Celek jump-starts Eagles' offense

SEATTLE - Of his first nine passes yesterday, Donovan McNabb completed two of them, and the Eagles' offense had a grand total of 34 yards on their first 15 plays against the Seattle Seahawks.

They were in a grim routine - three-and-out, three-and-out, three-and-out - and someone had to step up and bring them out of their malaise.

Who could have imagined it would be a guy built like a John Deere tractor, but who probably couldn't outrace one? A guy who was in the starting lineup because the player ahead of him, L.J. Smith, had to stay home because of a concussion?

Would you believe Brent Celek?

But after Celek took a pass from McNabb and rumbled 44 yards to the Seahawks' 18-yard line on the Eagles' fourth possession, it was as if someone had brushed the dust from the offensive playbook. The next play, Celek was wide open in the middle of the field, but McNabb threw into double coverage in the end zone and was intercepted by Deon Grant.

Still, the 44-yard completion to Celek jump-started the Eagles, who went on to score 26 unanswered points for a desperately needed 26-7 win at beautiful Qwest Field.

A fifth-round draft pick out of Cincinnati two years ago, Celek went on to get his name in the Eagles' record book, ending the day with six catches for 131 yards, an average of 21.8 yards a grab. According to the team's records, it was the most receiving yards by an Eagles tight end in a regular-season game, surpassing the 126 by Keith Jackson against Washington on Sept. 17, 1989.

Jackson had seven catches for 142 yards in the Fog Bowl, a playoff loss to the Chicago Bears on Dec. 31, 1988.

"With the coverage they were giving us, I wasn't very surprised," Celek said when asked if he expected to be one of McNabb's favorite targets. "They were in man-to-man and you just have to beat your guy off the line, and Don was throwing a good ball. He threw a great ball today. He was on target, and I can't give him enough credit for what he did."

In the first seven games, the Eagles' tight ends - Smith and Celek - combined for 189 yards on 20 catches. The Eagles reversed the trend yesterday with Celek and Matt Schobel, who chipped in with two catches for 10 yards.

The only explanation Celek could come up with was that he was open and McNabb found him.

"On a few of them, I was a little surprised by the way they were covering: If you beat your guy off the line, there's a good chance you're going to get the ball," he said. "Just the way the coverage was, I was able to get the ball a little bit."

In the second quarter, Celek caught a 27-yard pass that put the ball in Seattle territory as the Eagles went on to tie the game, 7-7, on a 22-yard TD pass from McNabb to Reggie Brown. Later in the second quarter, Celek caught a 2-yard pass for a first down that continued a drive that ended with the eventual winning TD, a 1-yard pass from McNabb to offensive lineman Todd Herremans.

Then Celek went on to set an Eagles record, which did not seem to impress him.

"The win is the most important thing," he said. "That's all I care about. Everything else is just extra."