Game 23: Eggles 27, Panthers 10

Jeremy Bloom returns the opening kick out to 24. Donovan McNabb making first appearance of the season at QB. Starts off with a 27-yard pass to Kevin Curtis. Rollout and 16 more to Jason Avant. Ken Lucas deflects a laser toward Reggie Brown to force a FG attempt, which David Akers hits from 52, grasshopper. 3-0 Philly.

A short Jake Delhomme pass to DeShaun Foster goes nowhere; Takeo Spikes breaks up an attempted end-around, forcing Delhomme to eat the ball; Juqua Thomas gets big rush on Jake to force throwaway. 3-and-out. Eggles are on top of their game tonight.

Eggles take over at their 12 after not much of a return by Bloom. McNabb converts a 3rd-and-2 with an 18-yard pass to TE Brent Celek, who makes a pretty catch. Donovan then hits TE Matt Schobel with a perfect sideline bomb, and he splits two defenders to gain 57. Tony Hunt drives it in from the 3 to put the Eggles up 10-0. McNabb is ON and his line is giving him perfect protection. Carolina can't do a thing to him.

Panthers 3-and-out again. Darren Howard bats down a 2nd-down pass and Drew Carter can't handle
the 3rd-down pass. Both of these teams are playing completely opposite of week 1. It's notable
how much worse off Carolina is, being unable to run early. Jason Baker has blasted 56- and 60-
yard punts, though. Look out for that September 9th.

Carolina gets a little pressure on McNabb on 3rd down this time and forces a wide throw incomplete.

Juqua Thomas SMOKES Jordan Gross to force a sack/fumble of Delhomme. I'm really surprised more teams didn't go after Thomas this offseason as a free agent. Guy is instant pass rush.

McNabb to Curtis for 13. Dave Ball blows up an end-around for Westbrook. On 3rd down, Carolina
shows a 3-4 look and blitzed the LCB and both ILBs. Ball got McNabb for the sack. Saverio Rocca's punt is fielded by an Eggle at the 4.

Foster shoots off right tackle for 11 to get Carolina out of the hole, followed by DeAngelo Williams stiffarming Chris Gocong to the ground on a 6-yard run as the first quarter expires. Takeo Spikes breaks up a screen and Sheldon Brown bats down a pass for Carter, nice open-field play, to force the punt.

AJ Feeley in for McNabb, who leaves 6-9-138. Holding penalty gives Philadelphia too much ground to make up on 3rd down. Carolina keeps everything in front of them and Feeley's toss to Schobel for 10 is well short. Touchback on punt.

Eggles jump a slant route for the 2nd time for a near INT. That's on 2nd down. On 3rd, they blitz big, Lito whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-oh-oh Sheppard jumps the same route again, picks it off, returns it 40 for a TD. 17-0 Philly. Eggles perfectly exploited Delhomme's reliance on Steve Smith on that play.

HUGE DIFFERENCE this week for Carolina when they can't run. Philly's forcing them to pass, and Delhomme isn't up to the task. Blitzing is giving him and the Panther line all kinds of trouble.

Right off the next kickoff, big fat Mike Patterson sacks Delhomme, who had all day. Coverage
sack, but Delhomme is losing it. On 3rd down, no one open for Delhomme again. He gets swamped
by three different guys while his own line stands around and watches. It's just remarkable
how much different Carolina is this week over last week. STOP. THE. RUN. to beat the Panthers.

Bloom really has not been a factor on returns at all. Doesn't matter, as Eggles grind out a long
drive, scoring a TD and taking the clock inside 2:00. Catches by Hank Baskett and Celek get them
inside the 20. On 3rd and 10, after a Correll Buckhalter drop, Feeley dumps off to Baskett on a short cross and he takes it all the way down to the 2. Tony Hunt surges in on 3rd and goal to put the Eggles up 24-0.

