Les Bowen: Until McNabb and Co. step up, Eagles doomed to view Super Bowl trophy from afar
February 3
Philadelphia Daily News Columnist Les Bowen
"As you might have deduced from the dateline, I am still in Tampa as I write this - cool, blustery, rainy Tampa, just in case the wife is reading - but I have a pretty good guess as to how the aftermath of Super Bowl XLIII is playing out back home.Plus, the boss just sent me Rich Hofmann's column for today, which grapples with the topic at hand.Yeah, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger watched his defense blow the game, then took the ball downfield and re-won the Super Bowl, using eight snaps and 1 minute, 55 seconds of the 2:30 that remained when he took possession at his 22. The first play, Roethlisberger actually lost 10 yards on a hold by his really sketchy offensive line. Didn't matter. Seven passes ensued, five completed, one 4-yard scramble, 84 passing yards, Steelers win. Yes, it was the same Cardinals defense and pretty much the same situation as the NFC Championship Game 2 weeks earlier, when Donovan McNabb failed to re-win that game. (McNabb did what Kurt Warner did Sunday, throwing a long touchdown pass to put his team ahead with too much time left on the clock.)No fourth-down Roethlisberger passes bounced off a receiver's hands after the receiver was tripped, because the Steelers never faced fourth down. They saw third down only once, third-and-6 from their 26, on which Roethlisberger hit Super Bowl MVP Santonio Holmes for 13 yards.In the NFC title game, McNabb got the ball back at his 20 with 2:53 left. He hit three of his first four throws, for 33 yards, before missing on four in a row, including two that were really poorly thrown, under pressure. And, of course, his last throw was on target, but incomplete.You could certainly tell the Steelers were not the Eagles. On third down, Roethlisberger did not check down to someone standing next to him in the backfield, and Holmes did not run the route 2 yards short of the sticks. Overall, Roethlisberger seemed to get the play calls from the sideline pretty quickly, get to the line, and get the play off without having to waste precious timeouts, correct confused tight ends on where they were supposed to line up, or lose his lunch.We can spend hours dissecting these various elements. You don't have to be a McNabb basher or even an Andy Reid hater to strongly suspect that if the Eagles are ever going to win a Super Bowl, it won't be this way. You can't know it won't be this way - fourth-and-26 did happen, by the way - but from the body of evidence that has accumulated since then, you can strongly suspect it. No, Donovan and Andy probably will have to win a Super Bowl the old-fashioned way, by getting a big lead and sitting on it, as Pittsburgh did in Super Bowl XL.Couple of points that might otherwise get lost: Santonio Holmes, a complementary receiver to Hines Ward in the Steelers' scheme, was a first-round draft choice, 25th overall, in 2006. That's the late first-round area the Eagles have preferred to trade out of lately, unexcited about the available talent. The last first-round E
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