Talking Points

TALKING POINTS

What we're talking about after the Eagles' rout of the Falcons:

-- A dogfight in the East: With yesterday's win and the Cowboys' loss to the Giants, the 8-4 Eagles are tied with Dallas for the NFC East lead heading into Sunday night's game at the Meadowlands against the 7-5 Giants.

-- No DeSean, no problem: Even though he was missing big-play wide receiver DeSean Jackson, Donovan McNabb still managed to average 9.52 yards per attempt. Jeremy Maclin had his fourth straight game with at least four catches and at least 60 yards. Little-used Reggie Brown had two receptions for 64 yards.

-- Vick's return: Michael Vick had a successful homecoming to the city he used to own. Completed both his pass attempts, a 43-yarder to Reggie Brown and a 5-yard TD to Brent Celek, and scored his first TD of the season on a 5-yard run.

-- Still sluggish in the red zone: The Eagles continued to have problems inside the opponent's 20-yard line. They converted just one of their first four red-zone trips into touchdowns. They are 10-for-24 in the red zone in their last eight games.

-- More takeaways: The Eagles forced three more turnovers, running their season total to 28. They converted all three of them into touchdowns, including Sheldon Brown's 83-yard interception return for a TD. Brown and Asante Samuel have combined for 12 interceptions, becoming the first pair of Eagles defenders with at least five interceptions apiece in the same season in nearly 2 decades.