NFL: Eagles roll past inept Seahawks 26-7
By GREGG BELL
AP Sports Writer
SEATTLE — Backup tight ends. Tackle-eligibles. Doesn't matter who Donovan McNabb is throwing to these days. He's connecting with them all.
McNabb rebounded from early problems to complete 28 of 43 passes for 349 yards and two touchdowns, one to tackle Todd Herremans, to rally the Philadelphia Eagles to a 26-7 victory over the swooning Seattle Seahawks today.
Brent Celek, playing because L.J. Smith was out with a concussion, set an Eagles record for yards receiving by a tight end in a regular-season game with 131 on six receptions. He had eight catches coming in, but continually slid open behind Seahawks' blitzes, which swarmed McNabb early but barely sniffed him after that.
Philadelphia (5-3) stayed two games behind the first-place New York Giants in the NFC East, and moved ahead of Dallas (5-4) for third in the division.
The Seahawks punted 10 consecutive times — seven after three-and-outs — following a team-record 90-yard touchdown pass on their first play from backup Seneca Wallace to Koren Robinson, who was on his couch in Raleigh, N.C., at the beginning of the season.
Seattle, 2-6 for the first time since its last losing season in 2002, lost for the third time in four home games. The Seahawks were an NFC-best 42-14 at home since the 2001 season entering this year.
Seattle was missing three Pro Bowl players — including quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, out for the fourth consecutive game — plus a former Super Bowl MVP in Deion Branch. Pro Bowl linebacker Lofa Tatupu was out with a groin injury, his first miss after 55 consecutive starts to begin his career.
Even without their defensive leader, the Seahawks harassed McNabb throughout his skittish opening quarter. He had 10 incompletions and was hit four times in his first 13 throws. But he completed his next 13 throws into the second half, returning to his stellar season pace of completing 63 percent of his passes .
He was 4-for-4 on the Eagles' drive that tied it at 7 midway through the second quarter. The final pass was a 22-yard touchdown to Reggie Brown, who beat falling cornerback Marcus Trufant for the ball and jogged in for his first score of the season.
McNabb went 6-for-6 on the Eagles' next drive, an 11-play march to the go-ahead score in the final minute of the half. The last two plays were a 26-yard pass to Kevin Curtis to the 1, then a scoring flip to his tackle-eligible. Herremans threw rusher Darryl Tapp to the ground at the line, slipped alone inside the goal line and then emphatically spiked the ball as giddy teammates surrounded him to celebrate a 14-7 lead.
Three field goals by David Akers in the first 21 minutes of the second half made it 23-7 and left Qwest Field empty early yet again.
Seattle's game — and, it would seem, season —slipped through Keary Colbert's hands in the third quarter. Colbert briefly had possession of a 34-yard pass that would have cut the Eagles' lead to 17-14, but the ball fell to the ground in the end zone after he dived and rolled on the turf. Seattle coach Mike Holmgren stared long at the video board watching the replay while contemplating a challenge of the incompletion ruling but decided against it while the crowd booed loudly.
Robinson's 90-yard score was the longest play from scrimmage in Seahawks' history and the first touchdown with the Seahawks for their formerly troubled No. 1 draft choice since Nov. 7, 2004.
But Seattle's 31st-ranked offense gained just 143 yards over its final 54 plays.