Redskins @ Eagles – Third Quarter Thoughts

• One other way this is similar to the Giants game: despite the feeling in the first quarter feeling that the Redskins were being dominated, they’re still very much in the game. Like the Giants game, the defense gave up one initial drive before strengthening, and the offensive started with a completely ineffective possesion.
• For the halftime show, a local cover band performed as assortment of songs, including U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida. Maybe it’s just me, but neither of those tunes really gets me fired up for the third quarter (and Sunday Bloody Sunday is, from a certain point of view, a potentially grim choice).
• Down on the field for the first half of the third quarter, my head on a swivel as advised, although no one seemed particularly agressive toward me, or even toward the brave individual Redskins fans in the stands. In fact, the noise and energy level down on the field was notably less overwhelming than it was at FedExField a couple weeks ago. Some noises do stand out, though: Carlos Rogers’s arrival the same time as the ball on a third down Donovan McNabb pass sounds like a fastball hitting a catcher’s mitt, for example. And the sound of a good play (for the visiting team) on the sidelines is actually the clack-clack-clack of the photographers’ motor drives as they all try to get the perfect shot.
• I was standing just about at the line of scrimmage on that Randle El touchdown pass to Cooley, and … I’ll be honest, I wasn’t at ALL sure that he was behind the line. Glad that the video disagreed with me.
• Well, the offense certainly seems to be clicking now. At some point, their ability third-down conversions swung dramatically. Despite my initial comments, this no longer looks quite so much like the Giants game, but in a good way.