Eagles Grab 8th Straight Road Win

Donovan McNabb's dreadful effort last week was probably the worst thing that could have happened to Kansas City.

Determined to rebound, the third-year quarterback passed for 269 yards and two touchdowns Thursday night, leading Philadelphia past the Chiefs 23-10 as the Eagles broke a 52-year-old team record with their eighth straight road win. It was the fifth victory away from home this year for Philadelphia (7-4). "He'd been more focused since the beginning of the week," said Duce Staley, who teamed up with McNabb on a 46-yard scoring play following a huge momentum-shifting mistake by Kansas City's Eric Warfield. In a 13-3 loss on Sunday to Washington, McNabb was only 15-of-37. Against the Chiefs, he was confident and assertive while going 18-of-26.

"We sat down and talked about it and he said that he wasn't going to repeat last week's performance the rest of the season," Staley said.

David Akers tied his Philadelphia record of 13 straight field goals, connecting from 24, 33 and 38 yards as the Eagles padded their lead over Washington in the NFC East to 1½ games.

"The past couple of weeks I wasn't accurate on my passing because my balls were just getting away from me a little," said McNabb, who also ran for 41 yards. "Because of the timing tonight we were able to open up the running game and open up the passing game."

The Chiefs (3-8) should have had the ball and the momentum when Glenn Cadrez partially blocked a Philadelphia punt in the second quarter.

But Warfield muffed the ball. The Eagles retained possession on the Chiefs 41 and, two plays later, McNabb floated a pass to Staley in the left flat. The running back broke three tackles on the play to give the Eagles a 10-0 lead.

"It hurt us. It hurt us bad," Warfield said. "I made a big mistake. I was trying to run before I caught it."

McNabb's opportunistic 15-yard dash on first-and-20 helped set up a 1-yard TD pass to rookie Tony Stewart for a 20-3 lead with 8:09 left in the third.

The Chiefs, 1-5 at home, managed only Todd Peterson's 29-yard field goal until Trent Green's 3-yard TD pass to Derrick Alexander that made it 20-10 with 3:02 left in the third. Dante Hall set up the touchdown with a 59-yard kickoff return.

Kansas City was driving late in the fourth when Corey Simon knocked the ball out of Priest Holmes' hands, with Bobby Taylor recovering on the Chiefs 46. Then with 2:59 left, Al Harris intercepted Green's pass at the 2.

The Eagles startled the Chiefs with an onside kick to open the game. Dameane Douglas recovered on the Philadelphia 40, and Akers' 24-yard field goal made the Eagles the first opponent in seven games to score against Kansas City in the first quarter.

"It was something we wanted to do to set the tempo of the game," Philadelphia coach Andy Reid said. "From a coaching standpoint, it sent a message to our players that we're going to go after it in a tough place to play."

Said Kansas City linebacker Donnie Edwards, "They caught us completely off guard."

Green was 19-of-33 for 208 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

A 15-yard face-masking penalty on Duane Clemons and McNabb's 34-yard pass to James Thrash gave the Eagles a first down at the 6 late in the second quarter. But Marvcus Patton's second sack of the game pushed the Eagles back to the 15 and forced them to settle for Akers' 33-yarder and a 13-0 lead.

"It was good to see Donovan hitting seven different receivers and throw the ball downfield," Reid said. "Like I said before, a majority of the reasons that didn't happen before was due to me."

Holmes, who had 120 yards in a 19-7 victory over Seattle on Sunday, finished with 76 yards on 18 carries. He also caught eight passes for 100 yards.

Notes:
Holmes is the first Chiefs running back with a 100-yard receiving game since Dec. 23, 1990, when Todd McNair caught three passes for 111 yards against San Diego. Holmes' 76 yards rushing gave him 978 on the season, as he tries to become Kansas City's first 1,000-yard rusher since Christian Okoye in 1991. ... Staley's 46-yard touchdown catch was a career long. ... Thrash bruised a kneecap early in the game and left the game after aggravating the bruise in the fourth quarter. ... In its eight losses, Kansas City is minus-8 in turnover margin.

Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News