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Samuel Stars In Bounce-Back Game For Secondary

As cornerback Asante Samuel sat at the press conference podium following the Eagles' 26-24 victory Sunday, his smile told the whole story.

Intercepting two passes against any quarterback is difficult to do. Taking two away from Peyton Manning, that's something different all together.

Samuel faced Manning eight times as a member of the New England Patriots, and intercepted him just once - a 39-yard interception returned for a touchdown in the second quarter of the 2006 AFC Championship Game.

On Sunday, Samuel got numbers two and three, and was awfully proud of it.

"(Peyton Manning is) one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game, so it feels good to me," Samuel said. "I've been battling for this for years in New England. He's a hell of a player, a hell of a competitor, so I'm glad we got the win."

Coming off a game in Tennessee where the secondary got scorched for 276 passing yards, 225 of which came via Kenny Britt, the defense held Manning in check. The 10-time Pro Bowl quarterback got his yards, 294 to be exact, but Manning only found the end zone once, was intercepted twice, and finished with a quarterback rating of 65.7. It was only the second time this season that Manning was held to fewer than two touchdowns, and the first time that he was picked off twice in a game since December of 2009.

Flanked by both footballs he stole from Manning, Samuel told reporters following the game that the key to defeating the Colts is to present a complicated defense.

"You've got to give (Manning) a lot of different looks and try to confuse him as much as possible," Samuel said. "The guy is a really smart guy, he studies a lot and once he figures out what you're in, he's going to dissect you. So the whole thing this week was to confuse him, play around as much as possible and never let him know what coverage you're in.

"We knew it was going to be a four-quarter game and we just fought to the end. We fought like champions today."

-- Posted by Josh Goldman, 10:15 p.m., November 7

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