It was a strange night to play football, much less to open the Eagles’ first preseason home game as the Eagles pulled off a convincing win over the Carolina Panthers Thursday. On a night involving a rare 58-minute rain delay, the backups won it for the Eagles as several key players put together a huge fourth quarter comeback victory.

Donovan McNabb came out to much anticipation and fanfare after completing 11-13 passes the week before in a 16-10 loss to Pittsburgh, but failed to put points on the board on either of the team’s first two drives, finishing 11-24. The lone Carolina touchdown came early, off a first quarter botched fake field goal shovel pass to Brent Celek that was intercepted by Richard Marshall for a 78-yard touchdown.

The second and third quarters had the Eagles’ offense silent, and only as the crowd started dwindling at Lincoln Financial field early in the fourth quarter did the Eagles start to answer back in face of a 13-0 deficit.

After a screen pass to Tony Hunt yielded a 9-yard run on third down and 1, Kevin Kolb connected with Greg Lewis for a 33-yard touchdown pass with less than seven minutes left in the game. Two possessions and one field goal later, Tony Hunt took a hand off an unexpected 51 yards for a touchdown.

The Panthers, hoping to answer back, were given the ball with a little under two minutes left but failed to come up with a touchdown, despite driving to their own 16 yard line. A tip by second-string safety Quintin Demps resulted in an interception by linebacker Justin Roland, who promptly raced 84 yards down the sidelines for a touchdown that cemented in the Eagles win.

Final: Eagles 24, Panthers 13