TAMPA, Fla. -- They waited until the last three minutes of the final game of the regular season, a contest tailor made for scrubs and players who had been mostly training camp fodder, to author the Feeley-good story of their 2001 campaign.

	Dameane Douglas, left, celebrates after catching the winning TD in the fourth quarter.

And after third-string quarterback A.J. Feeley had rallied the Philadelphia Eagles from a 10-point deficit, tossing a couple of touchdown passes to backup wide receiver Dameane Douglas within a 26-second stretch to pull out a 17-13 victory, veteran players and coaches went out of their way to let the rookie signal-caller know how much they appreciated his efforts.

"You could tell just watching him that it definitely meant something," said defensive end Hugh Douglas, one of seven Philadelphia starters who didn't even dress for a game that had no bearing on next Saturday's wild-card rematch of the two teams. "So give him credit for that. There were a lot of people not even paying attention out there. But he was still playing his ass off."

It might say something about these Eagles that, in a game with no significance other than picking up a paycheck for surviving the full 60 minutes, they still found a way to win. While most of the Tampa Bay veterans shrugged off the loss, in a game they dominated for about 58 minutes, it still doesn't augur well that the Bucs disappeared at crunch time.

Sure, it was the counterfeit Bucs, a motley assemblage of backups and benchwarmers who were on the field for the meltdown. But it was a meltdown nonetheless and, as much as coach Tony Dungy and his troops dismissed all attempts to attach big-picture perspective to this wacky loss, it has to be bothersome that the Bucs frittered away a lead.

This is a club forever rebounding from hurtful defeats and, at some point, Tampa Bay is going to run out of elasticity. The spring in the annual springback is beginning to loosen. The Tampa Bay goal, for lack of anything too lofty this night, was to accomplish double-digit victories for a third consecutive season. That they failed is attributable principally to a fumble by kickoff return man Karl Williams, who turned the ball over to the Eagles with just two minutes remaining.

It is also attributable to the gumption of Feeley, who had not played a single snap all season and has done little more than run the "scout" team in his debut campaign.

Entering the game in the fourth quarter, he completed 10 of 14 passes for 143 yards, including the two scoring passes to Douglas. Of his four incompletions, two came on drops by Eagles receivers. His passer rating, not a bad way to go into the offseason, is a heady 114.0.

"It's definitely a night to remember," said Feeley, clutching a game ball. "I know what everyone was saying about this game, about how meaningless it was. But to me, it meant everything. Any time I can get on the field, even just a play or two of live action, it's going to help me. I'll come away from this game feeling a lot better about myself and my future in the league."

Eagles coach Andy Reid, who yanked starting quarterback Donovan McNabb after two snaps, and turned the next two quarters-plus over to No. 2 passer Koy Detmer, had prepared Feeley to play in the fourth quarter. He fed him the entire game plan, not some abridged version, scaled down to comply with the usual concessions to inexperience. And the coach acknowledged that he called the same plays at the end of the game that he would have used with McNabb in the contest.

From a mental standpoint, Eagles coaches said, Feeley handled things well. And from a physical perspective, he made the throws he had to make, showing good arm strength on most of the inside slants the team used over and over again.

For those totally unfamiliar with Feeley, he is a quarterback of some talent, even if he was only the 155th player selected overall in the 2001 draft. The fifth-rounder was the starter at Oregon at the outset of his junior season, but an elbow injury sidelined him after the eighth game, and he lost his job to Joey Harrington, who's expected to be a first-round choice this year. In 22 career games, he completed 149 of 282 passes for 2,175 yards, with 15 scores and just six interceptions.

	“	You could tell just watching him that it definitely meant something. So give him credit for that. There were a lot of people not even paying attention out there. But he was still playing his ass off. ”
		— Hugh Douglas, Eagles defensive end on the play of QB A.J. Feeley

But he appeared in just two contests as a senior, was overlooked by many teams in their draft appraisals, and slipped to also-ran status. "But the guy can throw the football, and he has size, and he's smart," said McNabb. "He's going to play in this league."

The cameo Sunday night clearly was part of the attempt by Reid to keep McNabb out of harm's way. It was also a reward for Feeley, a gesture of gratitude for all the seven-on-seven drills that he had run, all the times he had run "scout" teams plays and pretended to be everybody but, well, A.J. Feeley.

For a onetime college starter, relegated to backup, then reduced to afterthought status, there was little doubt Feeley was going to take very seriously his chance for "live" action. He conceded that most weeks, when he knows he isn't going to get on the field unless disaster strikes, it's difficult to stay motivated in preparations. Last week, though, he was a model of studiousness.

And it paid off, big-time, for the youngster.

As the rookie exited the visitor's locker room, a teammate called after him, referring to Feeley as "our hero." The young quarterback smiled. A star might not have been born here in this silliest of regular-season finales, but back in Philadelphia next week, there's a pretty good chance Feeley will be the toast of the town.

Everybody, of course, always loves the backup quarterback until he actually has to play. Maybe the next time Feeley is thrust into action, the circumstances will be different, there will be some element of the critical involved in the contest. But until he gets a chance to fail, all that Feeley can live off of for now is the success he had against the Bucs on Sunday night.

"Right now," he said, "that's a pretty good memory."

Len Pasquarelli is a senior NFL writer for ESPN.com.