Not without pride, Carolina drives for a late FG. Key plays are a 21-yard completion to Keary Colbert, a 7-yarder to TE Jeff King on 3rd and 7. Panthers are still allowing significant pressure right up the middle. Kasay strokes a 28-yarder at the buzzer to make it 24-3 Philadelphia. Carolina left the starters in the whole first half. That last drive was against the Eggle twos and Carolina still had trouble.

David Carr starts the 2nd half for the Panthers. He slings one to Dante Rosario up the seam
for 31. Drive bogs down on a holding penalty, a Michael Gaines drop and the Eggles blowing up
a screen. Kasay attempts a 50-plus yarder and misses.

Kevin Kolb the new Eggles QB. Carolina's most impressive defense of the night comes after a completion to Baskett across midfield. Stanley McClover stuffs a run. LB James Anderson stuffs a screen pass. On 3rd-and-15, Derrick Strait LEVELS Bloom, who holds on to the pass, but it's not enough for a 1st. It is enough to set David Akers up for a 51-yard attempt, which he hits to extend Philly's lead to 27-3.

Carr drives the Panthers out to midfield, but the Eggles blow up another screen like they've been doing all night, and Victor Abiamiri catches up to Carr for a 6-yard sack.

There's Otis Grigsby again, sacking Kolb after Gary Gibson misses to kill Kolb's next drive.

Carr is only 2-of-8 here in the 3rd quarter. Trying to pass on 2nd down, Carr fumbles when his own
RB Alex Haynes runs by him too close and knocks the ball out of his hand.

Bloom's 13-yard return gets Philly across midfield, and they're in long FG range at the start
of the 4th quarter. Kolb scrambles for 14 to get in closer. But on 4th-and-1, Grigsby stuffs
Jason Davis at the Carolina 10 to get the Panthers the ball back, helped by a questionable spot.

The Panthers look bogged down in their own end until Carr hits Taye Biddle up the sideline for 35.
Biddle's averaging about 48 yards a catch in preseason. Funny it takes all this time to finally hear
from Dwayne Jarrett, a 2nd-round pick I'd thought was projected as a starter. Not at this rate. The
bomb to Biddle seems to have gotten the Carolina offense running more smoothly. Carr's hitting
everything, his guys are catching it and running hard after the catch. He scrambles for a 9-yard
TD to get Carolina finally in the end zone. 27-10, Eggles. Great drive for Carolina: 11 plays,
90 yards, 6 minutes.

Not a banner night for Jason Davis, who fumbles on the first play after the kickoff to give
the ball back to Carolina.

Brett Basanez in at QB for Carolina. Not a banner night for him, either, he makes a terrible
throw against a blitz directly to Rashard Barksdale for an INT. Ball right back to Philly.

Eggles burn about 3:00 off behind Nate Ilaoa and punt it back.

Ugly 3-and-out for Basanez and the Panthers, with two poor throws and a near-pick.

3-and-out for Philly now. At least they have the courtesy to keep the clock running.

Last shot for the Panthers with 0:58 left, from their own 3. Drop by Chad Upshaw, short completion
to Biddle, low pass incomplete. Panthers punt and Eggles kneel on it for the win, 27-10.

Amazing how much difference a week of preseason makes. With McNabb at the wheel, the Eggle offense was scary good. He eased a lot of tension in Eggle Nation with his 6-9-138, 1 TD performance. Brent Celek looks good enough to start at TE. Almost everybody stood out in a dominating defensive performance. They got away with averaging 2.1 a rush on offense because they held Carolina to 2.8 a pass. I still say more teams should have gone after Juqua Thomas.

Wow, which Carolina was the real one? Philly's blitzing made the offensive line look completely inadequate, and Delhomme played rattled football. Plenty of tape there for the Rams staff to watch for September 9th. Some bright spots on D, like Otis Grigsby and Stanley McClover, but Delhomme really looked vulnerable behind a shaky offensive line.

23 down, 42 to go. Next game: Jagwires-Buccaneers.