The Last 5 Minutes

On the eve of the first game between the Pats and Eagles since Super Bowl 39, Bob Brookover reviews that game and lasting pain for Eagles fans because the game was so eminently winnable.

But what is most interesting are the comments of former Eagles Ike Reese and Artis Hicks about the game, especially the last five minutes. Conventional wisdom holds that the Eagles second to last drive took too long - that the offense didn't play with a sense of urgency - and that it was McNabb's fault cause he was throwing up in the huddle.

Hicks dispels that lasting, damning myth, explaining that on one play McNabb couldn't catch his breath cause he had been hit by Tedy Bruschi. As it was the intervening time was only 30 seconds. It's also worth remembering that the Eagles did actually score a touchdown on the play to cut the lead to a FG. And honestly, I don't recall Hicks' citation of a B. Westbrook drop that would have been a touchdown before the two minute warning.

In fact, Reese, the special teams captain laments the questionable calls to try on onside kick with 3 timeouts, a mistake that was compounded by an all-out punt block that left no one deep to field the kick. the result was an extra 15 yards during the roll and precious time off the clock. Those two decisions left the Eagles with the ball at their own 4 yard line with 46 seconds to go.

But in part because of TO's cryptic remarks a month after the game - though clearly aimed at McNabb, that McNabb was at fault for the pace of the second to last drive, the entire last 5 minutes of the game debacle have been blamed on #5. Alas, as Hicks and Reese's recollections bear out, blame begins at the top - with the game management decisions made by Andy Reid and not whether McNabb was vomiting in the huddle.