Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook running for a 71-yard touchdown to finish off the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday in Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS: For the better part of the National Football Conference wild-card game, the Philadelphia Eagles' offense managed merely three field goals during an afternoon of frustration against an injury-depleted Minnesota Vikings defense. Philadelphia led by two points only because cornerback Asante Samuel returned an interception for a touchdown, but the Vikings appeared one big Adrian Peterson play away from stealing the game.
Then the Eagles turned to Brian Westbrook, their gifted runner and receiver who spent much of the season battling injuries. With less than seven minutes to play, Westbrook took a short pass from Donovan McNabb, turned upfield, juked free and dashed through the Minnesota secondary for a 71-yard touchdown. That was enough for the Eagles to finish off the Vikings, 26-14, before a boisterous crowd at the Metrodome on Sunday.
David Akers added a late field goal, his fourth of the game, for the final points.
Philadelphia will move on to play the New York Giants at Giants Stadium next Sunday in the divisional round. The Eagles' coach, Andy Reid, bested his longtime friend Brad Childress, who had directed the Vikings to the NFC North title and their first playoff berth since 2004.
Until Westbrook's catch and run, the Eagles could not score in the second half against a Vikings defense that managed without linemen Pat Williams (broken right shoulder blade) and Ray Edwards (left knee strain) for the entire game, and safety Darren Sharper (twisted right ankle) from the second quarter on.
"We hadn't utilized the screen game much prior to that," Reid said. "They were flying up the field. Brian hit that son of a gun. He's hard to stop once he gets out there."
McNabb said, "Time and time again, when you give him the opportunity, he makes plays for us."
The Vikings cornerback Antoine Winfield said he was left helpless on the play.
"All I saw was him and three linemen in front of him," Winfield said. "He did a good job weaving downfield for the touchdown."
Peterson, the National Football League's leading rusher, ran for two touchdowns, the first a 40-yarder in the second quarter that was the longest touchdown run in the Vikings' playoff history.
The Eagles' defensive coordinator, Jim Johnson, ordered relentless blitzing to rattle the young Vikings quarterback, Tarvaris Jackson, who rarely had time to set his feet and throw unimpeded. Jackson completed only 15 of 35 passes for 164 yards and was intercepted once.
The friendship between Reid and Childress dates from 1986, when Reid was hired as the offensive line coach at Northern Arizona University, where Childress was the offensive coordinator. The two became neighbors, carpooling to work and, with their families, barbecuing together. When Reid left after one season for Texas-El Paso, they remained close.
In 1999, Reid, the newly named coach of the Eagles, hired Childress away from the University of Wisconsin to be his quarterbacks coach.
Reid and Childress arrived in Philadelphia the same year as a rookie quarterback named Donovan McNabb, and the Eagles rose with them. The Eagles went to four NFC championship games and one Super Bowl before the Vikings hired Childress, by then Reid's offensive coordinator, to replace the fired Mike Tice in January 2006.
This season, Reid and Childress endured criticism before their teams rode late runs to the playoffs.
Philadelphia fans grumbled about Reid and McNabb when the Eagles stood 5-5-1. Then the Eagles won four of their last five, finishing with a 44-6 rout of Dallas to squeeze into a wild-card berth on the final day of the season.
But Childress, who lacked Reid's track record - his team was 6-10 and 8-8 his first two seasons - might have had it worse.
Chants of "Fire Childress!" resounded through the Metrodome on Oct. 12 as the Vikings struggled before beating winless Detroit, 12-10, on a late field goal by Ryan Longwell. The Vikings won seven of their last nine to finish atop the NFC North. But even the second loss - to Atlanta, 24-17, on the next-to-last week of the season, when the Vikings could have clinched a playoff spot with a victory - drew the ire of fans, who maligned Childress and Jackson on message boards and Web sites.
