Blasphemy

A friend writes:

 

Are the Eagles a better team without McNabb?

 

Obviously the answer is no.

 

Playing the way he played the first 8 games of the year, he was one of the 3 best players in the league, meaning he was good enough that with him you had a puncher's chance of beating any team in the league.

 

So clearly, there are outer limits to where this team can go. They simply aren't talented enough with Garcia at QB to go into Chicago or go into the Superdome, or, for that matter, an inhospitable place like Seattle in the playoffs and win.

 

But let me posit this question: has the absence of McNabb forced Reid to become a better coach? And if so, has that essentially made us a better team, at least when playing the average teams of the league?

 

Yesterday's game may well have been our single best game of the season. Yes, defensively we were still a sieve against the run in the 1st half. And dear god we had an insane amount of penalties, and we're talking BIG penalties that cost us 1st downs on offense or gave the Giants 1st downs when it would

have been 4th and long.

 

But, and this is a big but, we played our most effective, most balanced game of the year on offense. We even won the time-of-possession battle!

 

And that, I think, was critical to the game yesterday, and essentially showed that Andy is willing to do things differently. Hopefully he's seen the light. The fact that the Eags controlled the ball so much in the 1^st half really helped the defense in the 2nd half.

 

Our defense was tougher and stronger than I've seen them all season in that 2nd half. Holding the Giants to those field goals in the 3rd quarter kept us in the game. And that, I think, is the credit to our commitment to the run early, and our success at doing it.

 

I just hope that this little run we're on -- in which Westbrook has been amazing -- is enough to convince Andy of what he needs to do next season.