Adrian Fedkiw
Brian Dawkins set the tone with a bone-crunching hit on Alge Crumpler late in the second quarter. The Philadelphia Eagles’ defense then let out all of their pent up frustration from all of the heartbreak over previous years by dominating the second half.
The fourth time was finally the charm.
Donovan McNabb tossed both of his touchdowns to Chad Lewis, the defense battered and bruised Michael Vick, and the Eagles advanced to Super Bowl XXXIX with a 27-10 win over the Atlanta Falcons in the 2004 NFC Championship Game on a bitterly cold day at Lincoln Financial Field.
A foot of snow fell in the city a day prior. The wind chill hovered around zero degrees with wind gusts of 35 miles per hour.
Heaven had frozen over.
That’s one ice cold bath.
If that doesn’t get you fired up, check out the NFC Championship trophy presentation. Just wait until Dawkins speaks, goosebumps.
And here’s that hit by Dawkins.
The elusive Vick was held to 136 yards passing on 11-of-24 efficiency. He ran for just 26 yards, his lowest mark of the season, and was sacked four times. Atlanta, which led the NFL in rushing yards during the regular season, garnered just 99 yards on the ground and 202 total.
Brian Westbrook carried the ball 16 times for 98 yards for the Eagles, who had lost to the St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers in consecutive NFC Championship Game appearances prior to 2004.
Philadelphia fell to the New England Patriots two weeks later, 24-21, in Jacksonville.
The Eagles opened the scoring at the 4:28 mark of the first quarter. After getting a second life following a DeAngelo Hall illegal use of hands penalty on a 3rd-and-10, Westbrook took an inside handoff 36 yards off the right side of the line and McNabb followed that up by firing a 21-yard completion to L.J. Smith to put the Eagles inside the five. Dorsey Levens fought his way into the end zone from four yards out a play later to make it 7-0.
Jay Feely’s 21-yard field goal got the Falcons on the board early in the second, but Philadelphia went 72 yards in nine plays on its ensuing possession and took a 14-3 advantage.
McNabb eluded two would-be tacklers in the pocket before rolling right and finding Freddie Mitchell along the right sideline for a 13-yard completion on 3rd-and-11. Greg Lewis then hauled in a 45-yard go-route to put the ball at the 4-yard line on a severely underthrown ball that was held up by the wind. McNabb lofted a 3-yard touchdown pass two plays later in the back right corner of the end zone to Lewis, who toe-tapped successfully with 5:05 to go until the half.
Atlanta answered the Eagles’ score with one of its own. Following the jarring hit by Dawkins on Crumpler’s 31-yard reception, Warrick Dunn scampered into the end zone a play later to cut the deficit to 14-10.
The Eagles added a pair of field goals in the third quarter to open up a double-digit lead and cruised to the finish line in the fourth.
Westbrook had runs of eight, 12 and 11 yards on consecutive plays to put the Eagles in field goal range before David Akers split the uprights from 31 yards for a 17-10 cushion.
Dawkins’ interception of Vick set up an Akers 34-yard field goal late in the third.
The Eagles put the game away on Lewis’ 2-yard touchdown reception with 3:21 left, capping an 11-play, 65-yard march which took 6:53 off the clock.