Posted on 02/08/2005 11:49:37 AM PST by West Coast Conservative
PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb was so ill in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl that a teammate had to call a play in the huddle, center Hank Fraley said.
"He fought to the end," Fraley told Comcast SportsNet on Monday. "He gave it his all. He was almost puking in the huddle. One play had to be called by (wideout) Freddie Mitchell because Donovan was mumbling because he was almost puking."
Offensive lineman Jon Runyan also echoed Fraley's comments in the same interview aired on two local radio stations on Tuesday after the Comcast report.
McNabb was shaky in Philadelphia's 24-21 loss to the England Patriots on Sunday, throwing for 357 yards and three touchdowns, was also getting picked off three times.
McNabb misfired on several passes early, held the ball too long in other instances and made several poor decisions. One of the best scramblers in the NFL, McNabb had zero yards rushing on just one carry and was sacked four times.
An Eagles spokesman did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday.
Maybe that was the "something" he had for Rodney Harrison.
I'm on your side in this debate but your comment regarding converted quarterbacks intrigues me. Here what I can come up with so far:
Antwaan Randal El
Steve Foley (QB with Tulane, Safety and CB with Denver)
Kordell Stewart (back when he was "Slash" he was very effective)
Tony Dungy I believe falls in the 30-year window
I'll have to think about this some more.
No the reason Philly had no running game is Reid is a pass-whacky coach who calls 60% passes a game and has throughout his time in Philly. The Pats came out in a short pass coverage defense, 5 linebackers, 2 downlinemen, that's a setup that will only stop the run with excellent play and is fully intended to stop the short pass. And Reid kept to the short pass and fully abandoned the run in the second half (6 runs, 1 of which was a McNabb scramble so it's only 5 runs called). When Belichick sent out that wierd 2-5 lineup on the first play of the game he sent a message to Reid, he told Reid he knew Philly wouldn't seriously attempt to run; then Reid called 6 passing plays in a row, which basically sent the message to Belichick: you're right.
And that's why Philly lost. No QB can win passing 60% of the time when the other team KNOWS that's what they're going to do. Philly called more play action passes (faking the run) than actual runs, how stupid is that, everybody on the other team knew they weren't going to run and they expected the Pats to bite on the FAKE (note, 8 play action passes in the second half resulted in 6 incompletions and a net gain of 8 yards)! Just plain a bad game plan by Reid, no variations from what they'd done before, completely predictable offense against a team that has a great gameplanner and two weeks to watch tape, no QB can succeed in that situation.
I'm sure Rush was on his mind throughout the game....hee hee hee
<< [McNab] wasn't sick. He became ill because he had a continual thought running through his head ....
Limbaugh was Right
Limbaugh was Right
Limbaugh was Right
Limbaugh was Right
Limbaugh was Right >>
Limbaugh was Right?
Give me a break.
Mr Limbaugh still IS Right.
About McNab.
Are you sure of this? I thought there was another, Williams?
He beat my Hokies on a final play of the game after throwing up on the field. He threw a pass across the field to the end zone. Yuck. He was fun to watch in college when you weren't playing him.
He's a talented athlete and had great games but Rush was right when he said he media was crazy about black QB's even when they were playing mediocre. No reflection on McNabb who will go on to be a great QB. (Just at the time, he wasn't.)
Safeties have to be quick like cornerbacks but hit like linebackers. A lot of times they'e hitting guys straight that outweigh them by a lot.
That's exactly how Wilson got hurt. Trying to arm tackle a guy he probably shouldn't have.
Have I missed something?
Doug Williams is the Personnel Executive at Tampa Bay. He is also active in Pop Warner football at the management (not coaching) level.
That is an unfair comment. He never had anything bad to say about McNair. The sad thing is the media chose to gush over McNabb and not McNair, who was a far better QB than McNabb will ever be. But to the media, nobody exists outside the major coastal cities so it was Steve McWho? Until he got all banged up, McNair was the new John Elway. The media just over-rated McNabb, and though he has improved a great deal since (and Rush said so on the air recently), at the time, Rush was right.
Exactly. But he's not white so your point is completely lost on the MSM and guys like this troll.
I agree with most of your take...it is RARE that an NFL, or college team, can win the BIG ONE, with only passing....once you get to the championship game, the defenses are capable of adjusting...HOWEVER, you must of heard the commentary during the game commenting on how the running backs for Philly rarely could get past the line of scrimmage...YET, even with passing 60% of the time, and no ground game success, Philly STILL could have won...BUT, McNabb made three REALLY bad decisions, and gave up interceptions...AND, as you must have also heard the commentators say, Philly REALLY screwed up with clock managment in the last 1.5 minutes...really dumb stuff.
I believe it is FAIR to say (although I was pulling for NE), that Philly would have won if McNabb had NOT thrown THREE unwise (should have held on to the ball) passes, and if they hadn't wasted so much valuable time on their last possession.
It wouldn't have even been an issue if the Rush didn't have to step down for just stating an opinion. Now everything McNabb does gets related to Rush. The media created the monster.
You're full of it. The guy points out the obvious and everybody gets their panties in a bunch because such things have to be (gasp)...controversial! Face it -- the media was gushing over him when at the time of Rush's comments, Brad Johnson had better career numbers AND a Superbowl ring. (Anybody think Brad Johnson is among the NFL immortals?) McNabb has improved a great deal since then, AND -- PLEASE NOTE THIS VERY CAREFULLY ALL YOU RUSH-HATERS OUT THERE -- RUSH HAS SAID SO ON THE AIR. SAY AGAIN, RUSH HAS SAID SO ON THE AIR.
McNabb is not a bad QB by any means. He's far better than average and I think he has loads of potential. But he is still inconsistent and had a great deal of trouble throwing the ball accurately Sunday. I don't know what the reason for it was but I'm sure he'll fix it in the off-season.
He doesn't suck but he isn't up there with the greats...YET.
You're full of crap and I'm calling you on it. Do you have to think EVERY black athlete is automatically great to not be a racist? Of course, when people like you hear white people talking as if that were true, you STILL label them racists.
In my experience, the more often you use the word "racist", the more likely it is that you ARE one. If the shoe fits...
Quarterbacks don't win superbowls, they play on teams that do. Put Brady on a terrible team and he would never win the superbowl - put McNabb on the 90s Cowboys and he'd have a few rings by now.
QBs, like all players can only do his job - he can't play defense and he is just a cog in the offense. QBs, like starting pitchers, get too much of the credit when their team wins and too much of the blame when their team loses.
This is similar to Elway getting all the credit when he would manufacture a come back win in the last minutes of a game. If he had scored more points earlier in the game, he wouldn't have had to make those miracle drives.
I'm not a McNabb fan, but the Eagles offense did put up 21 points which is not bad considering how good the Patriot defense is. I agree with the poster that said that many seem to be emotional about this. McNabb is overrated but its not like he stunk it up or anything during the superbowl.
Williams was the starting QB when they beat Denver in the superbowl. It was the one where the Broncos stormed out to a 10-0 lead but Washington scored 28 points in the 2nd quarter.
Which superbowl did he lose?
When McNabb was playing for Syracuse, there was a big home game towards the end of the season... I think against Virginia Tech. Anyway, the team was driving late in the game and McNabb had to waste a timeout in the red zone because he was puking on the Dome carpet. He came back into the game and threw a touchdown pass on the last play to win the game.
The refs held the game close. I'm not saying McNabb doesn't have a lot of talent, he does, he chokes in the big games. Right now he is not even in the top 20 of great quaterbacks. If he stays healthy he still has time to prove himself. The media has put undue pressure on him to win now, I feel sorry him in that respect.
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