Irony in professional football on 9-12-2010-Eagles suicide on TV, castoff McNabb beats the Cowboys.

[old mark]

Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid was visibly excited to see his young, rebuilt team start the 2010 season against the Green Bay Packers, who had not won a game in Philadelphia since the 1960's. The Packers won last night, and Reid is no longer excited. The Eagles had over 50 yards of penalties, had trouble making points, missed tackles and dropped passes...and passeed when they shouldn't have. Their vaunted new QB, who replaced 10 year vet Donovan McNabb, was pretty worthless, and left the game with a concussion, leaving Michael Vick to run the team. He was an improvement, but not much of one. Eagles lost by 7.

McNabb, now quarterback of the Eagles division competitors, the Washington Redskins, watched from the sidelines as his Defense held the Cowboys out of the end zone-except for a last-second TD, called back because of a Dallas holding penalty.

Congratulations, Redskins - you have a very good team and a fine QB this year and the Eagles management is obviously pretty stupid to let him go...

Fuck Dallas!

mark

[liberaltrucker]

1. Vick *almost* looked like his old self

So, there's hope. Maybe someday the Eagles and
Steelers will meet in the SB. How neat would THAT
be? Oh, and FUCK DALLAS!!!

[TheMightyFavog]

18. IMHO, had Vick started, Eagles would have won.

Kolb, well I hate to say it, but getting hurt was a blessing for Philly.

[tigereye]

2. I always liked McNabb - didn't really get why he was traded...

Good for him. Good for the Redskins.


As a Steeler fan I say, aw, poor Dallas... :evilgrin:

[old mark]

3. Many Philly fans thought McNabb was a bad QB, and that HE was the one

who kept the Eagles from winning a super bowl...so eventually, management got rid of him. Reid will probably be next - I expect he will be gone within the next two or three years. He is only the best coach in team history, but some people don't like him because he is not flashy....

People will not be happy till the Eagles are back to being doormats of the NFL East.

Yeah, poor Dallas
:bounce:

[TZ]

4. People in DC always liked and respected McNabb

Even when he was beating us as an Eagle. I really think the Eagles were stupid to trade in the division. I loathe Vick but I also think he's WAAAAY overrated and Kevin Kolb was less than impressive last night.

[Chan790]

6. You know why they traded within the division?

I just posted it below...it was to dissuade Allen, Shanny and Synder from trading Orakpo, the 'skins second rd. pick and depth talent to the Rams to take Bradford while holding onto the #4 pick to take Williams.

Edit: I need to point out that there was never any indication that the Rams were inclined to consider such an offer.

[TZ]

7. No I read that. They would NOT have traded Orakpo for Bradford

Skins are wary of young highly drafted rookie QB's these days: from the just departed Jason Campbell, to Patrick Ramsey, to the disaster named Heath Shuler. And everyone knew that the only really good player the Skins had last year was Orakpo. I follow them pretty closely and I never ever heard a rumor of that. I think it was just basically based on hearing Snyder praise Bradford, like the year before when there was a lot of Snyder rumors about wanting Sanchez

[Chan790]

8. A ploy to drive down price on McNabb perhaps?

It'd make Snyder shrewder that I thought him capable of. That's Belichick-level brilliance there.

[TZ]

9. I chalk up the trade to one Bruce Allen. He's pretty canny

from what I can tell...

[old mark]

10. I never thought Vick was very good even when he was young - He can run,

but is not a very accurate passer or quick to decide, and football things happen faster these days...I didn't like Kolb, even as a backup. I am not surprised he still looks like he never played the game even after 3 years watching and supposedly learning it.

Their 3rd stringer, Mike Kafka, looks better than either one of those 2 to me, but they will never play him.

mark

[TZ]

11. The Eagles have a Quarterback named Kafka?

OMG, the potential for jokes and puns is fantastic...Do you think he can help Kolb Metamorphosize into a real QB? :rofl:

[old mark]

14. He looks very wierd with all those legs.....nt

[ElboRuum]

19. He runs the existential offense.

Where winning and losing are all a matter of perception and thus meaningless.

[CBR]

13. Vick certainly outshone Kolb last night. I think he should start. nt

[Chan790]

5. Two Reasons:

1.) Eagles management felt that the younnger, cheaper Kolb was ready to be a starting QB and would likely develop into as good or better of a QB than McNabb. These sorts of decisions are made all the time; sometimes they work (Brady over Bledsoe in New England), sometimes they don't (Browning Nagle for the Jets)

2.) Why trade McNabb to the 'skins? A division rival? That's the interesting question. Around the time of the trade, there were not only rumors going around that the Redskins might be interested in McNabb. There were also rumors going around that the 'skins might be looking to acquire the 1st overall pick (in addition to their pick at #4 which everybody knew they were going to use on OT Trent Williams if he was still on the board.) to take QB Sam Bradford who the Eagles (along with most NFL teams) had rated as the top player in the NFL draft. Further, the Eagles had Bradford rated as the most NFL-ready QB to enter the league in years. Trading for McNabb would take Bradford off the Redskins radar. So, trading McNabb to a division rival was in part a strategic effort by a team with a talented young QB who thought they were likely to be the perennial favorites to win the NFC East to keep another team from acquiring a younger, more talented QB capable of starting immediately and challenging them for the division. I think the 'skins made the wrong choice frankly. (I say that as a neutral observer who lives in DC. I'm a Pats fan.)

