Birds-Blogging: Sooooo close

So the Eagles come within an adrenaline-fueled bad pass/interception of either beating, or at least taking to overtime, the undefeated New England juggernaut. That's a feat that only the defending Super Bowl Champion Indianapolis Colts have even come close to managing. Arguably the Birds played the Pats better than the Colts did. With just a very few exceptions, the Birds offense could move the ball at will and scored more first-half points against the strong Pats' defense than any team this season. They held the potent Pats' offense to their lowest point-total this season (the Pats' first 7 came from the defense on an interception TD return).



So, it's now long-past time for someone with authority in the Eagles organization to ask why the team seems to: be coached smarter, plays harder, works more cohesively, and just generally plays better* when "the franchise" Donovan McNabb is not starting at QB. And it may be time for someone above Andy Reid to recognize that he's either unwilling or incapable of asking that question and/or doing what needs to be done as a result of that question.



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* My own theory for why the Birds play better without McNabb is what I'd call the "nanny syndrome". When a parent or parents don't spend any time with their kids (due to work, lifestyle, whatever) and the nanny basically raises the kids, the kids eventually will stop responding to the parents, since they figure that the parents aren't the ones calling the shots (for all practical purposes) during the majority of their daily lives anyway.



Donovan McNabb has only started in 29 of the Eagles' last 48 regular season games. Sure, like a guilty parent showing up for the kids' final school recital, No. 5 ocassionally shows up for a play-off game, but he's missed nearly half of their regular season games, and a bunch of the games that he's actually played have been under the cloud of his returning from injuries. You can't blame the offense for having difficulty dealing with McNabb as the starter.



Now, one might ask, that "nanny syndrome" may hold for children, but these are grown men, well-paid professionals we're talking about. Well, which adult doesn't prefer working with someone who makes them look good over someone who embarrasses them? Somehow, miraculously, A.J. Feeley made the receiving corp and the front line look really good last night . . . just like Jeff Garcia made them look really good last year . . . just like Koy-fucking-Detmer made them look really good before that. Yet, when Donovan's starting, his inability to get the ball off in time, to the proper receiver, with an on-target throw, is the receivers' and o-line's fault.