I hope you're all happy. It only took two weeks to drive me back into my thinly veiled coping mechanism, a.k.a. blogging about a stupid football team. I actually started writing one last week, but I scrapped it upon realizing that I was not quite ready to expose everyone to a an obscenity laden tirade, especially after such a long absence. Better to come to a slow boil after a few weeks, so that when I start throwing out f-words in earnest, it won't be too shocking.
The beginning of this football season has a ring of familiarity to it. In 2003, Donovan McNabb, having come off a serious injury the season before, led the Eagles to two straight losses. Then, with the team in already in a tailspin, McNabb became embroiled in controversy, courtesy of Rush Limbaugh, who stated that McNabb's apparent success as an NFL quarterback was an illusion generated by the media because the NFL was desirous of a black quarterback to do well.
While the media, the fans, and the public at large dismissed Limbaugh's comments for the ignorance that it was, it did not erase the reality that the team was in a dire situation.
Four years later, the cycle is repeating. Donovan McNabb, coming off of a serious injury suffered the year before, has lead the team to two straight losses. Now, with the team reeling, he is dealing with another racially tinged controversy.
Consistency is such a wonderful thing.
The breakdown of the first 2 weeks:
The good:
Brian Westbrook - Brian Westbrook has been the Eagles offense, generating all of the team's positive momentum. However, he is suffering from a sprained knee; he just does not have the durability to carry this team to the playoffs by himself, especially when he's the only player that opposing defenses have to worry about.
The defense - as a whole, the defense has been effective, generating decent pass rush, and stopping the run consistently. If the offense could actually hold on to the ball, giving them rest, and scoring some points, allowing them to play from ahead, this perennial weakness could jell into a real strength.
The bad:
The coaching staff - Andy Reid has forgotten all of the coaching lessons that he finally seemed to learn in 2006. Last year, after McNabb's injury, he ran a balanced offense, balancing runs with passes, and mixing Westbrook with Buckhalter liberally to avoid either of the injury prone backs to be overused. Now, with an obviously injured McNabb back at the helm, and Westbrook running up and down the f-ing field when actually he gets the ball, Reid is resorting to his usual unsound offense, passing 70% of the time and ignoring the running game again. Andy, you and I have watched the same number of Eagles games over the last few years. Why is it that I am capable of learning from your mistakes, while you, clearly, are not? Here's some free advice. McNabb is still hurt. Making McNabb pass 70% of the time is playing against the strengths of the team, it is making him look bad when he's clearly not all the way back from his injury, and it isn't winning games! McNabb is the reason your fat ass wasn't on the unemployment line years
ago - try to remember that.
Kevin Curtis and Reggie Brown - The Eagles starting wide receivers have been horrible. Reggie Brown, instead of becoming the receiving threat that everyone except for me predicted, has disappeared. Kevin Curtis has gotten open and caught the ball, but has shown none of the explosiveness that was advertised - when he does actually catch the ball, he either gets caught from behind by a 340 pound lineman, or thrown around like a rag doll by any other defender or child that happens to run into him.
Special Teams - They might have won the Packers game but for the two fumbled punts. There were probably 3 or 4 people on my high school team who would have done a better job catching punts than Greg Lewis did. To replace him, the team was forced to bring back Reno Mahe, one of my least favorite Eagles ever, to waste a roster spot and bring his own special brand of incompetence to the punt return team. It is a sorry state of affairs when Reno Mahe represents an improvement over anything.
The commentators - Tony Kornheiser, Ron Jaworski, and Charles Barkley, who were allegedly the TV commentators on Monday Night Football spent about an hour ignoring the game that was occurring on the field to rip into Eagles fans, blaming them for everything bad that has happened since 9/11. Barkley and Jaworski also used it to settle some personal grudges, recalling when the Philadelphia fans "surprisingly" and unjustly turned on them. It's funny, I was probably in middle school at the time, so my memory isn't so great, but I remember the fans turning on Barkley because his skill steadily declined, and because he spent his off the court time either spitting at fans or throwing them through plate glass windows. As for Ron Jaworski, he seems to have forgotten that he was ridden out of town on a rail because Randall Cunningham so thoroughly outplayed him. The little matter of never winning any championships probably didn't help matters either. So sorry we booed you - having all of your athletes continually choke for the 24th straight year has made us a bit testy.
And finally…
Donovan McNabb - McNabb is still hurt. He's limping around the field. He's breathing heavily after the second quarter. He's missing open receivers. He's embroiled in off the field controversy. The fans have turned on him. He has a losing record in games that he's started since the Super Bowl loss.
And yet…
I am not ready to give up on the greatest quarterback in Eagles history. He is a notoriously bad warm weather quarterback. When he's hurt, he's terrible. But the weather will get cooler, and his knee will heal, and one of his receivers is bound to get open sometime. A terrible September will turn into a mediocre October, which will become a hopeful November, which will become a seismic December. And just maybe this year we'll finally get that January miracle.
And that Eagles team from 2003? They won 13 of their next 15 games, and made it all the way to the NFC Championship game…
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