“You Gotta Believe”, the famous quote from Tug McGraw, who sadly passed away last week, is what these Philadelphia Eagles are all about. Miracles can also help and there were plenty to go around on Sunday. What more can be said about the “4th-and-26” play? That play will go down in Eagles history like some of their greatest plays of all-time, like: Wilbert Montgomery off tackle to the end zone against the Dallas Cowboys, or Randall Cunningham’s flying leap into the end zone against the Giants on Monday Night Football and finally, Herman Edwards touchdown in the “Miracle of the Meadowlands” back in 1978. Get real, 4th-and-26 should be like 4th-and-forever! Most teams probably would use the “Hail Mary” play. “First Down” Freddie Mitchell ran straight down the middle and caught a laser pass from McNabb and he had 2 yards to spare. It wasn’t over yet as the Eagles still need to move the ball another 20+ yards to give David Akers a realistic chance of tying the game with a FG. McNabb threw another key pass to Mitchell for 8 yards and then completed a pass to Todd Pinkston for 8 yards a first down. A couple of running plays and Akers was out on the field to make history. Of course, the Green bay Packers called a time out to try to freeze the Eagles kicker. Akers had missed his last 3 FG’s at this same side of the stadium. The other 2 were against the 49ers, three weeks ago. Akers kicked it perfect anyway and that sent the fans into a loud frenzy as the Eagles and Packers are going to overtime.

If you thought the game was exiting so far, OT just added to the dramatics. The Eagles won the toss and elected to receive, while the Packers choose the wind at their backs. The eagles went 3-and-out as McNabb was sacked twice more for 8 sacks all told. On the Packers first play, the Eagles defense caught Favre by surprise and he tried to heave a long one downfield over everyone’s heads. In fact it was more like a punt and free safety Brian Dawkins was there for the INT. He could of called for a fair catch. He didn’t and ran it back 35 yards to the Green Bay 35-yard line. A couple of shot McNabb passes and some runs by Duce Staley put the ball on the 15-yard line. Akers came out and kicked the winning FG to send the 68,000 some crazies at the Linc into pandemonium. It was a big sigh of relief for the men in midnight green. There were other miracles besides the 4th-and-26 play. There was the play where McNabb escaped being sacked by both Kabeer Gbaja-Bamila and Cletidus Hunt and then throwing a perfect pass to Todd Pinkston in the corner of the end zone. That tied the game at 14-14 at the start of the fourth quarter.

Donovan McNabb took the entire team on his back and willed them to victory. He finished the game with a 90.5 QB rating completing 21-of-39 passes for 248 yards with 2 TD’s. Brett Favre was 15-of-28 with 180 yards, 2 TD’s and 1 very big INT. His INT led directly to the Eagles third consecutive trip to the NFC Championship Game. Another important stat actually shows that Donovan McNabb had 109 yards himself on that game-tying touchdown drive which officially went into the books as an 89-yard drive. You add the 2 holding penalties and you get a 109-yard drive. Someday, we may even think of McNabb with the likes of Elway, Montana and Starr. We can also thank Packers coach Mike Sherman for getting cold feet on that 4th-and-1 play with only 2:30 left in the game. First, Favre tried to coax the defense in going offsides, and then they decided to punt the ball anyway. Big mistake. The Eagles also stuffed Ahman Green at the one-yard line on a fourth down play just before the half. The Packers should have just kicked the FG there and they would have a 17-7 lead. Both decisions will go down as the wrong decision. But how can you foresee into the future. Well anyway, they both failed and you know the end results.

This game will go down as one of the most exciting playoff games in Eagles history. It was tension-filled the entire game until Brian Dawkins made the big INT in overtime. After that, there was no question what would happen next. Thank God we have Andy Reid as our coach and not Mike Sherman or even Mike Martz, who should form a new club along with Rich Kotite called the “Big Dumb Ass Coaches Club” or something to the effect. Did you notice Reid and McNabb holding hands on the winning FG kick? That shows the trust and relationship they have between each other. He still ahs a long way to join the greats like Bart Starr or even Brett Favre, both great packer QB who have at least 1 Super Bowl ring each. The future is now and McNabb must seize this opportunity as his time to shine in the “Big Dance”. First, he must lead the team over Carolina next week, and then you can start booking your tickets to Houston on February 1st. It will be plenty cold this coming week for the Panthers, who won their first ever playoff game on the road at the loud Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. But now he is coming to Philadelphia where our notorious and infamous fans will rein down insults and other objects if allowed. Everyone was talking about destiny with Favre and the Packers, but maybe destiny is really with the Philadelphia Eagles. We will know by 10pm on Sunday night. Let’s go! Let’s do it! Let’s do it now!!