Posted on 02/07/2005 8:48:24 AM PST by gopwinsin04
It looked like Donovan McNabb saved his jitters for the Super Bowl. McNabb spent the week telling jokes, being loose and insisting that he felt no pressure leading the Philidelphia Eagles versus the New England Patriots.
But the five time pro bowl QB had a shaky performance in the most important game of his career Sunday, a 24-21 loss to the Patriots. McNabb turned the ball over three times, including crucial interceptions in the first and fourth quarters.
McNabb misfired on several passes early, held the ball too long in other instance and made several poor decisions. One of the best scramblers in the National Football League, McNabb had zero yards rushing on just one carry.
McNabb rebounded from his rough start with a strong second quarter, finally leading the Eagles into the end zone after sqandering several scoring opportunities. But he made a critical error midway through the 4th quarter right after the Pats took at 24-14 lead.
After he connected with Terell Owens on a 36 yard pass, McNabb badly underthrew his reciever Smith on the next play and was intercepted by linebacker Tedy Bruschi.
McNabb had the best season of his six year career, leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl for the first time in 24 years after three consecutive losses in the NFC title game. But McNabb couldn't deliver the Eagles first championship since 1960.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
I agree, they should have gone to drill or called two plays in huddle.
But is that Mcnabb's fault.
Do we have any serious former college or pro players around here?...maybe they can shed light.
He did throw the interception at the end...that he has to cop to no doubt.
But....as has been the case all season from what I read...not watched....NE's defense is sin qua non.
Anyhow....I haven't paid much attention in two decades and haven't played since 73 or 74 but it just looks like folks are picking on McNabb after Rush's opening two years ago. And I think that's tacky....and I'm sure no softy on race crap.
Glad you said it. It does look tacky. What would people have said if he won? Made more excuses? Oh well.
The Eagles have a lot of pro-bowlers. Don't feel like looking up the team vs team stats but I'd actually be surprised if the Colts had more.
Manning, btw, is a great QB (it just that he didn't have as many TDs against the Pats as Donovan.)
.....and how many interceptions did Rodney have? I recall 2 even through my Irish-flu haze....and that's good enough for ME.
Lemme know when someone can field a team that can take the Pats down.
wait till next year
our house our rules,our time
You think too much of Rush's abilities.
Not really - Dallas (lost V, won VI) and Miami (lost VI, won VII) are the only teams to ever do it.
In fact someone posted a stat last night that superbowl losers have an aggregate record of barely over .500 the next year.
Only three teams have even made the superbowl the next year after losing it. Buffalo did it 91-94, Denver 87-88 and Minnesota in 74-75.
History is not on the Eagles side. Something about having to think about losing the big game for eight months.
"McNabb was even having trouble with the shorter balls."
They commented once that in the Super Bowl, they use a new ball on every play and that they were likely slick, on top of the big game sweaty palms and you get some wounded ducks floating out there.
McNabb is not a failure. Is he a great QB. Not yet. Yesterday proved that.
Is he a good QB. Sure, most teams would give their right arm for him.
The piling on, at least for me is personal, it's really not so much the team (they are loudmouths), but the fans
Before the Bucs 2003 Super bowl victory, the Bucs were playing the Eagles for the NFC championship.
Joe Jurevicius newborn son had just died and the Eagle fans were tauting him about it. That is about as low rent you can get.
The Eagles were SO FREAKING CONFIDENT that the Bucs were patsies, there drove several trailers out the the Super Bowl city before the NFC championship game.
May the Eagle fans be forever losing the NFC Championship and go burn their city down.
I lay that decision totally at the feet of the coaching staff. I wonder though, if the coaching staff was concerned about rushing things against the Patriots defense and making a crucial mistake. Maybe they figured that the odds were better to just relax and drive down the field and hope for a successful onsides kick rather than rushing things and getting a game ending interception.
Say what you will about the Bills, that still was a remarkable accomplishment making it to four straight Super Bowls.
I'd actually tend to agree. After all of the flak about poor clock management, they still had the ball down by one score at the end of the game, but failed to execute.
Only team to ever go to 4 in a row. If they had managed to win just one of them, we'd probably talk about them as one of the great runs of all time.
Brady had the flu when they pasted the Steelers.
Even more amazing is the Braves 13 Straight division titles. But only one World Series championship to show for it. But I maintain that streak is still the most amazing streak ever in sports.
Put Gino in The Hall!
I give the Bills credit - they just ran into the NFC buzzsaw four straight years. To be fair, the Bills didn't choke or lose any of those games - they were playing superior teams each time. In fact, the played over their heads against the Giants and almost won that game.
I do think that its unfair to label teams that lose superbowls as "losers". Most of the time, one team is simply superior to the other. During the NFC's dominance from 85 to 97, the AFC representative just wasn't as good. No amount of game planning, preparation or "stepping it up" was going to change that.
nice...this was the news story that needed that comment.
No McNabb showed last night that when you take away QBs options you can force him into mistakes.
McNabb is not as accurate a passer as Brady and/or Manning. He is more in the vain of Bradshaw. He can throw hard and far and can scramble out of the pocket and with the power of his upper body he can still get the ball to his receivers.
However, last night the Pats took the Eagles receivers out of their patterns and then applied pressure on McNabb, many times he scrambled out of the picket only to find his receivers were not where they were supposed to be.
When the Pats did this consistently McNabb broke down and made mistakes. The Pats did the same thing to Peyton Manning. It is how you win football games. You take away the other guy's game and force him into situations he is not familiar with and try for the turnover.
McNabb is a decent QB but he is like most in the NFL. Take his game plan away and he is in serious trouble fast.
Brady can be beat but he is hard to break down. One of the reasons is rumored to be that he has exceptional peripheral vision. It is said he can track two receivers at the same time because he can see to his sides real well.
I know from studying games that he seems to look totally in the other direction of his receiver until the last second when he finally lets it loose.
True, but problem is you have to keep trying to run (or make McNABB run) to keep the defense honest.
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