At the time, the Eagles were only ahead 13-0. After a pair of penalties on safeties Quintin Demps and Sean Jones and a 6-yard run by Jason Snelling, the Falcons had a second down at the 1-yard line. One yard and it's a six-point game. One yard and momentum swings to the home team. One yard and maybe this cakewalk wouldn't have been a cakewalk.
Three times, Falcons offensive coordinator Mike Mularkey sent Snelling into the line to get that 1 yard. Three times, he came up empty.
The normally stone-faced McDermott showed more emotion after safety Quintin Mikell and a cast of thousands stopped Snelling on fourth down than he's shown in the previous 11 games.
"Anybody will tell you that I'm pretty intense,'' he said. "I try to keep my emotions in check. But you have a goal-line stand like that in somebody else's house, I get fired up.''
He wasn't alone. The Eagles came out after the half and drove 80 yards on 12 plays to take a 20-0 lead. Then, cornerback Sheldon Brown picked off his fifth interception of the season and returned it 83 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-zip.
"We came in at the half after we stopped them and the guys were fired up across the board - offense, defense, special teams,'' McDermott said.
"To me, that [goal-line stand] was the tone-setter,'' Brown said. "I know when we've been in games and have had the ball at the 1 and the other team has stopped us, we know that if we can't score from the 1, we're in for a long day. Everybody did a great job of reading their keys and getting low leverage and getting on [the Falcons'] side of the line of scrimmage. If you're in their backfield, they can't run in."
