IS LIVE CHATTING EAGLES-COWBOYS
RUSHING OFFENSE
Brian Westbrook averaged just 3.8 yards per carry, but that actually was his best rushing average of the postseason. Donovan McNabb had a 22-yard run on the Eagles’ first offensive play, and set up a third-quarter TD with a nicely executed 8-yard draw. Grade: C
PASSING OFFENSE
Donovan McNabb brought the Eagles back from an 18-point halftime deficit with a 17-for-28, 266-yard, 3-TD performance in the second half. But he came up short on the Eagles’ final possession after Arizona recaptured the lead. Grade: B
RUN DEFENSE
An Eagles defense that had held its last nine opponents to just 3.5 yards per carry, allowed Edgerrin James to average 4.6 on 16 carries Sunday. Eagles couldn’t prevent Tim Hightower from picking up first downs on two crucial short-yardage situations on the Cardinals’ game-winning drive. Grade: C-minus
PASS DEFENSE
Kurt Warner and Larry Fitzgerald owned the Eagles in the first half. Warner was 14-for-17 in the first half and threw 3 TDs, all to Fitzgerald. After the Eagles regained the lead in the fourth quarter, Warner engineered a game-winning, 14-play, 72-yard scoring drive. Grade: F
SPECIAL TEAMS
This will not go down as one of David Akers’ better days. Shanked an extra point. Missed a tough-but-certainly-makeable 47-yard FG attempt and curiously sailed a third-quarter kickoff out of bounds. Sav Rocca punted only once, but it was a 58-yarder. Grade: C-minus
OVERALL
A pass defense that hadn’t given up a touchdown pass in the last five games, gave up three of them in the first half. Eagles got inside the Arizona 30 3 times in the first half and came away with six points. Grade: C-minus
Les Bowen has covered the Eagles for the Daily News since 2002. Before that, he spent nearly 13 years covering the Flyers. It took Les only a few seasons after the switch to figure out that there was no penalty box at the Linc, and that the time really wasn't his, despite what Andy Reid kept saying. Les came to Philadelphia and the Daily News from Charlotte in 1983. In the intervening years, he has pretty much lost track of NASCAR, and his accent. He, his wife Barbara, and their two sons live in Haddon Township, New Jersey.
Paul Domowitch has been with the Daily News since 1982. He has spent most of his 27 years at the paper covering the Eagles and pro football. For the last 10 years, he’s been a selector for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. A native of Wilkes-Barre and a graduate of Wilkes University, Domo came to the Daily News from the Fort Worth (Tx.) Star-Telegram, where he covered some god-awful Texas Ranger baseball teams. His first beat at the Daily News actually wa s boxing, which he covered just long enough to lose two sports coats to blood spatter before moving on to football. Domo and his wife Shelley, a University of Oklahoma grad and very dangerous to be around following a Sooner loss, have been married 29 years and have raised 2 terrific daughters – Allison, 26, a lawyer and graduate of Boston University School of Law; and Amy, 23, who graduated from Clemson and works in marketing and sales for a professional baseball team.
