Westbook took his eyes off it. Sure touchdown, if he could have just held on. Ouch.

- LJ Smith gets it down inside one on the next play, though... I don't know if he was able to stretch it out across the goal line or not; FOX doesn't have a great angle on it. Moose Johnston keeps saying Smith is down, though, when I don't think Smith is down yet.

- There will be no upstairs review, though... eh, maybe Moose was right. Brian Westbrook's going to make it moot point though, by going over the top on the dive. Good height on that leap, Westbrook... 14-13 Eagles after the Akers extra point, :50 seconds left. Been a nice first half of football.

- :44 on the clock, and Sean Payton is not going to take knees. A sack on second down, though, is probably going to change his mind.

- Maybe not. Timeout, Saints.

- Sacked again, though... and the Eagles call timeout with :24.

- Steve Weatherford, Saints punter, is about to get his shit blocked, but he tucks and runs, and ends up with a first down. That almost worked brilliantly for Andy Reid. But, like all the pregame analysis said... Steve Weatherford is the key to this game.

- :08, Saints at the Eagles 45... incomplete, and they'll have one more shot at it. The Hail Mary is up... OHHHH! Oh. Damn. That was in Marques Colston's hands, but it was just popped out. Yikes.