Closer Look

McNabb hooks up with Mitchell on legendary fourth-down conversion

By John Donovan, SI.com

Bhawoh Jue, left, and Darren Sharper let Freddie Mitchell come down with the biggest catch of the game. Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

PHILADELPHIA -- Someday, if things turn out just right, they will carve a bronze statue of Freddie Mitchell -- fist pumping downfield, face filled with an unbelieving excitement -- and put it high atop some steps somewhere in this city. Maybe in front of an art museum. Or maybe they'll just move it in front of a stadium.

Whatever, if it happens, we all know what that statue will be called, too.

"Fourth-and-26."

Mitchell may well be destined for immortality in this town, along with Ben Franklin and that pug Rocky Balboa, if the Philadelphia Eagles can build on what he did Sunday. In the chill of still-new Lincoln Financial Field, Mitchell and Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb pulled off one of the most unlikely plays in NFL postseason history.

Fourth-and-26, for crying out loud. Get the first down or go home. Make it or break the heart of a city full of Eagles fans who have had their hearts broken way too much lately.

And they made it. The Eagles made it.

"Fourth-and-26. I mean, fourth-and-26," said Eagles tight end Chad Lewis.

"Fourth-and-26. I mean, that's like fourth and forever," said Green Bay Packers defensive back Mike McKenzie.

"We felt like we had the game in our hands," said Packers defensive end Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila.

Sunday's NFC divisional game between the Packers and Eagles was in Green Bay's seemingly magical hands, really. The Packers had kicked a fourth-quarter field goal to go up, 17-14. Only 1:12 remained in the game. The Eagles were on their own 26-yard line.

It was -- did we say this? -- fourth down, with 26 yards to go.

And then Mitchell, a third-year receiver, bolted off the line, and McNabb dropped back, and Mitchell slid into the middle of the field between three Green Bay defensive backs.

Dimeback Bhawoh Jue moved over from the right side of the field, but he overplayed the throw and just missed knocking it down. Strong safety Marques Anderson was in the neighborhood. So was free safety Darren Sharper.

But the ball found its way through the zone coverage -- how that happened is something the folks in Green Bay will be dissecting for years -- and Mitchell grabbed it and came down with the ball for a 28-yard gain, and you could hear the collective gasp from the stands, the kind you hear when 67,000 wishes somehow simultaneously come true.

"I tried to beat my man across from me and just go deep, and I went deep," Mitchell said. "I didn't see the guy on top of me but Donovan read that and threw a back shoulder to me and I saw it in the air and I made a play."

Eight plays later, after a couple of spikes, a penalty and a couple of incomplete passes, David Akers booted a 37-yard field goal with five seconds left to force overtime.

And then, after the miraculous play, the Eagles won the game with another Akers field goal in overtime.

"You just have a feel," said Eagles coach Andy Reid. "I just don't know how to explain it."

The chances of pulling off a fourth-and-26 in any kind of a situation are pretty slim. The chances of doing it then -- in the waning moments of a game that determines who goes to the NFC Championship game -- are pretty much out of this world.

"That shouldn't have happened," Gbaja-Biamila said. "But it did."

And years from now -- if things turn out right for the Eagles in the next few weeks -- Philadelphians will be asking "Where were you?" on the fourth-and-26.

Philadelphia defensive tackle Corey Simon, for one, watched the whole thing on the stadium's huge replay board from the Eagles' bench, sitting next to teammate Darwin Walker.

"I was tired, man," he said. "I just turned to Darwin and said 'That was huge. Let's roll.' But we hadn't gone into the end zone yet, or kicked a field goal. There was still work to do."

Lewis was too busy blocking to see that Mitchell had pulled off the unpullable. Offensive tackle Tra Thomas, all 350 pounds of him, was moving down the field, just in case.

"We had to run down there to make sure we could stop the clock," Thomas said. "You don't have time to think about it. You just have to go down and do what you have to do."

All of the theatrics -- the throw, the catch, the incredible come-from-behind win -- won't mean a thing if the Eagles don't beat the Carolina Panthers in the NFC title game here next Sunday. In fact, unless the Eagles make it to the Super Bowl in Houston and win it ... well, the fourth-and-26 play may go down as nothing but an interesting aside, a coach's motivational tool.

Unless, of course, someone decides to build that statue anyway.