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| Monday, January 1 Associated Press | |||
| PHILADELPHIA -- Hugh Douglas was tired of hearing about cold
weather, so he made sure he was a bigger factor.
Douglas turned the game around with a second-quarter sack and
the Philadelphia Eagles kept the Tampa Bay Buccaneers winless in
temperatures under 40 degrees (0-20) with a 21-3 victory in an NFC
wild-card game on Sunday.
"I know they get paid to play football, regardless of where
it's at," Douglas said. "If it's in the cold weather, it's in the
swamp or it's in the parking lot, you get paid to play football."
With the Eagles trailing 3-0 in the second quarter, Douglas made
the play of the day on third-and-19 at the Bucs 25. He sacked Shaun
King, forced a fumble and Mike Mamula recovered at Tampa's 15.
Donovan McNabb ran in from 5 yards out four plays later and the
Eagles were on their way to their first playoff victory in five
years.
"The hits don't feel good, but to know it changed the momentum
of the game, that felt real good," Douglas said. "I'm at a loss
for words."
Douglas, coming off a 15-sack season that earned him Pro Bowl
honors for the first time, had two sacks and four tackles. But he
wasn't celebrating much after the game.
"We won the game, but we're not settling for this," Douglas
said. "All we know right now is we want to keep the dream alive.
If we want to go any further, we have to go through Giants Stadium.
I'm not ashamed to say it, we're trying to go all the way."
Philadelphia plays the New York Giants in an NFC divisional
playoff next Sunday.
The Eagles weren't expected to get past the Buccaneers despite
having home-field advantage and cold weather on their side.
Oddsmakers listed Philadelphia as two-point underdogs.
But Douglas and the rest of the defense outperformed one of the
top defenses in the NFL.
"We know what we can do," Douglas said. "They have a great
defense, but we have some defense here in Philadelphia, too. We
just go out and play football."
In Douglas' case, he goes out and keeps playing and playing.
"He's full of energy," coach Andy Reid said. "I thought he
exhausted his efforts today, and he actually came out the last play
or so at the end of the game, but he is so full of energy from the
time we get to the stadium until it's over."
The momentum-swinging sack might have been a result of a botched
blocking scheme. The Bucs ended up having 5-foot-8, 185-pound
Warrick Dunn blocking the 280-pound Douglas.
"I am capable of blocking him," Dunn said. "He just
overpowered me. I was too scared to cut him. He just ran through me
and made a great play."
Douglas was a rookie on the New York Jets when they went 1-15 in
1995. He's endured 3-13 and 5-11 seasons and played for a winning
team just once before this year.
He's not thinking about any of that now, however.
"This is only the first step," he said.
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