I think potentially in the longer term:

Bradford + Williams - Orakpo - 2nd rd. pick(the same pick traded to Philly for McNabb) - depth talent > Williams + McNabb - 2nd rd. pick.

[LynneSin]

12. McNabb was a sad trade because he was a decent person, unlike Randall Cunningham

When Cunnhingham era ended we were all relieved. But between Cunningham and McNabb was about a half dozen unremarkable QBs that left our team flat.

When McNabb was traded I was sad because McNabb was not another Cunningham. He had some of the same skills that Randall had but McNabb was much more friendly than Cunningham ever was. But these past few years getting a healthy season out of McNabb was few and far between.

The few times I watched Kolb during pre-season he reminded me of those unremarkable QBs that the Eagles had between Cunningham and McNabb. And I always suspected that it would be Vick that would finish out the season but not that quickly. I thought Vick actually looked pretty good with almost 300 total yards (100 of it running) but Vick isn't the future of the Eagles either but perhaps will make it a bit less painful as it was the time between Cunningham and McNabb.

If the Eagles break .500 this year it will be a good season.

And I wish nothing but the best for Donovan McNabb. It was good to see him play again and see the Cowboys lose. But honestly, the Skins won more on defense if anything. If you think about it, the Eagles did score more points than the Skins and Vicks numbers were much better than McNabb. What won it for the Skins was what killed it for the Eagles and that was defense.

[Swede]

15. One game does not a season make.

A quote from Yoda.

[gratuitous]

16. Yeah, but it's still fun to watch the Cowboys lose

Especially thanks to two bonehead plays just before each half ended. Ah, for the days of Leon Lett!

[Recovered Repug]

23. A true team effort on the Cowboys part.

Usually, they wait until December to implode. Living in DFW (and BTW go Pack), it's amazing how much the talk of the Super Bowl has decreased.

[Redstone]

17. "Fuck Dallas?" You don't need to be an Iggles fan to agree with that.

"America's Team" my red ass.

Redstone

[Terra Alta]

20. Fuck Dallas, indeed.

If the Cowboys are America's team, then get me on the next plane to Europe.

[ElboRuum]

21. Ah, Dallas...

The Yankees of the NFL...

...only without the record of excellence...

[MrSlayer]

22. Yeah those two field goals he led the Skins to were a thing of legend.

Man, what a juggernaut he was last night. 6 whole points, wow.

[jobycom]

25. Yeah, you mock him, but look at his stats.

They mock him, too!!! :rofl:

Seriously, though, he was in the top 24 in terms of QB rankings. So it could have been worse. A little.

[TZ]

26. And Trent Dilfer won a SB with horrible stats.

Somehow I doubt that really matters to him. Or McNabb. BTW, McNabb actually brings a lot of intangibles. I find it not a coincidence that there were much fewer offensive penalties in the past.
But good luck with Kolb who looks horrid. Or the dog killer who has no real accuracy to speak of. Atlantas playoff record kinda tells the tail here. I'll take McNabb over your crappy QBs any day.

[jobycom]

24. I like McNabb, but the Redskins could have stayed home and they'd have "beaten" the CBs last night.

Washington was horrible. God's favorite team was playing with third string rejects as half their offensive line, and the DC Racial Slurs could only get one sack and no interceptions. McNabb's offense scored no touchdowns and had two short drives for field goals--one of them made possible by a Dallas penalty that called back an interception in the end zone.

No one on the Washington team is feeling good about the game last night, although probably all of them are feeling better than America's Team.

As for Phillie, Kolb was so bad I now almost suspect that he's just a ruse to get Vick into the game. Maybe they wanted to start Vick all along, but knew the fans would hate them for it, so maybe they named Vick as a backup knowing that early in the season Kolb would get injured or just suck so bad they'd have to pull him. Maybe not, but if they really want to start Kolb, that outranks them running TO off after he lead them to a Super Bowl as the dumbest thing the dumbest team owners have done so far.

If there were any positives, they were that Vick looked pretty good, despite being amped and rusty, and the Cowboys almost beat a really, really bad team with half an offensive line and about a quarter of their playbook, despite having the wide receiver equivalent of Chuckles the Clown--after he died (Roy Williams, in case anyone is following along at home).

If there's any positive for the Racial Slurs, it's that no meteors hit their stadium during the game.

You know who loved those two games? The Giants.

[TZ]

27. BTW, Redskins D looked like Championship caliber defense

And you don't have to have a great O to win champs. Ask Baltimore.
As for THE REDSKINS, they actually moved the ball fairly well at times. And should have won that game by at least 10 points maybe 14. I think the Skins are a much better TEAM than the highly overrated collection of talent that Dallas laughingly calls a football team. They remind me of Snyders early free agent filled teams. I wouldn't be surprised to find Dallas in last place at the end.

[jobycom]

28. Ah, the deluded observations of a brainwashed fan...

The only question is, which of us is the brainwashed fan? :rofl:

No sacks, against a team with no offensive line. If they keep Houston under 40, they'll be lucky.