PHILADELPHIA – Last year, Brian Westbrook could do nothing. Stuck on the sidelines with a torn triceps, the young Eagles tailback watched as Philadelphia’s offense stalled in a 14-3 NFC Championship Game loss to Carolina.
Yesterday, as he has all season, Westbrook did everything to kick-start his team’s offense. He slashed from sideline to sideline as a ball-carrier, then floated into the flat to lead the team in catches.
At the end yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field, Westbrook had collected 96 yards on 16 carries and 39 yards on five receptions. At the end, he and the Eagles owned a 27-10 victory over the Falcons in this edition of the NFC Championship Game.
The performance continued a football fantasy for Westbrook, who’s gone from disappointing college recruiters as a Maryland schoolboy to ranking as one of the NFL’s most versatile backs. And in two weeks, he’ll show his skills in Super Bowl XXXIX, the sport’s biggest stage.
Westbrook helped fuel Philadelphia all season, finishing the 16-game schedule as the team’s leading rusher and second-leading receiver. But his role increased in the playoffs with the absence of Terrell Owens, who watched yesterday in street clothes as he recovers from a fractured fibula.
The third-year pro responded as early as the Eagles’ second drive. On a second-and-6 snap, he followed a great block from right guard Artis Hicks, eluded Falcons safety Bryan Scott and dashed 36 yards down the right sideline. Dorsey Levens opened the scoring with a 4-yard touchdown run two plays later.
In the third quarter, Westbrook was the focal point of an 11-play, 60-yard drive that pushed the Eagles’ lead to 17-10. Despite a botched handoff with quarterback Donovan McNabb, he ran four times for 34 yards and caught a pair of passes for 14 more.
Such a Sunday evening seemed incomprehensible for Westbrook seven years ago, when he failed to land a Division I-A football scholarship. He trudged to Villanova, where he set the NCAA all-purpose yardage record, prompting the Eagles to spend a 2002 third-round draft pick on him.
He started his pro career as a kick-return man, seeing snaps at tailback when Duce Staley or Correll Buckhalter needed a rest. The biggest play of his first two years came last October at the Meadowlands, when his 84-yard punt return in the final two minutes beat the Giants 14-10.
But this year, when Staley bolted to the Steelers and Buckhalter tore a knee tendon in the preseason, Westbrook became the top tailback and energized the Eagles’ offense in a way the others never could. He also excited the community, as several Philly citizens wrote him in as their vote in last year’s mayoral election.
Yesterday, Westbrook extended that excitement until Feb. 6, when he’ll take a Super Bowl field and try to spark the offense one more time.