Evening star., 1948-12-20
BY a stoff Correspondent Of The ssor


PHILADELPHIA, Dec 20. - The
manner In which the Philadelphia
Eagles gave Greasy Neale his first
National Football League champion
ship here yesterday by dethroning
the Chicago Cardinals, TO, made it
look more like permanent trophy
than a Christmas present. With
their blend of experience and youth,
speed and power, the Ealgles seem
in position to reign indefinitely.
Put down yesterdays TO score as
a tribute to the Cards courage and
a 4-inch snowfall that mounted like
Q grocery bill until you wondered IL
snowshoes would be needed. Appar-
entity tired by almost four months
|of campaigning, the Cards went
down like champions. They tossed
their best and only punch early In
the first period, then hung on des-
perately as powerful Steve Van
Buren and Speedy Bosh Pritchard
hacked them down and finally
bowled them over with the game
winning touchdown.
On a dry field the Cards Charley
Trippi might have had a chance to
rifle through the Eagles with a punt
return. There were only a couple
of runbacks yesterday because Of
snow. Nimble> Elmer Angsman
might have swept the ends for good
gains to aid the cause. But on
firmer footing the Eagles also might
have won by three or four touch
downs. Several times Pritchard and
Van Buren broke into the Cardinal
secondary and were delayed just
long enough by the snow for Chi
cago backs to grab them.
Elements Favor Eagles.
It was the Cards darting, string
ing offense against the bruising
massive play of the Eagles and the
elements favored the latter.
Philadelphia shackled the Cards
with q vise-like defensive grip that
held them to 96 yards. Ray Mallouf
hero Of the previous Sundays vic
tory over the Chicago Bears, anc
Rookie Charley Eikenberg found the
airlanes blanketed by Philadelphia
defenders as we'll as snow anc
clicked on only tosses in II at.
temptS for scant IS yards. The
Cards total offense of 131 yards was
the smallest since 1886 when Greer
Bay held Boston to 116 in theil
playoff at New York.
Coach Jimmy Councilman said he
thought the Cardinals played theil
championship game week ago. He
said the team was emotionally worn
out from the long, hard campaign
that began back in August with
must" victory over the College ALI
Stars at Chicago. The Cards had tc
win that one to maintain National
League prestige. Dropping theil
second league game to the Bears
didn't help. 1t kept the pressure or
them all the way to last weeks
finish.
Some observers believed snow
would slow Van Buren and possibly
ruin Philadelphia's ofense, but II
didn't. Mr.. v. B. steam-rollered 9e
yards on 26 trips with the ball-in-
cluding the five most important
yards of the afternoon. Pritcharo
skidded 81 yards on is tries, and an
added starter, Quarterback Tommy
Thompson, added an unexpected so
All of Thompsons gains were short
thrusts through the line, but sew
eral were good for important first
downs. One such strike preceded
Van Burens touchdown plunge ir
the fourth period on the 5-yard line
Thompson Stars as General.
Thompsons aStute handling OF
the team was noteworthy. Only
Jack Doolan, Cardinal end and for
mer Georgetown star, who played
a whale of a defensive game, and
Halfback Johnny Cochran seemed
able to outguess him consistently
Doolan made several brilliant
tackles, and Cochran, one-time