Cowboys, Redskins lose; McNabb benched
If you are an Eagles fan and watching the scores roll in today during the Birds' bye week, you had to be pretty happy.
Things went from bad to really bad for the Cowboys with a 35-17 loss to Jacksonville. David Garrard, whose passer rating was virtually non-existent against the Eagles, equaled a team record with four TD passes and ran for another, along with posting a nearly perfect passer rating.
Dallas is 1-5, its worst start since 1989 and is also 0-4 at home. Quarterback Tony Romo was on the sideline with a broken clavicle. Jon Kitna was 34-for-49 for 379, but threw four interceptions.
The Cowboys have now given up 41 and 35 points in their last two games.
According to the Associated Press account of the game, this is how bad it was:
The mood was summed up by two fans holding this sign, which somehow made it onto the humongous video boards: "Hurry up Cowboys, I have a Rangers game to go to." Some of the biggest cheers were for a beefy, mustachioed fan wearing a blonde wig and a skimpy Cowboys cheerleader outfit, bare midriff and all. He proved so popular that he was shown several times, including the kiss-cam segment; he got the smooch, too.
Chants of "Let's go Rangers! Let's go Rangers!" broke out in the second quarter and again in the third. By the fourth, there were hardly enough people left to even make boos echo.
In Detroit, the Redskins fell to 4-4 with a 37-25 loss to the Lions. Matthew Stafford threw four touchdown passes, including a final one on fourth down with 4 minutes left.
The big news there, though, is the benching of an apparently healthy Donovan McNabb, whose interception led to the go-ahead score.
Washington coach Mike Shanahan put Rex Grossman in for McNabb and Grossman fumbled on his first play. Ndamukong Suh returned it for a TD.
This is the second time that McNabb has been benched in his career. The other, you might recall, was in 2008 when he was benched at halftime for Kevin Kolb. Both times the backup QB led to defensive touchdowns -- Grossman's fumble and Kolb's interception that was returned 108 yards by Ed Reed.
Here is McNabb, via the Washington Post: "He makes the decisions. I just continue to go with it and just cheer for my team ... When you get benched, you get benched. Just have to learn from it and move on."
"I continue to focus as if I'm the starter," he added. "He said I'm still the starter."
Just for comparison's sake, here was McNabb on that chilly day in Baltimore in 2008: "You go along with it. You just continue to try to motivate the rest of the guys to rally around Kevin and help us win this game. Unfortunately, that didn't happen." McNabb said his first reaction was "wow."