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Westbrook, McNabb help Eagles bounce back

Sep 24, 2006 - 11:43 PM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Brian Westbrook and the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles showed they put last week behind them.

Westbrook accounted for 164 total yards and three touchdowns as the Eagles posted a 38-24 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.

Donovan McNabb threw for 296 yards and two touchdowns and defensive tackle Mike Patterson brought back a fumble a franchise-record 98 yards for a score for the Eagles (2-1).

Coming off last Sunday's collapse against the New York Giants in which they squandered a 24-7 fourth-quarter lead, the Eagles rolled up 338 of their 416 total yards in the first half in building a 24-3 cushion.

"It was a good bounce back," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "I was very proud of the team for the attitude that they brought here to San Francisco. It was good to see the offense and defense both start fast and finish the game."

"I tried not to reflect on what happened last week," McNabb said. "We treated this week as business as usual, we didn't dwell on last week."

Westbrook had a four-yard TD reception off a shovel pass from McNabb to open the scoring and ran 71 yards for a TD in the second quarter. The speedy running back, who has been limited in practice due to a sore knee, added an eight-yard TD run in the fourth quarter to make it 38-17.

"It's one of those things when you're in the offense for a number of years, I know pretty much all the plays," Westbrook said.

Westbrook carried eight times for 117 yards and had four catches for 47 yards. It was his fourth career 100-yard rushing game and third three-touchdown game.

Fourth-round pick Michael Robinson, a converted quarterback, scored on a pair of one-yard runs in the fourth quarter for the Niners (1-2), who have allowed 80 points in losses to the Eagles in each of the two last seasons. San Francisco endured a 42-3 beating at Lincoln Financial Field last September.

The Niners suffered two other losses. Tight end Vernon Davis, the sixth pick in April's draft, fractured his right leg in the third quarter, and could miss at least four weeks. Running back Frank Gore left in the third quarter with an abdominal strain.

After the Eagles collapsed against the Giants, Reid set an immediate tone in this one when he called for a flea flicker on his club's first offensive play. The play worked to perfection as McNabb found Reggie Brown for 50 yards to the San Francisco 10.

"We got the blitz look, we knew their safeties were coming up to stop the run so we tried to use their aggressiveness against them," McNabb said. "It's important to get off to a good start like that."

"It's a play we've been working on all week," Brown said. "We decided it was going to be the first play we ran. The safeties are real aggressive, so we got them up with the flea flicker. It came open, and I was able to slip them and become wide open down the field."

With Donte' Stallworth sidelined with a hamstring injury, Brown responded with his best game of the season as he finished with five catches for a career-high 106 yards.

Two plays later, Westbrook took a shovel pass from McNabb and darted up the middle for a four-yard TD and a 7-0 lead.

McNabb, who completed 18-of-33 passes, used a play fake to find tight end L.J. Smith for a one-yard TD with 3:37 left in the first quarter to make it 14-0.

In the first quarter, the Eagles held a 171-12 advantage in total yards.

"Certainly today we didn't play well enough to win the game," Niners coach Mike Nolan said. "We made far too many errors in the game to overcome, both offensively and defensively. Turning the ball over inside the five doesn't help you any. There were far too many mental mistakes."

Joe Nedney kicked a 48-yard field goal with 7:45 left in the first half to get the Niners on the board.

But the Eagles responded on their ensuing drive when Westbrook raced around the left side and used a stiff arm to fend off cornerback Shawntae Spencer on his way to a 71-yard TD and a 21-3 advantage.

"The 49ers have a young, very athletic team and they're very aggressive," Westbrook said. "It was a situation where they flowed over the top and the offensive line did a great job of blocking off the back side and clearing everybody up on the front side."

David Akers increased the lead with a 21-yard field goal with 2:49 left in the first half.

On their second possession of the third quarter, the Niners reached the Eagles 1. After Gore twice was stopped for no gain, he was hit by safety Brian Dawkins on third down and lost the ball. The 6-foot, 292-pound Patterson came out of the pile with the ball and rumbled down the left sideline for a 98-yard TD and a 31-3 advantage.

"I was a bit winded," Patterson said. "I don't know how many yards it was, but it was a long way. I didn't feel my knee touch the ground or hear a whistle, so I just picked it up and ran. As soon as I picked it up, I saw the ref and kept on running."

Robinson scored on a one-yard run with 10:59 left in the third quarter and another on the first play of the fourth quarter to pull the Niners within 31-17.

"We've got to fight harder," Robinson said. "There's nothing positive about a loss. There are some positives, you learn what to work on, you played hard, but we get paid to win. We don't get paid to work hard. Working hard is part of our job. We get paid to win. There was nothing good about the game."

But a 60-yard completion from McNabb to backup tight end Matt Schobel set up Westbrook's eight-yard TD with 12:32 left gave the Eagles a 38-17 lead.

Alex Smith capped the scoring with a 15-yard TD pass to tight end Eric Johnson with six seconds remaining.

Smith completed 27-of-46 passes for a career-high 293 yards. He also was sacked three times and lost a fumble.

"We played a good team out there today, a good defense," Smith said. "We made some mistakes though, I still think most of this is still internal. Things that we did we did wrong to ourselves, executing, little things here and there."