ST. LOUIS – The improbable joy ride of two years ago produced “a dream season,” Kurt Warner recalled, because “no one expected us to do anything.”
It is two years later and all anyone expects out of the Rams this time around is, well, everything.
“That’s why this year may be a little more rewarding,” Warner said, “because we were the team everyone wanted to beat. Everyone asked, ‘Can they get back to the Super Bowl?’ Now we’re there.”
They touch down in New Orleans this afternoon and many believe the Rams a week from now will leave once again as champions.
Nothing of value should come easy and it surely did not last night. The Rams in the NFC Championship Game needed to overcome a 17-13 halftime deficit, needed to ditch their high-wire act and instead ride the old-fashioned running of Marshall Faulk and needed to finally put the clamps on elusive Donovan McNabb.
They did all they needed to do, which is why they secured a 29-24 victory over the gritty Eagles at the noise-filled Edward Jones Dome.
Up next in Super Bowl XXXVI inside the Superdome are the upstart Patriots, the only team standing in the way of the Rams and their second title in three years. The Rams (16-2) as the Greatest Show on Turf were supposed to get this far and are supposed to dispose of New England they way they have all other challengers.
“It will be a terrific matchup,” Rams coach Mike Martz said.
It might be a terrible mismatch. This will be a rematch of a Nov. 18 game at Foxboro Stadium, won by the Rams 24-17 on the strength of Warner’s 401 passing yards and two touchdowns.
There were no such aerial highlights against the Eagles, as the Rams continue to show the world they are more than a high-flying attack. Warner’s longest completion was for only 21 yards, but the sum total of the Rams talent was too much for the Eagles (13-6) to withstand.
“They’re a heck of a team,” a somber Eagles coach Andy Reid said.
The Rams weren’t able to fully exhale and let loose with an emotional salvo until only 1:47 remained, when Aeneas Williams intercepted McNabb’s final pass to end the last Eagles threat.
The entire tone of the game changed after halftime. McNabb fumbled the ball away on the second play of the game on the Eagles 21-yard line and three minutes in the Rams led 7-0 on Warner’s 4-yard scoring pass to Isaac Bruce.
That shaky start did nothing to deter the Eagles or McNabb, whose legs and arm helped produce two TD drives for a four-point Philly lead at the half.
“We had 30 minutes to play and we were down by four,” Martz said. “We just felt to win the game we had to get the ball to Marshall.”
They got it to him, over and over again. Faulk had 84 yards at halftime and got the ball on seven consecutive plays to start a third-quarter drive that ended with a Jeff Wilkins field goal to narrow the gap to 17-16.
Warner, playing after taking a pain-killer for his bruised ribs, completed four passes to set up Faulk’s one-yard TD run to put the Rams up 22-17.
Meanwhile, the Rams improved defense forced three straight three-and-outs, limiting the Eagles to 74 total yards and four first downs in the second half.
“I told the offense to get ready, because we’re going go get another three-and-out,” linebacker London Fletcher said.
Faulk, on his way to a playoff career-high 159 yards, was responsible for 48 yards on a 56-yard drive that ended with another Faulk TD to boost the Rams lead to 29-17 with 6:55 remaining.
Back came the Eagles and McNabb scored with 2:56 left, but there was no more magic left in his arms or legs. Afterward, as almost all of his teammates headed inside, McNabb stayed on the field to witness the Rams post-game celebration.
“You know, we’re gonna be back,” McNabb said. “We’re gonna be in that situation and things are going to happen to us where we’ll be on that podium.”
It was the Rams on that podium, with only the Patriots standing in the way of another Rams ascension in one week’s time.
