Step Aside Champs, Hungrier Eagles Deserve the Spotlight Now

NEW YORK -- There were only a few minutes remaining on the clock when Donovan McNabb lost his mind. This time, McNabb can be forgiven; his silly sin didn't crush his team, didn't send Philadelphia fans into a blind rage. McNabb's Eagles had all but wrapped a green bow around the NFC divisional playoffs Sunday at Giants Stadium -- so when the quarterback decided he'd celebrate the win over the New York Giants a bit early by mocking the defending Super Bowl champs, the gesture seemed more comical than hurtful.

After scrambling around a defense that hadn't touched him much all afternoon, McNabb landed on the sideline, picked up a phone that connects upstairs and pretended to make a call. Hello, Giants? Your reign is over. Move aside for a hungrier, better, sharper team.

"That was a dumb mistake on my part. Shouldn't have done it," McNabb said, once the Eagles put the finishing touches on a stirring 23-11 beatdown of their ancient foes. "I think I was caught up in the moment, obviously, but it shouldn't have happened."

McNabb was slapped with an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty for his sideline caper, adding a slight blemish to what otherwise was a transcendent showing by the Eagles as they won their second playoff game on the road, and added another juicy spin to the anybody-can-win-it NFL playoffs. In a week we'll learn if the Arizona Cardinals' defense really is a mirage, if McNabb can synchronize his rhythm and his focus again in enemy territory.

The NFC title game between the Cardinals and the Eagles might be a contest of two unlikely teams, a rematch of a lopsided affair that was dominated by Philadelphia earlier this season, but one thing we can say with utmost certainty: The Giants, seeded first on the NFC side of the ledger and considered by many gridiron gurus to be the cream of the regular season, did not deserve a return trip to the Super Bowl.

It wasn't just that they've lost four of their last five games, or that they were severely hurt by Plaxico Burress' reckless, illegal behavior. Something has been missing from Tom Coughlin's bunch for weeks now. It would have been nearly impossible to duplicate last season's remarkable, five-week stretch of brilliance, but is it too much to ask for a fourth-and-inches completion now and then? While Philadelphia's bone-crunching, ball-crazy defense deserves mucho credit, is it too much to expect that the Super Bowl champions might score more than three field goals and a safety?

It was as if the Giants were spooked by hosting a playoff game at home, an honor they never held last season all the way to the crazy, beautiful win over unbeaten New England in the Arizona desert. The Giants' first home playoff game in three years began in Sunday's wee morning hours, with piles of snow and ice dotting the creaky Stadium grounds and creating one massive, fight-filled log jam of humanity -- and ended with the harsh cries from hordes of green-faced Philly fans, braying their dominance all the way down the Turnpike.

Yes, New Yorkers, dig in for a harsh winter. First the Phillies win the World Series, now the Eagles are stomping in the same footprints the Giants laid last year. And guess what? The folks who wear the New York uniforms have already planted their allegiance.

"They just beat the only team that had a chance to beat them. I'm on their bandwagon," said Giants running back Brandon Jacobs, voicing a theme heard again and again throughout the home team's dejected, but not shocked, locker room.

Participants from both sides don't mind the parallels that keep popping up between today's Eagles and yesterday's Giants. An improbable playoff berth has gained steam on the road, and now the Eagles are a confident bunch, convinced Jim Johnson's defensive genius coupled with Andy Reid's steady hand (admit it, Eagles fans, the coach hasn't made a wrong move in eight whole quarters) and McNabb's burning desire to prove wrong an entire city of know-it-alls might just result in another Philly championship.

"We haven't made it there yet but we know all know we're a dangerous team. A very dangerous team," Eagles defensive end Trent Cole said amidst a locker room that was subdued and calm, even while Philly fans raged outside the stadium, a lunatic fringe gone wild. Someone asked Cole if he was tempted to join in the celebrations taking place on the other side of the doors. He's a brave man, but not that brave. "Maybe in a few more weeks," Cole said, "we'll be able to participate. But we got too much to do before we start talking about how good we are."

Cole and his compadres on defense did a fine job of harassing Eli Manning, applying pressure with revolving blitzes and limiting his ability to stretch the field. The Giants failed to score on three trips to the red zone, were 3-for-13 on third downs, a killer 1-for-3 on fourth downs and clearly missed Burress. If it weren't for that fateful night last autumn when Burress chose to be socially irresponsible -- and probably criminally liable -- by taking a loaded gun into a nightclub and accidentally shooting himself, the Giants would have had a deep threat, perhaps even found a way into the end zone. They might not admit it publicly, but the Giants' quest for back-to-back titles ended with gunfire in the LQ nightclub.

"You know, we just didn't play well today. It's not about Plaxico," said Manning, who went 15-for-29 for 169 yards with two interceptions, his spirals either gobbled up by the wind or sailing over the head of his targets. "We had opportunities. We have players that can make plays and do things. It's not the issue. I have total confidence and faith in the guys we had out there today. I could have hit them on a few more plays and we could have made something happen."

Manning's rocky afternoon won't elicit sympathy from Jake Delhomme, but it will inspire another winter of obsession from loud pockets of New Yorkers who still haven't warmed to Eli. Coughlin's critics have mostly gone underground, but the coach gave them reason to grouch again with some head-scratching play calling and a challenge that probably caused Jimmy Hoffa to roll over. Trailing 20-11 with 12:39 remaining in the fourth quarter, Coughlin sent Manning up the middle on a fourth-and-one from the Giants' 44, when a strong cough by running back Jacobs might have translated to a first down.

"I was very surprised. I was waiting for him," Cole said of Jacobs. "But he never came."

Jacobs, asked why he didn't get the rock on such a key down, shrugged and said, "Coach calls the plays." He quickly added, "They wanted it more than we did. We didn't match their intensity. I have no idea why."

The Eagles, smaller and quicker on the line, were rougher in the trenches, getting the extra pushes, the harder hits. The Giants had another shot to make it a two-score game a few minutes later, after the Eagles went three-and-out, but after a few long runs by Derrick Ward off tackle, and a shotgun pass from Manning to forgotten friend Amani Toomer, NY faced fourth-and-two from its own 47 -- and when Jacobs went lateral, picking up only a yard, there went the season. The Eagles would score again, on David Akers' 18th consecutive field goal, a record in the playoffs.

Coughlin's postseason magic touch took a brutal hit.

"Well, would you not have gone for it on fourth and an inch? Would you not have gone for it on fourth-and-two with the game where it was? Would you not have kicked a field goal?" the Giants coach said in the interview room, where he was gently interrogated. "The legitimate, logical calls were made. Were they successful or not? You have to take it case by case."

McNabb, meanwhile, earned a brief reprieve from the cackling of Monday morning sages. He was deft and nimble against the Giants, tumbling in for one touchdown, throwing for another and picking apart the NY secondary on several momentous key third downs to land himself in the NFC Championship for the fifth time.

His 22-for-40 afternoon took place mostly in the pocket, his 217 yards spread amongst seven receivers.

Philadelphia's inspiring run took shape with a December victory on this alien field, in front of a similarly bloodthirsty crowd, but its guts can be traced to Thanksgiving, with a 48-20 win over Arizona.

"Well, we've got another week of work," said McNabb. "I guess for old guys and guys who really don't want to see us anymore, they'll be watching for another week."

The Eagles' bandwagon got a little heavier Sunday afternoon, when the defending Super Bowl champs got beat up on their own playground. If the Giants couldn't touch McNabb, they might as well root for him to hoist the trophy they partied with not so long ago. It's the neighborly thing to do.

"Hopefully they'll win the Super Bowl and keep it in the NFC East," said Ward, the NY running back, uttering words thought incomprehensible when the season began, when the Giants were still champions.