Don't Play the Kid

Ashley Fox turns in a bravura performance today in the Inquirer defending McNabb and imploring the Eagles to "not play the kid."

"The Eagles are 3-5. The natural tendency is to blame the quarterback or blame the coach.For the record, I'd do the latter. But that's another conversation for another day," she writes, though i don't know why we have to wait to start blaming Andy Reid for this mess.

But she hits all the lowlights of the coaching and personnel deficiencies, including "But it's just wrong to think that the 23-year-old Kolb will make this offense and this team better. He won't. He can't. He doesn't yet know how. Maybe one day, but not now.

What would help are a few players not named Westbrook who can actually catch a pass and make a play. It would help to have a true No. 1 receiver, not someone you think can emerge as a No. 1. It would help to have a healthy, proven tight end. It would help to have a legitimate second running back...That the Eagles lack all of the above is not McNabb's fault. Yes, he takes sacks when he should throw the ball away. Yes, his passes aren't always on the mark. Yes, his record of late isn't the greatest.

But have people forgotten how he started the year off last year? How he was lethal with the long ball? How he still could move? How he thrived when he had a good wide receiver?

All of that is not gone. McNabb's not done. He doesn't have the weapons, and he's not 100 percent McNabb. That isn't an excuse; it's a reality. So is this: A quarterback is always better his second year after a major knee surgery than his first.

So don't accept the knee-jerk premise that benching McNabb for Kolb is the right thing to do. It's not.

For one thing, as dead as the Eagles looked against Dallas - and they did look dead as early as the second quarter - the season isn't over. Get a win in Washington and another against the Dolphins, and the Eagles would be .500 with six games to go.

It's a long shot, to be sure, but the Eagles aren't out of it. Not yet. The Giants were 6-2 and looking strong a year ago and look what happened. They crumbled, losing six of their last eight to sneak into the playoffs a dead dog."