PHILADELPHIA – Mr. Big Mouth was finally silent.
Randy Moss was shut down and shut up by the Eagles yesterday. For those tired of seeing moon shots and butt wipes on goalposts, it was a beautiful thing.
“I’m not doing no interviews today,” Moss told reporters after the Eagles did the NFL a huge favor by getting rid of an 8-8 regular season team and removing Moss from the spotlight with their 27-14 victory yesterday at Lincoln Financial Field.
Don’t think for one minute that Moss was broken up by the loss. The man who said 10 grand means “nothing” to him showed that losing doesn’t bother him a whole lot, either.
Moss joked with teammates after the season-ending defeat, before putting on his jewelry and headphones and making his way to the team bus, showing none of the disappointment one would expect from a player whose season just came to a crashing halt with only three catches for 51 yards and no touchdowns in the second-biggest game of his career.
This was a similar flop to the one Moss had against the Giants in the NFC championship game on Jan. 14, 2001 when he managed all of two catches for 18 yards. The wide receiver who walked off the field early two weeks ago, basically didn’t show up on the field yesterday.
Moss had alligator arms all day and three drops on the 13 balls thrown his way.
“We couldn’t finish anything,” Vikings coach Mike Tice said.
Moss couldn’t finish what he started. He was so brazen against the Packers last Sunday and then threatened to shake much more than his butt after he was fined $10,000 by the NFL for his crude behavior.
Some fans came with signs chiding Moss. “Hey Randy, Boxers or Briefs,” read one. Offered another: “Who’s behind now?”
The Eagles didn’t play that well, but they didn’t have to considering the competition.
Moss also was involved in a critical play that the Vikings had practiced two weeks, yet still bungled, a fake field goal that would have been a touchdown, Tice said, if the team had executed it properly. The play occurred with 4:40 remaining in the first half and the Vikings trailing, 21-7.
The trickery was designed for Moss to act as if he were coming off the field, but then in stealth fashion, slip into the corner of the end zone to grab the pass from holder Gus Frerotte. But there was a major mixup.
As Moss made his way off, Tice said there was an extra lineman on the field and the coaches were yelling for the lineman to come off. Moss got confused and came off the field. When Frerotte looked in the corner he had no Moss and nowhere to go with the ball so he retreated and threw a knuckleball into the middle of the end zone that landed with a thud.
“Some players were yelling for Moss to come off,” Frerotte explained. “He stepped out and I turned around to throw him the ball and he was not there. I was kind of stuck. This play would have really raised our momentum.”
Asked how he felt at that point, the backup QB said, “I pretty much felt sick to my stomach. I knew that we had a touchdown and they had no idea that it was going to happen.”
Moss just went to the bench, leaned back and closed his eyes as if he were taking a nap.
Who knows what he was thinking because he wasn’t talking afterwards, but it was clear that on this frigid day, Moss’ head wasn’t in this playoff game.
Over in the winning locker room, wide receiver Freddie Mitchell, who had two touchdowns, five receptions and a remarkable follow-the-ball catch of L.J. Smith’s high-flying fumble in the end zone for a TD, offered the line of the day. “I’d like to thank my hands for being great,” Mitchell said.
On this playoff day, he had the greater hands and greater heart than Minnesota’s moon man.
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Seeing three
Donovan McNabb and the Eagles will host their third consecutive NFC championship game. A look at the last two:
JAN. 18, 2004
Panthers 14, Eagles 3 McNabb throws for just 100 yards and is picked off three times.
JAN. 19, 2003
Bucs 27, Eagles 10 McNabb is intercepted once and fumbles twice as Tampa Bay closes out Veterans Stadium.
