Eagles’ Streak Reaches Nine

It isn’t only birds that head south for the winter.

So do the Miami Dolphins.

Proving yet again they are the duds of December, the Dolphins all but dropped out of the playoff picture Monday with a 34-27 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

There’s certainly no shame in losing to the Eagles, who have won nine consecutive games and clinched the NFC East with the victory, but the season is ending on a familiar note for the Dolphins (8-6). They have not had a winning record in their final four games since 1995, and this season’s swoon probably will mean curtains for Coach Dave Wannstedt.

Meanwhile, it was another triumph for the Eagles (11-3), who regained the edge over St. Louis for home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. In the latest installment, Philadelphia’s offense showed that it can make up for a lackluster game by its defense -- the exact opposite of what happened in games earlier this season.

“The offense did it today,” said linebacker Mark Simoneau, part of an Eagle defense that surrendered 398 yards and the second-highest point total of the season.

Making things more impressive, the Eagles learned about seven hours before kickoff that they would be without the services of starting left tackle Tra Thomas, who wasn’t on the injury report but woke up Monday with a huge knot in his back. He was replaced by undrafted second-year lineman Artis Hicks, who would make his first start at tackle opposite Pro Bowl defensive end Jason Taylor. Although Taylor had one sack, he didn’t significantly change the outcome.

The Dolphins, who were looking to rebound from a 12-0 loss to New England, need several other AFC teams to lose to keep their flickering wild-card hopes alive.

“We needed this game,” quarterback Jay Fiedler said. “But it’s not over. It’s a little bit bleaker now than it was four hours ago. We’ll come back in these next two weeks and see what happens.”

The touchdown that proved to be the winning score came when Correll Buckhalter made an acrobatic, sideways plunge across the goal line on the opening play of the fourth quarter to give the Eagles a 31-24 lead. Officials initially ruled that Buckhalter was out of bounds at the one, but Philadelphia challenged the call, which ultimately was reversed.

One of the subplots to the game was the intertwined fortunes of Eagle quarterback Donovan McNabb and Dolphin running back Ricky Williams. It was McNabb who was booed at the 1999 draft, remember, by Eagle fans who were hoping the team would use the No. 2 pick on Williams, the Heisman Trophy winner from Texas.

That episode, which Eagle offensive coordinator Brad Childress later called “the theater of the absurd,” is a distant memory in the wake of McNabb’s accomplishments. He has led the Eagles to consecutive NFC championship games, and, after the worst start of his career, has emerged as a solid most-valuable-player candidate this season.

McNabb came into Monday’s showdown having thrown 10 touchdown passes and two interceptions in his previous seven games. One of his passes was picked off in the first half Monday, but it came on a freakish carom off the shoe of tight end L.J. Smith.

While the Eagles were betrayed by Smith’s left foot, the left shoulder of Williams had the Dolphins concerned. He bruised it badly enough that the Dolphins had to shuffle him in and out throughout the second quarter, when they had hoped to force-feed the Eagles a steady diet of his bashing runs.

Williams had one big play in the first half, a 45-yard run that led to his injury. His shoulder was crushed into the turf as Brian Dawkins rode him out of bounds. Williams swapped his helmet for a baseball cap, and watched for a series as understudy Travis Minor stepped in for him.

Battered but unbroken, Williams came back in the second half and punctuated Miami’s opening drive with a three-yard touchdown run around the left side to even the score, 24-24.

The Eagles, who led by as many as 10 points in the first half, opened the game with a 59-yard pass to Todd Pinkston. Two plays later, Brian Westbrook scored on a 21-yard draw, eliciting an impressive roar from an end-zone crowd dotted with hundreds of Eagle jerseys. In the neighborhood of 20,000 Philadelphia fans bought packages to attend the game.

McNabb and Fiedler scored on one-yard keepers in the first half, yet neither threw a touchdown pass. The only player to do that was former UCLA receiver Freddie Mitchell, the first-round pick of Philadelphia two years ago. Mitchell stepped behind the line of scrimmage and caught a screen pass from McNabb, then tossed an arcing 25-yard gem to Westbrook, who ripped the ball away from linebacker Zach Thomas in the end zone.

“Any time the ball’s in my hands, I’m able to make a play,” Mitchell said. “Beautiful spiral.... It was just throwing it up there and letting Brian Westbrook make a play.”