Sam Donnellon: Eagles QB McNabb making good case for himself

MINNEAPOLIS - Jeffrey Lurie was playing a little hide and seek in the visitor's locker room last night, not his usual modus operandi following an Eagles' victory.

"I don't want it to break out into a press conference," he told one television reporter who asked for some clarity to his words about Donovan McNabb in a Boston newspaper.

Moments later, as he observed the room's happiness from a far corner, I asked for the same thing.

Lurie smiled. "It's exactly as I said. He had it right."

In yesterday's Boston Globe, the Eagles owner told Mike Reiss that he had "every intention of having him back," for the 2009 season. Later in the interview, Lurie watered it down a bit with an assessment of McNabb's record-breaking season as "up and down," but who really would argue much with that?

Not McNabb, at least publicly. Asked about Lurie's comments following yesterday's 26-14 wild-card victory over the Vikings, McNabb said, "That's exciting. Because I don't have to answer questions from you guys about whether I'll be here. That's very nice."

Nice. Exciting. Don't look a gift owner in the mouth. Was it only 6 weeks ago that the franchise quarterback's departure seemed as imminent as an accelerating train? Was it only 6 weeks ago that McNabb looked so flustered out there, so unconfident, so devoid of soldiers who offered support?

Was it only 6 weeks ago that he seemed so alone?

Donovan McNabb can say 1 million times that his second-half benching in the 36-7 loss to Baltimore had no effect on what has occurred since. But it was interesting to see how different he looked and how differently he handled the latest package thrown at him by Andy Reid's protégés yesterday. Leslie Frazier, the Vikings defensive coordinator, once worked under Jim Johnson. Minnesota head coach Brad Childress was hired by Reid to tutor McNabb in his early years. These guys know McNabb better than anybody in the league, certainly better than Baltimore coach John Harbaugh - who was just a special teams coach with the Eagles.

With the Metrodome noise forcing him to continually change plays with his hands and his feet, McNabb completed 23 of 34 passes for 300 yards.

Frazier just kept the blitzes coming and coming and coming. McNabb was sacked three times, fumbled once, was picked off once too. He spent so much time getting hit as he threw that he probably only watched a handful of his completions reach their mark.