Bowen: NFC Title Game? Glad You Asked.

[PhillyPhreak54]

NFC title game? Glad you asked

By LES BOWEN
bowenl@phillynews.com

You can't live in the past (Jethro Tull notwithstanding).

It's a new season.

What happened in the NFC Championship Game has no bearing on this year's opener.

Every September, 3 years in a row, the Eagles dutifully recited the same script.

This week, it's a little different. The season opener is again bringing up a bunch of questions about the most recent NFC Championship Game, and this time no one seems to mind answering them.

Every now and then, just in case Atlanta is listening, somebody will throw in an obligatory, "but that was last season."

Still, the Eagles aren't going to mind the buildup to Monday's season opener against the Falcons in Atlanta. Finally, the memories being evoked are good ones, the best ones this franchise has generated in 24 years, memories of a 27-10 victory at Lincoln Financial Field that sent the Eagles to Super Bowl XXXIX.

"That was one of the greatest sports moments of my life," kicker David Akers said yesterday. "It was too cold to enjoy it outside, though. I enjoyed it in the locker room afterwards."

The 5-below-zero wind chill and the foot of snow that workers had to scrape off the seats between Saturday and Sunday were the backdrop to countless individual battles. Players smile as they recount them.

"I remember getting busted in the nose," Akers said. It happened on a kickoff, since-released Atlanta safety Siddeeq Shabazz coming after the kicker and slugging him. Of course, there was a reason why Shabazz was so upset.

On the previous kickoff, Akers said, Shabazz "was going to hit J.R. Reed. I just kind of chipped him before he could hit J.R., and he kind of went [down] on his stomach. I didn't think it was anything big, but I definitely got a cheap shot on me."

Cornerback Sheldon Brown recalls some blows the Eagles delivered. "We had some guys that were just flat-out getting after it," he said. "We put Jevon Kearse on [Falcons QB Michael] Vick's front side, for the most part kept him in the pocket. A couple of guys would miss, but then you'd have a guy pursuing to the ball who would get a big hit on him, like Hollis [Thomas] did. That was the best part of it, just watching the guys fly around."

Kearse and the other defensive end, since-departed Derrick Burgess, contained Vick and funneled him back inside. Kearse sacked the fleet QB once, Burgess twice. Kearse said yesterday he was most proud of how the Eagles' undersized line handled Atlanta's top-ranked running attack, which Vick's scrambling usually fuels. The Falcons finished the day with 99 yards on 26 carries.

"They have a pretty good running attack, with [Warrick] Dunn, [T.J.] Duckett and Vick," Kearse said. "We did a good job of stopping all those weapons. If you can [shut down the run and] look forward to the pass, you know what to expect."

Brown said the turning point of the game was Brian Dawkins' hit on Atlanta tight end Alge Crumpler. Crumpler, Vick's most dangerous target, crumpled at the end of a 31-yard pass play, his third catch of the first half. Dunn ran for a TD on the next play, but Crumpler wobbled off the field, and caught just one pass after that, for 7 yards.

"Dawk drilled him. The guy barely made it off the field; he almost threw up on the field," Brown recalled. "That set the tempo and the tone."

Nickel corner Rod Hood remembered an earlier moment.

"Atlanta's first series, Vick tried to scramble on third down," Hood said. "One of the guys [since-departed defensive tackle Corey Simon] hit him and he went down [5 yards short of the first-down marker, on third-and-7]. I looked in, I was like, 'Yeah, it's going to be a long night for him.' Guys were swarming, they were really getting to him."

Thomas, a defensive tackle, said his second-quarter sack of Vick, on third-and-goal from the Eagles' 3, was mostly luck.

"I got double-teamed right off the bat, and I got 'SOL,' which is 'stuck on the line,' " he said. "He started scrambling around. It looked like I was playing linebacker, because it was an aggressive block on play-action, you kind of go back a little bit. I came around the center. One of the ends [forced Vick inside]. I was in the gap he was in. When I saw he was getting ready to come up the gap, I just dove at him, basically just threw everything. If he was going to get in, it wasn't going to be because of lack of trying from me.

"It kind of knocked the wind out of him. He just kind of lay there for a second. The hit could have been a lot worse; I grazed him, harshly."

Wide receiver Greg Lewis remembers the "Club Training Room" disco that defensive end Hugh Douglas set up before the game to relieve the tension. Team owner Jeffrey Lurie was enticed to try "a little jig or whatever he wants to call it," Lewis said.

"It was very lame," Lewis said. "It was pretty terrible. We don't have the best dancers on this team, on the team or in the front office. I feel like I'm in a group of my own."

Lewis also remembers catching a 45-yard pass from Donovan McNabb in the second quarter. Lewis was dragged down at the Falcons' 4, setting up a touchdown two plays later (the first of two TD catches by since-departed tight end Chad Lewis).

"I wasn't even supposed to be in on that play. Todd [Pinkston] got tired, I think, and I went in," Greg Lewis said. "They called a deep pass. I caught it, but I went down on the 4. I had low self-esteem; I thought I was going to have a touchdown."

Instead, Lewis scored his first NFL touchdown in the next game, which was played in Jacksonville. He scored it just a little too late for the Eagles to complete their Super Bowl comeback.

But, of course, that was last season. You can't live in the past.

It's a new season.

[Rome]

The Eagles are going to obliterate the Falcons on Monday night.

I actually feel sorry for the Valtrexes.   


Nah, no I don't.   

[PhillyGirl]

"Atlanta's first series, Vick tried to scramble on third down," Hood said. "One of the guys [since-departed defensive tackle Corey Simon] hit him and he went down [5 yards short of the first-down marker, on third-and-7]. I looked in, I was like, 'Yeah, it's going to be a long night for him.' Guys were swarming, they were really getting to him."[/b]

'

I thought that was Burgess on him like that all night.

[henchmanUK]

"Atlanta's first series, Vick tried to scramble on third down," Hood said. "One of the guys [since-departed defensive tackle Corey Simon] hit him and he went down [5 yards short of the first-down marker, on third-and-7]. I looked in, I was like, 'Yeah, it's going to be a long night for him.' Guys were swarming, they were really getting to him."[/b]

'

I thought that was Burgess on him like that all night.

Rod Hood is all TEAM. It is Bowen who says it's Simon. Rod Hood doesn't pay attention to such minor details as to who it was, as long as it was someone in green.

This message was brought to you by henchmanUK - official spokesperson of No. 29 Roderick Hood.

[MURP]

football-wood

[PhillyGirl]

football-wood

[rjs246]

Are you laughing at your husband's boner? Ouch.

[T_Section224]

yeah, that's a low blow PG

[NGM]

Oh man that article has got me farging pumped.  I might headbutt my Prof. in class today. 

[Rome]

yeah, that's a low blow PG

Too easy.

[T_Section224]

it was a set shot, looking for the spike rome

[Feva]

football-wood

This is awkwaaaaaaaaaard! 

[Rome]

it was a set shot, looking for the spike rome

More like tee ball, bro.

Even IGY wouldn't have missed that grapefruit.

Well, maybe he wouldn't have...

[ice grillin you]

the nfl spit on the eagles by putting them on the road monday nite opener style against a team THEY BEAT in the nfc championship...

mr tagli i have not forgotten about it

[henchmanUK]

mr tagli i have not forgotten about it

I am sure he is quaking in his boots.