TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Garcia Helps Rally NFC To Win

ADVERTISEMENT

The Associated Press

Published: February 11, 2008

HONOLULU - They could have played this Pro Bowl on the beach with flag football rules. All of which was to the liking of Terrell Owens and Adrian Peterson.

Making up for early sloppiness, Owens caught two touchdown passes, including a 6-yarder from Tampa Bay's Jeff Garcia for the winning points in the NFC's comeback 42-30 victory over the AFC on Sunday.

Owens was aided by Offensive Rookie of the Year Peterson, whose 129 yards rushing was the first performance of more than 100 yards since Marshall Faulk had 180 and Chris Warren added 127 in 1995. The Minnesota running back scored twice as the NFC rallied from a 24-7 deficit, earning MVP honors.

Faulk is the only other rookie to be voted MVP of the Pro Bowl.

"Good company," Peterson said. "We didn't get into the playoffs, so for me to come here and do this at the Pro Bowl means a lot.

"I came with a goal: win the game and be MVP."

Neither side held back the tricks, to the delight of the sellout crowd of 50,044 at Aloha Stadium. There was a fake punt, a throwback kickoff return and a handful of fourth-down gambles.

One of those was a 34-yard pass to Owens from fellow Cowboy Tony Romo that sparked the comeback. Before that, Owens had a pair of ugly drops that drew boos.

Garcia finished the game after entering midway through the third quarter and completed eight of 10 passes for 117 yards. He was intercepted when Rams wideout Torry Holt deflected Garcia's pass into the hands of Chargers cornerback Antonio Cromartie.

Redskins Introduce New Coach Zorn

ASHBURN, Va. - Always the energetic left-hander, Jim Zorn had an upbeat-but-nervous start to his coming-out event with the Washington Redskins.

The new coach got the team colors wrong. He paid tribute to an assistant the team recently fired. He lacked the polish of his predecessor, Joe Gibbs, who sat watching from the second row during the news conference Sunday in the Redskins Park auditorium.

Not too surprising, really, given that Zorn himself said it was nothing short of "miraculous" that he was standing where he was: a few feet behind the team's three Super Bowl trophies, essentially making the jump from quarterbacks coach to head coach because none of the candidates on owner Dan Snyder's initial list worked out. The 54-year-old Zorn was taking the first step in finding out what it really means to take such a big job in a Redskins-crazy town.

"I look at these three trophies," Zorn said, "and it's quite intimidating."

Zorn signed a five-year contract Saturday, ending a monthlong coaching search in which he was originally supposed to be an interesting sidebar. The Redskins hired him as an offensive coordinator two weeks ago, luring him away from the Seattle Seahawks, then decided late last week to interview him for the head coaching job after New York Giants defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo withdrew from consideration.

HALL OF FAME GAME: The Redskins and Colts will meet in the annual exhibition at Canton, Ohio, on Aug. 3.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT