Eagles Storm Back on the Cardinals

There was little reason to think -- at least as soon as 15 real time minutes ago -- that the Philadelphia Eagles had any chance of beating the Arizona Cardinals and advancing to the Super Bowl. Adrian Wilson was sacking Donovan McNabb frequently, Antrel Rolle and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie were smothering the Guls' receivers (whom are average at best anyway, DeSean Jackson's youth aside).

Then, all of a sudden, McNabb hit Kevin Curtis on a laser-rocket-arm 50 yard completion on third and 19 that set up the Eagles up in the Arizona red zone, a rare occurance today indeed. Four plays later, D-Nasty found Brent Celek in the back of the end zone and the Eagles were suddenly within nine points.

The Philadelphia defense decided to buck up and stuff the Cardinals on the next possession, a three and out that saw Kurt Warner even get roughed up a little bit on a sack. And now, as the clock ticks down to the end of the third quarter, the Eagles are suddenly driving, the Buzzsaw faithful are suddenly squawking a little less loudly, and people -- Troy Aikman, Joe Buck, me obviously, and probably everyone watching this game -- is starting to think there's a pretty obvious and tremendous momentum shift taking place late in this game.

And suddenly the shift is a full on pendulum swing; even with a David Akers' missed extra point, the Eagles have climbed within five points and this is absolutely no longer a game controlled by the Cardinals defense as McNabb strikes to Celek again and brings the score to 24-19.