About five weeks ago, I gave up on the Eagles. When I saw Donovan at church on Sunday morning, I knew it was a wrap. I even said to myself as I saw him crutching in, ‘when your starting quarterback is at church on Sunday morning in November, that’s a wrap.’ Only it wasn’t.
Last June May, I called the NFC East as follows:
Cowboys 11-5
R*s - 11-5
Eagles 10-6
Giants 9-7
The only team I was WAY off on was the R*s. They were hot garbage. Naw, not even that. They were lukewarm garbage. Horrible. (But I will wreck shop using them on Madden. That’s another story, though.) I didn’t figure on the Giants having all the trouble they’ve been having, although I didn’t think they would be anywhere close to repeating. The team that let me down most in the NFC East has to be the Cowboys, though. I swore they would win the division, and I swore they would make some noise in the playoffs. Going 1-4 in the last 5 weeks of the season, including Wild Card round is not the way to get it done.
On the other side of the spectrum is the Eagles. Like I said before, around Thanksgiving, I swore the Eagles were so much roadkill. Not so. From 5-6 to 10-6 and a division title. I can’t be mad at that by any stretch of the imagination. I’m especially thrilled with the play of Jeff Garcia so far. As long as the Eagles beat the Giants today and advance to the next round, I will be pleased as punch with this season.
Speaking of Garcia, I’ve heard some people questioning whether he’s doing a better job of running the offense than Donovan. I say ‘no’ with a qualifier. For one thing, this is the type of balance I’ve been wishing that Andy Reid would’ve used when Donovan was in there. You don’t see some 60-40 passing ratio when Garcia is in there, and you see the results. For a long time, I couldn’t figure out why. I still can’t, but one plausible theory is that Donovan is such an incredible athlete that his powers are intoxicating. Because he’s talented enough to be a threat anywhere on the field, and has at times made plays from everywhere on the field, Andy Reid gives him the opportunity to do that. That’s all well and good, but football teams nead balance. Now that they have balanced play calling, the results are indeed impressive. Now, the question is, are they gonna keep calling plays like this next year. If they do, I can easily see the Eagles being a 24-30 point team every week. So if the Eagles run the offense like they are now, I think Donovan will prove himself yet again.
However. In that Eagles-Cowboys game a couple weeks ago, I saw Garcia make a play that even at that moment, I thought ‘Donovan wouldn’t have made that play.’ Just before halftime, when the Eagles were slightly out of field goal range and only had 8 seconds, Garcia hit one of the receivers with a crisp pass. The receiver got out of bounds with 1 second left, setting up David Akers for a field goal. As many times as I’ve watched the Eagles play, and as much as Donovan is my man 50 grand and all that, I just can’t see him making that throw. I’ve seen too much clock mangling at the end of halves to think otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still the man, but I don’t think he would’ve made that play.
Having said all that, this game against the Giants worries me. But then what kind of Eagles fan would I be if I walked around confident all the time?
UPDATE: 23-30, Birds. Works for me. On to Orleans for the rematch. At this point, who knows? I’m just happy to be along for the ride.
Entries (RSS)