Donovan McNabb made sure you kept to the shadow like some
sewer-dwelling street rat because of his usual frustrating, late performance
Sept. 15 against the Cowboys.
Upon playing extremely well for the entirety of the opener against
the pathetic St. Louis Rams and stupendously for three quarters facing
the hated Dallas Cowboys, when the game is on the line for number
5, he seems to cough it up like a victim of the bubonic plague.
Time and time again, the Eagles’ quarterback comes up short.
He looks good. Same old Donovan, they said. Running, skillfully
eluding, planting the back foot and airing it out. Yup, this is the guy
we knew before he destroyed his ligaments and thought he had
recovered but never really did last year. Similar to the same guy who
all-too often under throws his receivers, doesn’t run when he has 15
yards of open real estate, and makes the easiest of plays seem like a
complex physics equation unsolvable by Stephen Hawking.
Look, this loss isn’t entirely McNabb’s fault. Yes, the defense got
burnt by Terrell Owens and Jason Witten; Witten with seven receptions
and 110 yards, while Owens caught three, had 89 yards, and
scored two TDs and rubbed it in the face of Eagles fans everywhere.
Yes, the special teams let up an easy score. But the team had the ball
at the end of the game with a chance to win it, didn’t they? And the
squad had the ball at around the 50-yard line with more than a
minute left. For a guy who wants to be recognized as one of the
league’s premier QBs, and the best in Eagles history, his performance
against Philadelphia’s most hated rivals surely didn’t make a case for
the Hall of Fame