Just how clutch has McNabb been?

They were the kind of games that champions win, and the city's baseball team won two of them in the span of a week with the stakes elevated to postseason proportion.

Down to their last out, the Phillies staged scintillating rallies to eliminate the Colorado Rockies from the National League division series, and then to take Game 4 of the National League Championship Series against Los Angeles.

In Colorado, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth delivered the knockout blows. Against the Dodgers, Jimmy Rollins' aplomb allowed him to scorch a game-winning double into right-center field.

You just know there were cries from the city's football fans charging Donovan McNabb and company with being unable to come through in similar clutch situations.

Are McNabb and the Eagles guilty as charged, or are the accusations unfair, based more on perception than reality?

There really are two answers.

Earlier in his career, visions of McNabb leading the Eagles to fourth-quarter comebacks weren't rare.

From 2000 through 2004, McNabb led the Eagles to nine fourth-quarter comeback victories. You'll probably remember some of them.

There was that 2001 game at the Meadowlands when McNabb found James Thrash for a game-winning touchdown in the final two minutes, shifting the balance of power in the NFC East from the New York Giants to the Eagles.

There was that Monday Night Football game in 2003 when the quarterback connected with Todd Pinkston in the bone-chilling cold at Lambeau Field to rally his team for a win over the Green Bay Packers.

Two months later, McNabb staged the greatest comeback of his career by finding Freddie Mitchell on a fourth-and-26 play that led to an overtime victory, also against the Packers, in the playoffs. That's the only fourth-quarter comeback McNabb has had in the postseason, and it's the only playoff game he has won that was decided by seven points or fewer. McNabb is 1-3 in those games.

Since the 2004 season, McNabb has led the Eagles to just four comeback victories. His latest attempt came up short Sunday at Oakland when a fourth-and-4 pass to DeSean Jackson fell incomplete.

Another measure of performing in the clutch is how the Eagles have fared in close games. During the 2003 and 2004 seasons, the Eagles were 12-3 in games decided by seven points or fewer. Since then, they are 7-18-1, including a 1-7-1 record last year.