By MIKE LOPRESTI
Gannett News Service

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb's ankle looks fine to us. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

PHILADELPHIA - Donovan McNabb? Michael Vick? On a cold Saturday night in Veterans Stadium, the great quarterback duel turned into a defensive standoff.

This NFC playoff game was not so much about daring scrambles and deep passes, but rather sacks and stops, penalties and field goals.

And a fourth down gamble the Philadelphia Eagles took in the fourth period that turned into the only offensive touchdown of the game, the last blow in a 20-6 victory over Atlanta that was pretty only in what it meant.

The Eagles won without an offensive touchdown until 6:26 was left in the game - when McNabb rolled out on 4th and 1 and threw a 35-yard scoring pass to James Thrash.

Until then, their offense had been two field goals, and Bobby Taylor's interception return for a touchdown in the first period.

The Falcons lost partly because of nine penalties, including a holding call in the third period that wiped out Vick's 21-yard touchdown run, one of the few times all night the Philadelphia defense let him get loose.

It was a game as raw as the weather. But still, the Eagles push onward, trying to get back to the Super Bowl for the first time in 22 years. They'll stay home next Sunday for the NFC title game, to play either Tampa Bay or San Francisco.

"It was a gritty win," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Between the defense, the offense, the special teams and the crowd, we were able to pull the thing through."

"Obviously we're excited but it's unfinished business," McNabb said.

There were not many fireworks, except for the ones shot above the stadium before the game. It was supposed to be different, with two fast and fearless quarterbacks in charge.

Out six games with a broken ankle, McNabb showed no hesitation, and at the beginning, not much rust.

"I just wanted to come out and calm myself down and play football," McNabb said.

"He looked great," defensive tackle Corey Simon said of McNabb. "He looked like the same old Donovan to me."

McNabb hit four of his first six passes, 20 of 30 for 247 yards for the game without an interception. Still, it took until the fourth period for him to get his team into the end zone.

That came on fourth down, when McNabb faked a handoff, then rolled out and found Thrash, who broke through Ray Buchanan's tackle and rolled 35 yards for the touchdown.

It was one of the few breakdowns by either defense, aided partly because Buchanan was playing hurt, but had to be on the field because the Falcons already had lost two other defenders.

In any case, the 20-6 lead was safe enough.

"He started fast and finished fast," Reid said of McNabb. "That's what's important."

Fresh off his dumping of Green Bay, Vick suffered the fate of many young quarterbacks in the playoffs, when they wander into a hard-boiled stadium, to meet a hard-boiled defense.

Pressured by the Eagles, hounded by the merciless hostility of Veterans Stadium, Vick was stripped of most of his inventive magic.

Vick rushed for only 30 yards, hit 21 of 37 for 261 yards but was sacked three times by a defense set to contain him.

"I have never been pressured or blitzed like that," Vick said. "It shows us what home field is about in the playoffs."

"I don't think Michael was quite ready for the pressure he got," Falcons coach Dan Reeves said.

"We had to go out there and play our game, stay aggressive, stay hungry, stay motivated," Simon said.

From the start, it seemed a night Philadelphia would have the right answers.

Was McNabb's ankle ready after his long absence?

On his second play from scrimmage, he scrambled around right end for 19 yards, as if to reassure his coaches, his teammates and his audience.

"I'm not all the way back by no means," McNabb said. "You could say I'm a work in progress.

Was there any crack in David Akers' confidence, after blowing a field goal that led to Philadelphia's season finale loss to the New York Giants?

Akers promptly nailed a 34-yarder in the first period, a 39-yarder in the second, for a 13-0 lead.

Could Vick, with the stadium screaming for his head, be harassed into mistakes?

One of his early passes, thrown while backpedaling from the pocket toward a covered Shawn Jefferson, was picked off by Taylor and returned 37 yards for a touchdown.

"That's why he's going to the Pro Bowl," Reid said of Taylor. "Good players step up in big games and he did that."

On one of Vick's early runs, he had the ball knocked loose, the fumble bouncing out of bounds before the Eagles could get hold of it.

Meanwhile, Atlanta was not only losing ground, but defenders.

Safety Keion Carpenter was gone on the Eagles' first offensive play when he went helmet to helmet with Duce Staley, knocking him into the end zone, nearly for a safety.

Cornerback Juran Bolden was gone in the second quarter with a leg injury.

Still, Atlanta stayed in the game with defense, slowing down the Eagles and McNabb after their promising start.

When Jay Feely hit a 52-yard field goal just before halftime, the Falcons were only a touchdown away.

When they got away with no damage after giving the Eagles great field position in the third period with a roughing-the-kicker flag - Akers' 51-yard field goal attempt hit an upright - it suggested this would go to the wire.

From that miss, Vick drove the Falcons to what seemed like a touchdown to tie, until Travis Claridge's holding took it away.

Feely then missed a 37-yard field goal, due to a bad hold. The Falcons got nothing out of it. They would get nothing the rest of the night.

The quarterbacks had gotten the ink. The defenses had come to settle it.

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