McNabb's breakout game marked a sea change in the fortunes of the two division rivals on the field that day. The Eagles went on to have a mostly successful, almost always entertaining decade. That team from Washington, limping into Philadelphia on Sunday with another lame-duck coach, is still trying to find its way out of the wilderness.

When the teams took the field that day in 2000, Andy Reid was in his second season as head coach of the Eagles. Norv Turner was in his seventh season in Washington. The year earlier, he hit his high-water mark with a 10-6 record and his only playoff victory. After losing to McNabb and the Eagles that day, the die was cast. Turner was fired just over a month later.

Washington owner Daniel Snyder then embarked on his frantic search to overcome the Eagles and, later, the Giants in the NFC East. He hired and fired coaches - Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier, the ghost of Joe Gibbs - and signed and released big-name players.

Almost every year, Snyder's team won the off-season with splashy moves that gave sports talk-radio hosts ammo to criticize the Eagles' methodical approach to team building. Almost every year, the Eagles finished with a better record and a playoff berth while Snyder plotted another expensive makeover.

The Eagles were like the guy who stays in shape by eating right and working out. Washington was like the guy who binges and gets thin for big events with a trip to the liposuction clinic.

A decade later, of course, the Eagles have won exactly as many Super Bowls during this era as their erratic rivals to the south. Much of McNabb's football future, which everyone was so excited about in 2000, has been written.

McNabb has had that "great supporting cast" Sanders talked about just a few times over the course of his career. He has lost other seasons to an array of injuries. He has come up short in three or four games that could have redefined his entire career to date - his lone Super Bowl and a couple of conference championship losses.

Yesterday, on his 33d birthday, McNabb talked about having young teammates who played as him, not along with him, on video games when they were in high school. He talked about passing on perspective he gained from Dan Marino and Troy Aikman to guys like Jay Cutler and Washington QB Jason Campbell. And when he talked about the future, it had more to do with how much longer he'll play, and whether there's still a chance for that elusive Super Bowl title.

"Still writing new chapters to the book," McNabb said. "It has been a great run, some great years and great guys I've played with. But we have some great guys in this locker room who are young. . . . My main focus is on what I can do to get these guys going and propel the second part of the season in the direction we want to go."

Time, firmly on his side when he twisted Mark Carrier's ankles with that memorable juke, has shifted as surely as the shadows start getting longer in the late afternoon. McNabb isn't quite in twilight, but he (and we) can see it from here.

Fans who are frustrated by the Eagles' run of very similar seasons would do well this holiday weekend to contemplate the plight of Washington fans. Since that day nine years ago when McNabb set the tone for the 2000s, their team has won a single playoff game. The Eagles have won 10.

There are things to criticize McNabb and Reid, and Jeff Lurie and Joe Banner, for doing or not doing. The series of near misses are, in a way, more painful than a decade of being merely bad.

But since the day McNabb, 24 years and one day old, willed his team to a road victory against Washington, the Eagles have almost always had a legitimate chance to win. It may not have been quite the decade he and everyone else hoped it would be, but it has been something to be thankful for - and it's not quite over.