Rich Hofmann | For McNabb, a matter of trust

MINNEAPOLIS - The Donovan McNabb stream of consciousness tour continues, as we all try to take the temperature of a moving target on a weekly basis.

And so, yesterday against the Minnesota Vikings, McNabb ran better and looked more comfortable than he has since offseason knee surgery but he still missed L.J. Smith in the end zone that one time and kind of threw behind Greg Lewis another time, but he did have the one called running play that the coaches threw in there at his insistence and he did look pretty nimble in traffic, but he still wasn't happy with the red-zone offense overall and it wasn't as if they were playing the '85 Bears or anything, but . . .

You get the point. This temperature-taking is a lot more art than it is science. It is a lot more about impressions, and perceptions. More than anything, it is about hurdles - some physical, more mental; some of which are cleared cleanly, others that clatter noisily to the ground.

Yesterday, McNabb cleared the trust hurdle.

He finally let somebody else try to make a play.

McNabb threw the ball 36 times in the Eagles' 23-16 win over the Vikings. But this is not about that, or about the game in general. This is about two particular throws, one up the right sideline to Reggie Brown in the second quarter and one up the left sideline to Kevin Curtis in the fourth quarter.

Both were delivered under pressure. Neither was guaranteed to get there. Brown was not wide open and Curtis was not wide open. They were hopeful throws more than anything else, not exactly jump balls but not far from it, either.

They were invitations for Brown and Curtis to make a play and both of them did, spectacularly - Brown somehow getting his feet down inbounds on his 30-yarder, Curtis somehow tumbling and catching the ball on his 31-yarder, both of them wrestling with a Vikings defensive back all the while.

With all due respect to the people who measure this man by his legs - and even McNabb himself said yesterday, "I've just been feeling a change since the bye week . . . I definitely feel like the burst is coming back . . . " - the biggest development yesterday was the quarterback's ability to trust his receivers, really for the first time this season. Because that is how this offense has to function.

Listen to Brown: