THE SCENE WAS unusual for a team that operates behind a curtain.
The reason for it made it even more so. Moments after Andy Reid stopped at Donovan McNabb's locker for a minute-long chat after last night's 38-17 loss to the Cowboys, the quarterback was asked about the tone of the conversation.
"He was yelling at me," said the quarterback, and his smile indicated he was joking. But when the questioner persisted with "So it was encouraging?" McNabb's smile went straight.
"No," he said.
There was a time when you wanted the ball in Donovan McNabb's hands every play. Throw it, run it, it really didn't seem to matter. He was a one-man offensive machine back then, capable of buying the needed time to turn disaster into spectacular, a player you trained both eyes on whether you were a fan in the stands, a coach on the sidelines, or the guy or guys assigned to contain him.
Not stop him, because that was impossible.
Just contain him.
The guy who almost single-handedly handed the dreaded Dallas Cowboys their seventh victory last night is not that guy. And despite proclamations to the contrary, the evidence is mounting that he may never again be. With a gait that has been slowed and altered by a serious knee injury, he is, these days, a study of indecision, inconsistency and inaccuracy.
Rather than attempt to contain him, teams now take aim at him.
All of that was apparent from the first play of last night's loss. Operating out of the shotgun from his own 36, McNabb fled a well-formed pocket much too soon, held the ball up to pass then didn't, and ultimately was tackled from behind, the ball punched from his hands.
Cowboys middle linebacker Bradie James recovered the ball on the Eagles' 37. Six plays later, Julius Jones scored from 2 yards out. The tone of the evening was set.
With a young improving quarterback, some nice running backs, and some explosive receivers - one looked vaguely familiar - Dallas took advantage of every opportunity. The Eagles frittered away most of theirs.
"It is frustrating," McNabb said afterward. "And the frustrating part is that it's not like we're playing bad. We're just not capitalizing on those opportunities that were given. It was the red zone earlier in the season. Now it's eliminating mistakes again. Situations are not coming together the way we want them to."
More often than not, it traced back to the quarterback's play. In the final 2 minutes of the first half, McNabb attempted three consecutive passes from his own 17. The first two were tipped at the line. The third, into double-coverage, was intercepted.
McNabb was 27-for-46 for 264 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. As modest as those numbers are, they don't even vaguely reflect how ineffective he and his offense were most of the night. At halftime, he was 10 of 19 for 89 yards and the Eagles had converted three of seven third downs.
A slight disclaimer here: The Eagles' problems extend beyond their error-prone, sack-prone quarterback, as anyone following the news of the week knows. Their defense is a weekly display of technique rather than terror, turnovers like Lito Sheppard's second-quarter interception an annoying rarity. Rather than hide McNabb's deficiencies, the pass-oriented, detail-rich playcalling tends to air them for all to see.
Amid a similar midseason slide last season, McNabb was under similar scrutiny. His season-ending injury ended that, but there was stark contrast between how smoothly the offense operated under Jeff Garcia and how it had previously shed an unflattering light not just on McNabb, but the coach, too. Garcia is said to have run a dummy-downed version of the offense. It was also clearly more effective.
It was only 3 years ago that this offense was being compared to some of the great ones of all time, the way the Patriots' offense is now. Then, McNabb was considered an elite player with even better play and better things in his future.
He believes that future still exists, that once his legs come back, so will he. He says he's getting better, but with each erratic week, he loses believers. The Linc was reduced to stragglers by 10:30 last night, a lost season now on the immediate horizon, perhaps even already here.
Mathematically, they are not eliminated.
Mentally, they may be.
And if that proves the case? The man once anointed to be this team's answer to Brett Favre, to Steve Young, to Tom Brady and all those other Super Bowl authenticated arms may find himself in the same place where it all started - on the bench watching, the ball out of his hands.
If you looked around at the empty building last night, that time seemed already here. *
The reason for it made it even more so. Moments after Andy Reid stopped at Donovan McNabb's locker for a minute-long chat after last night's 38-17 loss to the Cowboys, the quarterback was asked about the tone of the conversation.
"He was yelling at me," said the quarterback, and his smile indicated he was joking. But when the questioner persisted with "So it was encouraging?" McNabb's smile went straight.
"No," he said.
There was a time when you wanted the ball in Donovan McNabb's hands every play. Throw it, run it, it really didn't seem to matter. He was a one-man offensive machine back then, capable of buying the needed time to turn disaster into spectacular, a player you trained both eyes on whether you were a fan in the stands, a coach on the sidelines, or the guy or guys assigned to contain him.
Not stop him, because that was impossible.
Just contain him.
The guy who almost single-handedly handed the dreaded Dallas Cowboys their seventh victory last night is not that guy. And despite proclamations to the contrary, the evidence is mounting that he may never again be. With a gait that has been slowed and altered by a serious knee injury, he is, these days, a study of indecision, inconsistency and inaccuracy.
Rather than attempt to contain him, teams now take aim at him.
All of that was apparent from the first play of last night's loss. Operating out of the shotgun from his own 36, McNabb fled a well-formed pocket much too soon, held the ball up to pass then didn't, and ultimately was tackled from behind, the ball punched from his hands.
Cowboys middle linebacker Bradie James recovered the ball on the Eagles' 37. Six plays later, Julius Jones scored from 2 yards out. The tone of the evening was set.
With a young improving quarterback, some nice running backs, and some explosive receivers - one looked vaguely familiar - Dallas took advantage of every opportunity. The Eagles frittered away most of theirs.
"It is frustrating," McNabb said afterward. "And the frustrating part is that it's not like we're playing bad. We're just not capitalizing on those opportunities that were given. It was the red zone earlier in the season. Now it's eliminating mistakes again. Situations are not coming together the way we want them to."
More often than not, it traced back to the quarterback's play. In the final 2 minutes of the first half, McNabb attempted three consecutive passes from his own 17. The first two were tipped at the line. The third, into double-coverage, was intercepted.
McNabb was 27-for-46 for 264 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions. As modest as those numbers are, they don't even vaguely reflect how ineffective he and his offense were most of the night. At halftime, he was 10 of 19 for 89 yards and the Eagles had converted three of seven third downs.
A slight disclaimer here: The Eagles' problems extend beyond their error-prone, sack-prone quarterback, as anyone following the news of the week knows. Their defense is a weekly display of technique rather than terror, turnovers like Lito Sheppard's second-quarter interception an annoying rarity. Rather than hide McNabb's deficiencies, the pass-oriented, detail-rich playcalling tends to air them for all to see.
Amid a similar midseason slide last season, McNabb was under similar scrutiny. His season-ending injury ended that, but there was stark contrast between how smoothly the offense operated under Jeff Garcia and how it had previously shed an unflattering light not just on McNabb, but the coach, too. Garcia is said to have run a dummy-downed version of the offense. It was also clearly more effective.
It was only 3 years ago that this offense was being compared to some of the great ones of all time, the way the Patriots' offense is now. Then, McNabb was considered an elite player with even better play and better things in his future.
He believes that future still exists, that once his legs come back, so will he. He says he's getting better, but with each erratic week, he loses believers. The Linc was reduced to stragglers by 10:30 last night, a lost season now on the immediate horizon, perhaps even already here.
Mathematically, they are not eliminated.
Mentally, they may be.
And if that proves the case? The man once anointed to be this team's answer to Brett Favre, to Steve Young, to Tom Brady and all those other Super Bowl authenticated arms may find himself in the same place where it all started - on the bench watching, the ball out of his hands.
If you looked around at the empty building last night, that time seemed already here. *
STEVEN M. FALK/Daily News
Cowboys' Greg Ellis sacks Eagles' Donovan McNabb in third quarter.
