Donovan McNabb leads Eagles to 24-20 win over the Bears

Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb exercised a few demons during Sunday night’s road win over the near hapless Chicago Bears on national network TV.

Donovan McNabb led his team to a fourth quarter-touchdown that gave the Eagles the 24-20 win and raised their record to 6-4.

If the season ended right now the Birds would be the fifth seed in the playoffs.
For Andy Reid, it was also an opportunity to show that he, his staff and McNabb can win a come-from-behind game.

“I think Donovan did a nice job with it,” Reid said of his much-critiqued signal caller. “I thought he kept everybody calm. I thought Marty did a nice job, same thing, kept everybody calm, good play call selections.  And then I think when enough is said about it, so maybe I give you guys a little credit here, I’ve learned with professional athletes that when they’re challenged normally good things happen. These are talented guys and I think they just took it up a notch.”

McNabb threw for 244 yards against his hometown team, rookie running back LeSean McCoy scored the go-ahead touchdown on a 10-yard run following Antonio Dixon’s block of a field goal attempt, and the Birds came away with their first Sunday night victory over the struggling Bears after two consecutive close losses.

“It wouldn’t have mattered if we had won 3-2, this was a game we needed to come out and win by any means necessary,” McNabb said.

The Eagles jumped out to a 10-0 lead on a 25-yard field by David Akers and a 13-yard wide receiver screen to emerging wide receiver Jason Avant.

The Bears connected on three field goals to make the score 10-9 at the half then 12-10 with 10:26 left in the third on a 49-yard field goal by Robbie Gould, his fourth of the game.

McNabb made it 17-10 on a 48-yard strike to DeSean Jackson who caught eight for 107 yards.

Bears struggling quarterback Jay Cutler responded by leading the Bears to their first TD in more than six quarters, lofting a 15-yard pass to Kellen Davis to cap a 55-yard drive, and then firing to Matt Forte for the 2-point conversion and a 20-17 lead with 2:52 left in the third, but the Bears couldn’t hold it.

McNabb led the Eagles on a late fourth-quarter drive that ended with McCoy’s TD.

“We couldn’t afford to lose,” Jackson said. “The biggest thing was just putting ourselves in position in the fourth quarter. We knew it was going to be a tight game just because the way the game was going. We knew we needed to do.”

In addition to playing without Pro Bowl running back Brian Westbrook and being forced to play with cornerback Sheldon Brown on a gimpy leg, Eagles also lost cornerback Asante Samuel to a neck stinger, yet still pulled this one out.

McNabb put together a solid game despite giving up three sacks for 24 yards.
Reid said the offensive line and his staff must do a better job of protecting their meal ticket,

“We need to do a better job,” Reid said. “That has something to do with everybody. Whether it’s the play calling, whether it’s the protection, the blocking, and the protection you add the tight ends into it along with offensive line and running backs, quarterback, is he getting the ball out fast enough are the receivers getting open on time, all of those things factor into sacks. The bottom line is we have to do better.”