Mr. McGag Please step forward

Yup!! McNabb Blew It Again

Okay Eagles fans, I have given us a week to mull over our early playoff exit. We’ve cursed at the TV every time we see highlights of the game and have refrained from speaking to our friends who are Cowboys fans. I don’t know about you, but I’m running out of Facebook statuses to express my pain. It’s now time to address the real issue…Donovan McNabb, or should I say McGag.

Don’t get me wrong, Donovan has been one of the top NFL quarterbacks over the past decade. Sure being the top passer in Philadelphia Eagles history is a great accomplishment. Yes being one of only six quarterbacks to amass 25,000 yards passing and 3,000 yards rushing is amazing to watch. McNabb, however, lacks the one statistical category that matters at the end of the day: A Super Bowl ring. It’s not due to a lack of talent around him. The Eagles have had one of the most feared defenses in the NFL during McNabb’s tenure with the team, anchored by the likes of Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, and Hugh Douglas. The offensive side of the ball wasn’t shabby either with Brian Westbrook, a short stint with Terrell Owens, and the recent emergence of DeSean Jackson. A trip to five NFC Conference Championship games proves that the front office has done its job. When a team as talented as the Birds fails repeatedly in the big game, you have to look at the quarterback.

The biggest issue I have with McNabb is that he plays big in small games. When the Eagles take the field against teams that they should beat with Koy Detmer types at QB, McNabb plays like a champ. When the must win games come up that same player is nowhere to be found. Don’t believe me? Just look at what McNabb did in Super Bowl XXXIX, the biggest game of his career. Sure he threw for three touchdowns and had 357yards passing (keep in mind that most of that were simple screen passes toWestbrook), but three interceptions in the biggest game of your life sounds like a choke artist to me.

Many people argue that we Eagles fans are just too demanding. At least we got to the big game. He’s better than most QBs. That type of rational simply does not cut it for me. McNabb’s stats prove that he is one of the best to ever play the game, which means that I can only compare him to the other top quarterbacks. You don’t compare the mechanic that works on your car to the bum that washes it for two bucks do you? Newsflash, those other top quarterbacks… Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Brett Favre, have all won Super Bowls.

Perhaps at one point there was a small part of Eagles fans that wanted to give McNabb the “we’ll get them next year” speech. Hell if Bills fans could do it for Jim Kelly year after year then why can’t we? It’s simple. You could see that Jim Kelly wanted nothing more than to win the big one. If he made a mistake on the field, his demeanor showed his disgust with himself, and fans could respect that. McGag on the other hand simply smiles and pats on his chest as though he just misread a route in practice. Before a big playoff game, there was no doubt that Jim Kelley was focused on winning in order to get to the big game. What’s McNabb doing right before a huge playoff game against the NFC East rival Cowboys?



EXACTLY

What SHOULD happen during the offseason is that Jeffrey Lurie and Coach Reid give Donovan McNabb the ax and let Mike Vick and Kevin Kolb battle it out for the starting job. But as Eagles fans, we all know the reality is that McNabb will be back for another year, and we will be forced to think of some more creative ways to articulate our despise for him on Facebook.