Posted: Thursday, November 27, 2008, 11:31 PM | 15 comments |
 

Still Donovan's Team
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None of us is guaranteed a future, as Donovan McNabb is well aware. No one should pretend about that, and no one is. Next year is out of the quarterback’s control. The decisions there will be made well above McNabb’s pay grade, if they haven’t been made already.

The quarterback can only be about now.

And, now, this remains McNabb’s team.

If there is a message in the madness that was Eagles 48, Cardinals 20, that was it. If there was a lesson to be learned during a Thanksgiving night massacre at Lincoln Financial Field – an outcome that no sane person predicted – that was it.

They are tied together, this team and this quarterback. Their fates are linked in 2008 and there is no way to disengage them. And for everyone who figured they would see backup quarterback Kevin Kolb before the end of last night, well, you were right. Except that Kolb was only playing in 4 minutes of lopsided mop-up time at the end.

If you want to give Andy Reid credit for jump-starting McNabb by benching him at halftime last week in Baltimore, go ahead. But it is just as easy to make the argument that McNabb was the one who jump-started McNabb. Feel free to argue. There is no right answer.

Just know this: McNabb finished last night with these numbers: 27-for-39 for 260 yards and four touchdowns. His quarterback rating was 121.7. His performance propped up a listing team – the Eagles’ record is now 6-5-1. His game, his day, gave them another game, another day.

Posted by Rich Hofmann @ 11:31 PM  Permalink | 15 comments
15
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:43 PM, 11/27/2008
    Rich, last week you said it was the end of the McNabb era and now it's his team. Your contradicting yourself!
    — gotknowledge2002
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:47 PM, 11/27/2008
    He sure is.
    — 1phillycat
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:50 PM, 11/27/2008
    FIRE REID!! McNabb proves he can win despite terrible WRs if you run the ball. Reid is a phony and a hindrance to McNabb succeeding. Keep McNabb, FIRE REID!
    — Nezhy
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:53 PM, 11/27/2008
    The Philly sportswriters are the freakin worst. Always talking in absolute terms.
    — joeibt
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:57 PM, 11/27/2008
    NEZY YOUR FIRED AS A FAN!
    — the G.O.A.T.
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 12:00 AM, 11/28/2008
    I just want each of the people who called for Mcnabb's head to go ahead and pull yours out of your you know what now. He's has only been one of teh best QB's for a decade and you all wanted him gone for a couple of bad games.
    — phillyfanEugene
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:20 AM, 11/28/2008
    I give McNabb props - he played well, even ran a couple of times - notice these three things - 50/50 run pass, mainly throwing to DJ, Basket -who is playing great as a possession reciever - and Curtis. Maybe if we'd have done this the rest of the season we would be 8/4 or 9/3. But Reid laerns too slow - always gets smart when the season is over. If Eagles run the table they have a chance as a 6 wild card which means playing CHI, MIN or ARIZ.
    — gb2007
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:48 AM, 11/28/2008
    this was a good win. McNabb stepped up. Lets see them do it again in ten days up in East Rutherford.
    — phillybirdz53
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:53 AM, 11/28/2008
    The cynic in me thinks that giving Big Reid a shorter week to develop a game plan leads to a better one. The pessimistic cynic in me is worried about the 10 days until the Giants game.
    — tbone pickins
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:57 PM, 11/28/2008
    im with NEZY. time for reid to go. I was behind him every step of the way until the tie. Run the ball run the ball run the ball. We need to keep Mcnabb, should have (maybe still can in the off season) gotten Gonzo, get a real live...NFL...prfessional FB.....you know like the kind NFL teams have., get a big firggin back, draft and army of O line fat guys.... and most of all.... FIRE ANDY AND HECKART..... if they keep andy, strip him of the GM job. Strip him of the playcalling, strip him of anything within 2 minutes of any Half and if im laurie i make him RUN THE BALL!!!
    — stevo8drum
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 11:00 PM, 11/28/2008
    i cant believe with the talent we have on this team that we are talking about next year. Thank you phillies for keeping me off the bridge this year.
    — stevo8drum
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 1:55 PM, 11/29/2008
    I will never waver that McNabb should stay, and Reid should be gone, even if the Eagles win out. Reid, and many other coaches in the NFL, cannot grasp how to win a Superbowl, they can only grasp how to build a winner and hope everything falls into place one year. In the history of the NFL, you have to run the football to win, no team has ever passed their way to a superbowl. Sure there are the Rams of '99 and the 49ers of '89 but both had great Running Backs (Roger Craig and Marshall Faulk) who could pound the ball in close games and didn't make their teams one dimensional. Reid ran the ball Thursday night alot more then any game this year, but you can tell by his arrogance in his Friday press conference, it is only a mirage. It amazes me to continue to see in sports these gimmick offenses like the Run & Shoot in Football, or a baseball team that has a deep lineup but no pitching, or a Basketball team that runs the floor but has no half-court offense (I am looking at you 76ers) and none of them every win it all. It always comes down to team defense in football, good pitching in baseball, or solid defense in Basketball. Yet Andy Reid will still be passing the ball 60% of the time because he knows better then all of us. If Reid is here next year, we will be having these same debates because he is a 'system' coach, and they never win a superbowl, cause they can't adapt to what talent they have. And for all the Andy Reid defenders out there, he has been to as many Superbowls as Jim Fassel and Mike White, so essentially it doesnt take a genius to make it to the big show.
    — co
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 2:48 PM, 11/29/2008
    Only in the NFL does one game a season make. Only in the NFL does one game reverse the wind blowing the stink from two games versus AFC teams. Only in the NFL does the press fail to recognize the quality of an opponent and balance that against previous performance. The Cardinals defense was leaking oil coming into this game. They surrendered 39 points (or whatever) against the Giants in a home game the week before, and now another 48 on the road against Philly. Doesn't this game say more about the Cardinals and their inability to close out a playoff spot than it says about the Eagles? Of course it does. But for now we live with the mirage that the Eagles are competitive. On deck are the Giants and with ten days rest the Eagles may be able to pull off an upset. Then Cleveland....another W on the horizon. But then its back into the muck with back-to-back against the Skins and Cowboys. Win out and you're in the playoffs; lose another game and...well 9 wins won't make it. The press needs to wake up around here.
    — MudinyourEye
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15 comments
About Rich Hofmann
Rich Hofmann arrived at the Daily News in 1980 for a job whose status was officially designated as "full-time, temporary." A senior at Penn at the time, he was hired to fill in on the copy desk during a staff illness. The notion of him covering the Eagles or being a columnist did not exist in anyone's imagination. It was supposed to be six weeks and out, but he never left. It is only one of the reasons why so many people have concerns about him as a potential house guest. Rich has blogged the postseasons of the Flyers and Eagles. E-mail Rich at hofmanr@phillynews.com

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