In their best season opener since beating Dallas in 2000, the Philadelphia Eagles blew out the St.Louis Rams Sunday 38-3.  The game marked the debut of Desean Jackson, who exceeded all expectations by catching 6 passes for 106 yards, and returned 8 punts for 97 more yards, including a return of over 60 yards on route to the most impressive rookie debut for an Eagles team in recent memory.

The Defense, led by Stewart Bradley’s 9 tackles completely shut down a potentially explosive offense by sacking QB Marc Bulger 4 times and causing numerous off sides penalties by the St. Louis offense.  New comer Assante Samuel had 3 interceptions sliip through his hands, two of which would surely have been returned for TD’s.

The team as whole played magnificently, but took their lead from their star QB, Donovan McNabb who had one of his most impressive performances ever, passing for 361 yards and 3 TD’s while connecting on 21-33 pass attempts.  The game opened with the Eagles receiving the ball and immediately showed that this is not last years team.  McNabb droped back on a second down play and hit Desean Jackson 47 yards downfield for the first of what looks like many NFL receptions.  Jackson lept over his defender and snatched the ball out of the air on a truly remarkable catch for a rookie, especially considering his small stature.

Just before the end of the half, with the Eagles up 14-0, McNabb found Hank Baskett in stride for a 90 yard touchdown that cemented the new look on offense.  Baskett (102yds) joined both Jackson and Greg Lewis (104 yds) with over 100 yards receiving himself.  It was the first time the Eagles have had 3 players surpass the 100 yard receiving mark in a single game since 1961.

Brian Westbrook, the forgotten man on offense today, simply rushed for 91 yards on 19 carries and scored twice, once on a shuffle pass from McNabb to kick the scoring off and another on a 2 yard rush.

The Eagles also received strong performances from Sav Rocca, who pinned the Rams on their goaline twice and kicked a 3rd behind the 20, and Will Demps who had a knack for being around the ball on Special teams, downing two of those punts inside the 3.

Next up for the Eagles are the rival Dallas Cowboys, who defeated the Cleveland Browns 28-10 today to open up their season and set expectations for a huge early game in the NFL schedule when they face the Brds next Monday night.