McNabb Sounds Off On HBO

During an interview on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Donovan McNabb told James Brown that African-American quarterbacks face much more scrutiny than their white counterparts.

"There's not that many African-American quarterbacks, so we have to do a little bit extra. Because the percentage of us playing this position, which people didn't want us to play ... is low, so we do a little extra."

When James Brown brought up white quarterbacks such as Carson Palmer and Peyton Manning, McNabb tells Brown that they aren't scrutinized like he is. While I do agree that Palmer doesn't get enough flak I can't say I agree that Manning was never scrutinized. Manning had people yelling into his ear ever since he got out of Tennessee that he couldn't win the big game. And then he did last year.

Personally I think McNabb is shooting himself in the foot. While I don't necessarily disagree with him about the treatment of black QB's, his decision to voice his opinion on national television wasn't a great idea. Especially considering that the Eagles are now 0-2 entering the third week of the season. It'd be different if McNabb had played well in those 2 games but he played poorly.

McNabb, my advice to you is to keep your mouth shut, start believing in your arm, and once again start playing like the quarterback that led us to a Super Bowl and 4 straight NFC championship games. Hell, we wanted the Eagles to draft Ricky Williams instead of you, and he was black! We don't care whether you're black, white, purple, or orange. Just lead us to the promised land.

The Eagles Fall To 0-2

After a lackluster performance on opening day against the Green Bay Packers, the Philadelphia Eagles lost to their home opener to division rival Washington Redskins 20-12 last night on Monday Night Football.

Donovan McNabb once again looked rusty in the first half while completing on half of his passes. Entering the second half McNabb looked much better but still overthrew receivers and beyond his receivers. For the second straight game he averaged less than 6 yard per attempt.

What was probably the most obvious display of McNabb's inaccuracy came on 3rd down when the Eagles were driving to tie the game in the 4th quarter. Kevin Curtis lined up right of McNabb and was in single coverage. Curtis ran a flag pattern and broke for the right sideline and was wide open but McNabb threw at least 2 yards ahead of him.

Not all the blame can be put on McNabb though as Ron Jaworski pointed out during last night's game. The Eagles receivers are not getting separation from DB's. They are getting held up at the line of scrimmage and by the time Donovan makes his 3 step drop the receivers are only 5 yards down field.

Once again the defense played well but didn't seem to get that much pressure on 2nd year starter Jason Campbell. The Eagles defense finished with only once sack against a team in which had 2 reserves on the offensive line.

Third down conversions were hard to come by as well. The Eagles finished the game converting only 4 of 16 3rd down conversions while the Redskins converted 8 of 15.

These were 2 games in which I thought the Eagles were going to sleepwalk through and maybe the team had the same attitude. The last time the Eagles were 0-2 was in 2003 when they went to the NFC championship game. For some reason though I don't think that the Eagles will be so lucky to make it in 2007. The season is young but the future looks bleak.

Eagles Won Super Bowl XXXIX?

Eagles corner back Sheldon Brown was a huge part of the Eagles success in 2005 when they went to the Super Bowl to play the AFC champion New England Patriots. After losing the Lombardi trophy to the Pats Brown was convinced that they just had a better game plan and executed better than the Eagles defense.

After "Tape Gate", Brown isn't so sure anymore. "Do I think about it? Mmm hmmm," said Brown. "It's crazy. I just don't know how far back it goes. Something's not right about that." Eagles defensive leader Brian Dawkins isn't even sure what to believe anymore, "Now there's always going to be questions about the situation," Dawkins said in an interview on Thursday. "Was it great adjustments at halftime or what?"

Even Pittsburgh receiver Hines Ward threw in his two cents and stated that he had suspected the Patriots in 2001 during the AFC Championship game. But, much like any other case tried in court, no one has any hard evidence to back up these allegations. Eagles running back Brian Westbrook said it's all water under the bridge, " For me to think back two years ago about something they may or may not have done, it's not worth my time."

After only gaining 45 yards in the first quarter of Super Bowl 39 Brown said that he noticed a difference in the Patriots play calling. Almost every time the Eagles blitzed the Patriots would follow suit and throw a screen. Over the next 3 quarters the Patriots gained 286 yards and a 24-21 victory. "I was like, 'Man, I never saw that many screens,' " Brown said.

Leave it to the Daily News in Philadelphia to really blow thing out of porportion though, "Counterfeit RING: Spy Scandal Helps Explain Birds' Super Bowl Loss." Donovan McNabb said that the suspicions were overblown. "One thing people are forgetting is that even if you have the answers to the test, you still have to take the test," he said. "If they have an idea of what's coming, those guys still have to be able to execute the play."

For a city who hasn't won a major championship in 25 years we've become fantastic conspiracy theorists. Maybe Roger Goodell will make the Patriots forfeit their rings......? Maybe when pigs fly.