By Dan Gelston
The Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA - Jake Delhomme has already played in a World Bowl. The Super Bowl sounds much better for the feisty Cajun from Louisiana.

"When we get on the plane tonight when it is just going to be us, our Panther family, it's going to be a lot of proud guys that know that we have worked to get here," Delhomme said. "It's not over yet. That's the big thing. It's not over yet."

Delhomme's numbers weren't all that impressive in the Carolina Panthers' 14-3 win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Sunday's NFC championship game. Delhomme was only 9-for-14 for 101 yards and a touchdown, but he didn't make many mistakes.

"Jake had to earn our trust and he did," receiver Muhsin Muhammad said. "He was really jacked up for this game and sometimes you cannot understand him when he gets in the huddle with his Cajun accent. He came into the game with a lot of enthusiasm and led us down the field with some great plays."

Delhomme was helped out having running back Stephen Davis, a workhorse back who ran for career-best 1,444 yards this season, in the lineup after missing practice all week with a strained left quadriceps.

Davis said he decided early in the day he would play after talking to his mother and wife. Davis said his quad was sore and planned to relax this week to let it heal.

Davis showed right away the injury wouldn't bother him, opening the game with a 9-yard run and finished with 19 carries for 76 yards.

"That's one of my things, to set the tone on offense," Davis said.

DeShaun Foster, a second-year running back who spent the year as Davis' understudy, had 60 yards on 14 carries and made perhaps the play of the game.

Foster broke four tackles for a 1-yard touchdown run with 4:11 left in the third quarter. The Panthers led 14-3 and were headed to the Super Bowl just two seasons after going 1-15.

Nothing was going to get in the way of his first career rushing touchdown.

"That was basically it, just determination," he said. "It was blocked up fairly well. (Brian) Dawkins made a real good play. He made me cut it up. The rest was just fight and get in the zone."

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THIRD TIME: One win away from the Super Bowl - again. Three years and three NFC title-game losses have the Eagles wondering why they can't get over that final hump.

The Eagles entered this year as one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl, but struggled with an 0-2 start, a thumb injury to Donovan McNabb and a defense that was decimated by injury.

There also was the Rush Limbaugh controversy that still lingered up to the game.

The Eagles turned the season around, ripping of a nine-game winning streak and won their third straight NFC East title, earning home-field advantage for the second straight year.

Again it didn't matter.

"I just don't know how to explain it," receiver Freddie Mitchell said. "We've been in this position before and we can't come through. We just didn't make plays. They made the plays and we can't. I don't know how to fix it. I wish I knew."

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INJURED EAGLES: Cornerback Troy Vincent and defensive end N.D. Kalu started for the Eagles despite being bothered by injuries.

Vincent missed the last three games with a hip injury and Kalu left practice early Friday with a sprained foot.

Vincent, cornerback Bobby Taylor and running back Duce Staley, all free agents, could have played their last game with the Eagles. Taylor and Vincent, close friends who have played together since 1996, were introduced and ran out together.

"The writing is on the wall," Taylor said. "We pretty much knows the chances of what's going to happen. It is what it is. I'm not going to stop playing."

Under coach Andy Reid, the Eagles have a history of purging high-priced older players for younger, cheaper and often more productive players.

Vincent said he never though he would be faced with the decision to leave.

"I was told at the beginning of the season I was going to be evaluated," Vincent said. "This organization has been great to me. I couldn't have asked for much more. It was time well spent. It was a tremendous run for me."

Reid said it was always tough to see valuable contributors move on.

"I wanted this group to win a Super Bowl," he said. "That's what we started out to do."

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SCENE: The slushy, cold parking lot at Lincoln Financial Field filled up early with bundled-up Eagles fans trying to warm up to the idea this was their year for a Super Bowl victory - really.

They left instead with a familiar feeling.

"I think they really choked. It's a bad feeling," said Darwin Thomas of Philadelphia.

Thomas said the fans would be peaceful.

"This is tough. They're all tough," he said. "We won't get mad, just take it very, very hard."

The Eagles hasn't won a championship since 1960. They've been to one Super Bowl, losing to the Oakland Raiders in 1981. They've had 24 losing seasons since winning the NFL title 43 years ago.

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EXTRA POINTS: Ruben Studdard, winner of last season's "American Idol," sang the national anthem. Timmy Kelly, a 10-year-old fourth grader born blind and with mild cerebral palsy, sang "God Bless America." ... Former Eagle Mike Quick, now a color analyst on radio for Eagles games joined Eagles Hall of Famer Tommy McDonald as honorary captains at the coin toss. Panthers linebacker Mark Fields and linebackers coach Sam Mills, both battling cancer, were their honorary captains. "You say I am an inspiration to them, but they are really an inspiration to me," Mills said. "When I see them go out and work so hard and battle so hard, it is an inspiration for me to go out and fight to live."

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