St. Louis, MO (AP) - The Eagles hit the ground running, literally.  On a day our nation paused to remember those who lost their lives on September 11th, Philadelphia put together an unforgettable rushing attack, beating the Rams 40-3.

"We wanted to establish the ground game early, and we were able to do that," said Eagles Head Coach Andy Reid, in the understatement of the year.  "Anytime you can get the run going early like that, it opens up the field."

Philly wasted little time in that department.  On the opening series, Michael Vick handed the ball off to LeSean McCoy, and McCoy did the rest, scampering 68 yards to put the Eagles on the board.  As if that wasn't enough, Ronnie Brown followed suit on the next drive.  He took the ball 65 yards for another quick score, and just like that, Philly was up two touchdowns.

"We didn't know what hit us," said Rams Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo.  "Philadelphia tends to be much more of a passing team, but they started out with the run, and we just couldn't get them down to the ground."

Both McCoy and Brown were able to break several tackles on their way to the endzone.

"The tackling was awful, we have to do better than that," said Spagnuolo.

McCoy wasn't done, yet.  He took off on another mad dash to the endzone, this time 62 yards, as time ran out in the first quarter, and St. Louis was shell-shocked by a 20-0 deficit.  McCoy finished the day with 286 yards on the ground on just 18 carries, good for a 15.8 average.

"I gotta give credit to my big boys up front," said McCoy.  "They were unbelievable.  Some of the holes they were opening up man, you could've driven a truck through them."  The Eagles offense racked up 450 yards on the ground when all was said and done.

The Philly defense also stepped up all day long, really shutting down any hopes St. Louis had of staying in the game.  The Eagles held Stephen Jackson to under 100 yards rushing on the day.  And, second-year quarterback Sam Bradford could never get going, throwing for 151 yards on just 12-30 passing.

Philadelphia's coverage was also excellent.  Constant pressure up front, combined with great coverage by the corners, confused Bradford all game long.  He ended up throwing three interceptions, including one to Nnamdi Asomugha in his first game as an Eagle.

"We play good teams pretty much every week," said Andy Reid.  "St. Louis is a good team.  So is Atlanta.  We just have to take this one week at a time and keep on getting better."

"I was able to read his eyes and just jump the route," said Asomugha.  "It was actually one of the easier picks I've made in my career.  I wish they all came that easy."

The other thing the Eagles did well defensively was get off the field.  Philly held St. Louis to just 2-14 on third down conversions.  That gave Philadelphia the ball quickly and caused the Rams defense to run out of gas at times.

Michael Vick played well enough to lead the offense down the field, but he generally struggled in the passing game.  This was Vick's first start on opening day since 2006, and his nerves may have gotten the best of him at times.  Vick finished 14-25 with 177 yards and one touchdown.

"I didn't have a great game," admitted Vick.  "But, I don't care about that, because we won.  LeSean and Ronnie really stepped up, and our defense was awesome.  If that's how it goes down every game, I'm fine with that.  I'll take 16-0 and not have great stats, it's all about winning, baby."

The Eagles seemed to answer some questions, at least defensively.  Although the linebackers didn't make a ton of plays, the unit as a whole held St. Louis down, for the most part and kept the Rams off the scoreboard.  However, the defense will face a much bigger challenge next week in Atlanta when they take on Michael Turner, Matt Ryan and the rest of the Falcons.