He sat wrapped in a towel in the corner of the locker room, shaking his head. Philadelphia wide receiver Terrell Owens had nothing to say to the media after the Eagles’ 49-21 loss to the Broncos on Sunday.
Win or lose, he never does.
Owens, however, is not easily silenced on the football field. So when the Eagles made a three-touchdown mid- game run at the Broncos, he made the strongest statement, beating ace cornerback Champ Bailey on a 91-yard touchdown pass from Donovan McNabb that was about 1 yard of catch, 1 yard of juke and 89 yards of run.
Suddenly, the team that was once down 28-0 had cut it to 28-14. Better yet, it had the touchdown that in 13 previous games had guaranteed a victory.
But Sunday, the magic of an Owens touchdown ran out. And what Owens wouldn’t say, McNabb said for him.
“We just dug ourselves too deep a hole,” McNabb said. “To be in a hole early on like that and try to pull yourselves out of it. … If we could have jump-started ourselves a little earlier, I think it could have been a different story.”
It wasn’t until the Broncos had built a 28-0 lead, chased him all over the field and knocked him down a half-dozen times that McNabb completed his first pass in the game, a 4-yard flick to running back Brian Westbrook. Before that, he was 0-for-12 with one interception.
The Eagles were unable to get off to the fast start they had planned on, McNabb said, mostly because of a Denver defensive strategy they couldn’t handle.
“They were bringing eight and nine guys and we were only able to pick up seven or eight,” said McNabb. “That left one free. But if they decide to go to zero coverage, we’ve still got to find a way to attack.”
McNabb wasn’t sacked in the first half, but he was under so much pressure that most of his throws were nosedives into the dirt. But then, just before halftime, things changed.
“We made some adjustments, made some plays, and that brought them out of it,” said McNabb. “Not necessarily mass protection, but spreading them out more, and we were able to get single cover on T.O. or somebody else. We were trying to get back in it, but we were in too big a hole.
“No matter what the score is, I always feel like we can come back. You saw it today when we got on a roll, but then they made a great play in the end zone.”
That was Denver rookie Domonique Foxworth’s interception of a pass intended for Reggie Brown that would have tied the score at 28-28.
“The cornerback just undercut the post,” McNabb said. “I went over the top of the safety, but the cornerback undercut it.”
Eagles coach Andy Reid blamed the slow start on himself, saying he should have made the adjustments to Denver’s pass rush earlier in the game.
“We go into games thinking we want to start fast on both sides of the football. I have to go back and look at some things that I could have done better from my standpoint,” he said.
Joseph Sanchez can be reached at 303-8205458 or jsanchez@denverpost.com.
