McNabb Is Hurled Into the Breach

A Philadelphia football fairy tale:

The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Eagles on this day.

Down by 10 to the Jaguars--can you believe?--and just 40 seconds to play.

Desperate for a savior, they turned to their $115-million man.

Name’s McNabb, and if he can’t do it,

There’s a good chance nobody can.

Call the Eagles crazy, for all that money spent.

But if you saw Philly’s offense without him,

You’d know he’s worth every cent.

So he stepped to the line of scrimmage.

This is why they pay him a bunch.

He barked out the signals,

Took a step away from center,

And promptly lost his lunch.

What, you were expecting a happy ending?

They weren’t in Philadelphia, where for decades the sports fan credo has been: Always expect the worst. That way, you’re never disappointed.

Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb is the richest player in professional football. Probably deservedly so--the case can be made that the league could do away with the annual voting and just ship him the most valuable trophy every December.

Sunday, for the most part, was a fairly typical day for McNabb. He passed for 230 yards, ran for another 100 and had a sure touchdown pass dropped in the end zone. The man doesn’t get a lot of help, and on a hot afternoon in Jacksonville, Fla., the Jaguars had him scrambling all day. They sacked McNabb five times, kept the pressure on, ran him ragged for four quarters until, with the clock running down and the game on the line, McNabb could only drop back and watch his pregame meal get flushed from the pocket, so to speak, right there on the field.

“It was just a gut feeling,” Jacksonville Coach Tom Coughlin said, except he was referring to the Jaguars’ fourth-and-one fourth-quarter gamble that led to a touchdown in his team’s 28-25 upset of the Eagles.

McNabb, who had a 20-minute appointment with an IV bag immediately after the game, said he’d been fighting a queasy stomach all day and was hoping to tough it out till the end, but the stress eventually caught up with him.

That’s one way to release NFL game-day pressure. Arizona kicker Bill Gramatica has come up with another, and the last time he tried it out before Sunday, he wound up on injured reserve.

Gramatica tore knee ligaments last December while leaping and misjudging his landing after converting a first-quarter field goal. See, the Cardinals don’t score that many points. Given an off-season and one month to recover, Gramatica was able to line up a more important kick--from 50 yards, with 16 seconds left and the score tied--and drilled it, enabling the Cardinals to beat Carolina, 16-13, for their third victory in five games this season.

Yes, the Cardinals are 3-2. That might not seem like a big deal in Oakland or Miami, but in Arizona, the Cardinals have not been 3-2 since 1991, which explains Coach Dave McGinnis’ rather excited postgame reaction: “This is exactly what I envisioned 18 months ago when I started putting these guys together. We’ve got an open date and we’re 3-2 and that’s sweet, sweet, sweet!”

Taking his cue from his coach, Gramatica went airborne once more after his winning kick. Not a season-threatening swoop. Just a cautious hop--although not cautious enough to prevent several Cardinal coaches from glaring, bug-eyed, at Gramatica and getting in his facemask once he returned to the sideline.

Sorry, Gramatica said, “I couldn’t help it. I just jumped.”

It’s an emotional sport. And in Oakland and Tampa, Fla., emotions had been decidedly mixed after the Buccaneers traded their future--two first-round and two second-round draft picks--for the Raiders’ past--Coach Jon Gruden. Post-trade through preseason, both teams were confronted by more questions than solutions.

Had the Buccaneers given up too much?

Why would a smart coach such as Gruden want to join a team that had just blown out the first two rounds of its next two drafts?

How badly would the Raiders flail without Gruden’s emotional charge, with a nondescript assistant coach named Bill Callahan taking his place?

Here’s how both cities are coming to grips with their feelings:

The Raiders are off to their first 4-0 start since 1990 after a wild 49-31 shootout victory in Buffalo. That’s 49 points seven days after scoring 52 against Tennessee--a lot of end-zone frolicking for old bones and joints that supposedly were clogging up the Raiders’ offensive roster.

And the Buccaneers, who have convinced themselves the future is now, are 4-1 after a 20-6 defeat of the Atlanta Falcons, with Gruden recasting himself as, of all things, a defensive hard-nose. That used to be a criticism lodged against Gruden’s predecessor, Tony Dungy, who was too one-dimensional and couldn’t devise an offensive scheme to make proper use of wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson.

Sunday in Atlanta, Gruden was all things to all Buccaneer fans. His team scored its fourth defensive touchdown in as many games, has not yielded a touchdown on the road so far this season ... and found a way to get Keyshawn the damn ball in the end zone for once. Johnson scored on a 76-yard touchdown pass from Brad Johnson, his first touchdown of 2002, equaling his scoring output for all of last season.

The Raiders are the league’s last remaining undefeated team, with San Diego finding the 4-0 altitude too steep in Denver and losing to the Broncos, 26-9. It was bound to happen sometime, leaving the Chargers and the Broncos 4-1, a record matched by Miami after the Dolphins dealt New England its second consecutive defeat, 26-13, behind Ricky Williams’ fourth 100-yard rushing performance in five games.

So the Raiders are 4-0 and averaging more points a game--41--than the average age of their starting wide receivers (38). And the Buccaneers are 4-1 with a defense that has allowed only 27 points in its last four games.

Imagine that: Gruden to Tampa, a trade that has helped both teams.

It’s probably the last thing both cities expected to hear, and certainly the last thing Al Davis wanted to hear.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

*--* Gearing Up on Defense The performance of the Tampa Bay Buccaneer defense in its last four games, in which it has scored two more touchdowns than the opposition: Game (Result) Sacks Turn Tot. Yds TD Alw TD Scr Baltimore (W 25-0) 3 1 173 0 1 St. Louis (W 26-14) 5 4 358 2 1 Cincinnati (W 35-7) 3 2 168 0 1 Atlanta (W 20-6) 4 4 243 0 1 Totals 15 11 942 2 4

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*--* In High Gear on Offense The Oakland Raiders are averaging almost 20 total yards a game more than the 2000 St. Louis Rams, who set an NFL season record with 7,075 2002 Raiders 2000 Rams Plays Per Game 71.2 63.4 Total Yards Per Game 461.5 442.2 Yards Per Play 6.5 6.9 First Downs Per Game 25.5 23.6 Off. TD Per Game 4 4

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