Akers' kick keeps Eagles on course

You had a villain - Terrell Owens - hell-bent on destroying all the banners that demeaned him inside the unfriendly confines of Cleveland Browns Stadium yesterday.

You had an undersized hero - Jeff Garcia - determined to take down the team that employs his greatest nemesis.

You had a supporting cast - Donovan McNabb, Todd Pinkston, Lee Suggs and William Green - that made amazing plays.

You had overtime.

And if you were the Eagles, you even had a happy ending, thanks to the powerful left leg of David Akers.

After all the high drama, Akers calmly stepped onto the field and made a 50-yard field goal that cut through a wicked Lake Erie wind and just cleared the crossbar, giving the Eagles a 34-31 victory over the Browns.

The Eagles improved to 6-0 for the first time since the 1981 season and only the second time in franchise history. They also took a two-game lead over the New York Giants in the NFC East. They will try to become the first Eagles team to start 7-0 Sunday at home against the Baltimore Ravens.

Akers had no idea whether he had enough distance when he struck his game-winning kick. He had hit a 50-yarder on a practice kick right before the start of overtime, but he knew the wind was knocking the ball down near the goal line, and that was only one of the obstacles that confronted him.

"There was also kind of a wind in our face, and when the ball got up in the air, it was really pushing hard to the left," Akers said. "I didn't want to overkick the ball. When you do that, you sometimes have a tendency to fade the ball, so I just hit a normal kick like an extra point. I thought I'd have enough leg and I did - just barely. "

Given his druthers, Akers would prefer the Eagles return to their previous form of winning by double digits, as they had in their first five games.

"My heart was about to beat out of my chest before the kick," Akers said. "Personally, I like it when we have a 20-point lead. But you're going to have games like this. This is a tough place to play. This crowd is loud and into it.

"You've got to be ready to play and we were. We came out smoking and they came out smoking, and it came down to who had the ball last. "

The dink-and-dunk version of the West Coast offense that the Eagles often employed in previous seasons has been pushed to the bottom of that oversized play chart coach Andy Reid carries with him on the sidelines.

In its place is the go-deep gunslinger version of the West Coast offense. It worked early yesterday.

McNabb, who completed 28 of 43 passes for 376 yards and four touchdowns, needed just 43 seconds and two plays to take the Eagles to their first score of the day. He opened the game with a 65-yard completion to Pinkston that he followed up with a 10-yard touchdown pass to tight end Chad Lewis.

Cleveland immediately countered with a 66-yard touchdown drive that included huge chunks of rushing yards by the backfield duo of Green and Suggs.

Four plays and two McNabb completions later, the Eagles were back in front and Owens' assault of stadium signage was on. After beating cornerback Anthony Henry and pulling in a perfectly thrown 39-yard touchdown pass, Owens made a beeline for the left corner of the Dawg Pound end zone where the Gillans of Rochester, N.Y., had welcomed him with a banner that read "T.O. has B.O."

Owens slammed the ball into the banner, then headed for the sideline, where he received a fist bump from Reid.

Midway through the second quarter, McNabb and Owens hooked up again, this time for a 40-yard touchdown that gave the Eagles a 21-10 lead.

The object of his destruction that time was a derogatory banner in the other end zone. Owens ripped it off and was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty.

Reid wasn't quite as happy with his star receiver that time.

"I didn't actually see it," Reid said. "He's too good a player. He doesn't need to do that. "

The penalty wasn't costly because Quintin Mikell forced a fumble on the kickoff, which was recovered by Roderick Hood, and the Eagles had a chance to turn the game into a rout.