Week 13 - Monday December 5th 2005

The game will be live on Five with kick off at 2:00am UK time.

After coming home from the pub or watching the last college game on NASN (don’t get me started on that one) on Saturday night you may well find yourself looking in the back of the fridge for a nightcap. As you search for that can of Strongbow that you swear you had, you may find a small silver can that’s been in there for months. Don’t panic, it’s just a can of Red Bull and it’s time it was opened as the Hawks to make their long awaited appearance on terrestrial television as Seattle make the trip to Pennsylvania in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning as the Hawks take on the Eagles. Yes it’s the one we’ve all saved our holidays for and the dishless Seahawkers have been counting down to. Are you ready for some football?

To be honest, if someone had told us at the start of the season that this battle of the birds would feature the team with the best record in the NFC after 11 weeks, only the most optimistic of us would have predicted that it would be the Hawks not the Eagles looking down at the rest of the pack. But that’s the way it is, although some of the East coast media still don’t believe it. To be fair to the Eagles though this is a completely different team to the outfit that’s gone to the last four NFC Championship games.

Now the Hawks are concerned with McMahon to Brown rather than the much greater threat of McNabb to Owens. McMahon did ok in his first game deputising for the soup king throwing for 298 yards and a score but struggled against the Pack last week throwing for less than a hundred. In both games his completion percentage was below 50%. The main Eagle offensive threat is now Brian Westbrook. Probably a bit underrated around the league but he’s a danger whenever he’s got the ball in his hands.

The Eagles are one of the worst rushing teams in the NFL as Shaun Alexander has rushed for over 400 yards more on his own compared to the entire Philly team and the offense has averaged less than 21 points a game this season. So on paper the offense is now not the greatest in the world and the Hawks have certainly faced better than the Eagles this year and come out on top. But this is MNF which can inspire the most unlikely of players.

The Eagles defense has been up and down this season. Take Sunday for example, Samkon Gado rushed for over 100 yards and two scores in the first half. The second half, the Eagles pitched a shut out. It’s been that kind of season for the defense. Solid as a rock one minute, leaky as a sieve the next. The loss of Lito Sheppard for the season doesn’t help them either.

This is the fourth and last NFC East regular season opponent for the Hawks this year and the other three games have all been decided on the last play of the game. It could be close again as both defences are statistically very similar but the Hawks have a definite offensive advantage and what better time to show to the watching millions how good this team actually is.

Radio Commentary available via Field Pass: http://www.nfl.com/fieldpass (Subscription required)

Free radio commentary possibly via: http://www.thegamelive.com

Chat Room: http://hawksnest.co.uk/Chat/phpMyChat.php3

Brendan Clarke (Smugsy)
 

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