No Degree of Difficulty for Eagles

When the mercury drops, the losses keep piling up for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

It might be the most well-known statistic in the NFL these days, and it grew again in a frigid Veteran Stadium on Sunday evening: After a 21-3 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Buccaneers are 0-20 in games played when the temperature is below 40 degrees.

The thermometer read 34 degrees at kickoff for this NFC wild-card game. The wind chill factor was 11.

The Buccaneers brought their parkas and their knit hats. They just didn’t bring any semblance of an offense, which is what really did them in.

So now the Buccaneers go home, and along with them go so many good story lines. The Buccaneers won’t get a chance to be the first team to play the Super Bowl in its home stadium. And the New York media won’t get a week of buildup for Keyshawn Johnson’s return to the Meadowlands.

Instead, they’ll be busy logging miles on the New Jersey Turnpike as (ho-hum) the Eagles prepare to play the New York Giants for the third time this season. The Giants won both previous meetings.

Perhaps the Giants can provide some more excitement come gametime. The Buccaneers moved past midfield only once in the first three quarters. They ran only 54 plays for a total of 199 yards (50 rushing). They had 11 first downs--and two of those were on penalties. They converted only three of 13 third downs.

They committed a turnover that led to Philadelphia’s first touchdown. And they couldn’t run down the clock on their final possession of the first half, giving the Eagles a chance to score their second touchdown shortly before halftime. They held the ball for only 2:42 in the third quarter.

“I couldn’t tell you the reasons” for the futility, said Tampa Bay running back Warrick Dunn, who had a single yard to show for eight carries. “It’s frustrating, because today we couldn’t establish anything.”

Well, they did get fullback Mike Alstott going up the middle for a while in the first half. But after they fell behind, 14-3, they were forced to think pass first, and that’s not the way their offense works best.

When they did try to pass, quarterback Shaun King was frustrated by an Eagle rush led by Hugh Douglas, who had two of Philadelphia’s four sacks and forced a key fumble. “That was the key to the game, put pressure on the quarterback,” Douglas said on the field as the crowd of 65,813 roared its approval. “That’s what we’ve tried to do all season long.”

Eagle Coach Andy Reid had told his players not to conduct interviews on the field, but there’s no way the loquacious Douglas was going to be quiet after the biggest victory of the year.

“It ain’t over yet,” Douglas said. “This is only the first game. We’re trying to go all the way, baby. We’re not trying to settle for nothing less.”

Can a team with only one offensive threat win the Super Bowl? Perhaps it can if that player is Donovan McNabb. The Eagle quarterback, who didn’t make the Pro Bowl, was serenaded by chants of “M-V-P” during the game. He’s definitely the Eagles’ most valuable player. And if he can get a team that lost its top running back, Duce Staley, to injury early in the season and never did produce an adequate replacement, into the playoffs, and if he can take a team that never developed a big-time receiver this deep into the season this far, then he is arguably as important to his team as any one player in the league.

McNabb threw 33 times and completed 24 passes to 10 receivers. He passed for 161 yards and two touchdowns. He also ran for 32 yards and a touchdown.

His offensive line did a good job of keeping the fearsome Tampa Bay front line out of his face, and whenever someone got near to McNabb he proved too elusive.

The Eagles also got a surprising 85 yards rushing from Chris Warren, helping Philadelphia run down the clock in the second half against an uncharacteristically compliant Tampa Bay defense.

Tampa Bay had only one sustained drive in the first half, when King found Dunn, Johnson and Alstott for medium gains, then Alstott ran eight yards to the Philadelphia 17. The Buccaneers couldn’t reach the end zone, however, and had to accept a 29-yard Martin Gramatica field goal.

Philadelphia got on the scoreboard after a fumble caused by a Douglas hit on King.

The Eagles recovered at the Tampa Bay 15-yard line. They scored when McNabb called his own number and ran into the end zone from five yards with 3:21 to play in the half.

The Eagles did more work to earn their second touchdown, but they shouldn’t have had such a good opportunity in the first place. Tampa Bay went three-and-out to give the Eagles the ball with 1:43 remaining in the half.

Philadelphia then moved 68 yards, and the biggest gain showed how the mere threat of McNabb can disrupt defenses. On second and 10 from the Tampa Bay 30, McNabb scrambled out of the pocket and broke toward the line of scrimmage. That caused Buccaneer linebacker Shelton Quarles to come charging up, leaving Charles Johnson wide open. McNabb found him at the Tampa Bay five. On the next play, McNabb passed to Na Brown for a touchdown with 12 seconds left in the half.

“After the turnover, the wind came out of our sails,” Tampa Bay safety John Lynch said. “We didn’t want to tackle.”

The Eagles had a chance to go ahead by 14 on their first drive of second half, but David Akers’ 36-yard field goal try went wide right. But they did succeed in consuming more than half the clock in the third quarter on the drive.

The Buccaneers gave it right back after another three-and-out series. This time the Eagles moved 57 yards in 10 plays, scoring on a two-yard McNabb pass to Jeff Thomason.

It was 21-3 with 14:13 remaining in the fourth quarter and there was no indication the Buccaneers could duplicate the fourth-quarter rally staged by the St. Louis Rams the day before.

Even after an interception by cornerback Donnie Abraham gave the Buccaneers the ball deep in Philadelphia territory, they couldn’t convert it into points.

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NOT EXACTLY ROAD WORTHY

Sunday’s loss at Philadelphia extended Tampa Bay’s streak of playoff futility away from home.

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Year Opponent Score 1981 at Dallas lost 0-38 1982 at Dallas lost 17-30 1997 at Green Bay lost 7-21 1999 at St. Louis lost 6-11 2000 at Philadelphia lost 3-21 Overall 0-5 33-121

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