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This article was originally published in the Daily News on February 7, 2005.
As the confetti dropped to the field and the smoke from the fireworks descended, Donovan McNabb slowly walked across the field to seek out New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
Big 5 embraced the newly crowned, three-time Super Bowl champion and congratulated him.
Then he began what had to seem like the longest walk of his football career.
Moments earlier, with the Eagles in a desperate situation, McNabb saw the Birds' last gasp at a miracle beyond miracles end when his pass was intercepted by Rodney Harrison with 9 seconds left.
But really, the Eagles' 24-21 loss in Super Bowl XXXIX was sealed a lot earlier, maybe from the first quarter when McNabb wasn't nearly as sharp as he needed to be.
Opportunities were lost. And in a game like this, each of those could have been the difference.
The irony of ironies is that for a guy who never rates himself on statistics, McNabb's numbers for Super Bowl XXXIX were nearly historic.
His 357 passing yards tied for third most in Super Bowl history. He threw three touchdown passes.
But what McNabb couldn't do on this night in Northeast Florida was the thing he's built his reputation on: He didn't make the clutch plays.
When McNabb looks back at his first Super Bowl, he won't see the passing numbers. He'll see the mistakes: the crucial interceptions, the missed chances.
"Three interceptions," McNabb said of the picks that helped doom the Eagles' chance for their first NFL championship in 45 years. "I don't look at touchdowns. I don't look at any of that. I look at the three interceptions.
"As a quarterback, you want to make sure you take care of the ball. Turnovers kill you. "
Early on, when the Eagles could have established the tone of the game, McNabb wasn't sharp. His passes sailed or just missed.
With the game scoreless in the first quarter, McNabb completed a 30-yard pass to Terrell Owens that put the ball on the New England 17. An unnecessary-roughness penalty moved the ball to the 8.
But McNabb immediately was sacked for a 16-yard loss, and then he tried to force a pass to Owens that was intercepted by Asante Samuel in the back of the end zone. The Eagles got a reprieve when an illegal-contact penalty nullified the turnover.
On the next play, however, McNabb, who had become the first quarterback in NFL history to throw more than 30 touchdowns with fewer than 10 interceptions, tried to force a pass to Brian Westbrook that Harrison intercepted at the 4-yard line.
A touchdown there would have been huge because the Eagles scored early in the second quarter on a 6-yard pass from McNabb to L.J. Smith.
But instead of trailing 14-0, the Patriots were down just 7-0, a deficit they erased with a touchdown drive late in the first half.
After New England scored on the first drive of the second half, McNabb responded impressively by driving the Birds 74 yards on 10 plays after the teams traded possessions.
His 10-yard touchdown pass to the Westbrook allowed the Eagles to make it 14-14 with 3 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter.
But when Brady responded with a 9-play, 66-yard drive that ended in a 2-yard run by Corey Dillon, McNabb needed to answer in kind.
Big 5 couldn't.
McNabb threw two incompletions on a three-and-out series, and then the Patriots pushed the margin to 24-14 on a 22-yard field goal by Adam Vinatieri with 8:40 left in the game.
The Birds took possession on their 26 and moved into New England territory when McNabb connected with Owens on a 36-yard catch and run.
On the next play, however, McNabb threw high on a pass intended for Smith, and linebacker Tedy Bruschi intercepted it to give New England the ball on its 24 with 7 1/2 minutes left.
Yes, McNabb connected with Greg Lewis on a 30-yard touchdown strike with 1:48 left to keep hope alive and, yes, the Eagles got the ball back on their 4 with 46 seconds left. But the game was effectively sealed by Bruschi's interception and the other opportunities that already had been left on the table.
"When we got here, no one ever gave us a chance," McNabb said. "But I bet you everyone was on the edge of their seats when we went back out their with 50 seconds left. We possibly could have won the game. "
But the Eagles didn't, and if Donovan McNabb had been just been a little better a little earlier, it might never have come down to that.
