The other night the NFL Network
showed the Eagles vs. Patriots Super Bowl game and I tuned in the last part of it to watch again how the McNabb-led Eagles threw away any chance to win due to their atrocious clock management. Philadelphia either never practiced the hurry-up offense, or McNabb was incapable ofrunning it on the sport's biggest stage,due to. . . what? -- stress, being exhausted (McNabb was allegedly hurling on the sideline), lack of the mental wherewithal to do so. . . what?
The Eagles were down by 10 points and had the ball with about 6 minutes left in the game, but wasted most of that time by huddling for each play and then slowly walking to the line and having a long snap count. They had one short gain after another before McNabb hit Greg Lewis on a bomb for a TD, but by that time there was less than 2 minutes left. The Philly defense held, but the resulting New England punt pinned them back around their own 5 with less than a minute to go. McNabb threw a 1 yard pass to Brian Westbrook, which ate up most of the time left, then threw an interception (his third of the game and second of the 4th quarter).
The telecast featured frequent shots of Fat Bastard and McNabb as the Eagles threw away any legitimate chance they had to make a comeback. The announcers -- Joe Buck, Troy Aikman and Cris Collinsworth
-- all were clearly stunned by what was taking place.
The Eagles gave the game away thanks to the worst clock management imaginable. When I was 10 years old and playing football we knew when and how to implement the hurry-up offense in our playground games. If this Super Bowlwasn't scripted then the only plausible explanation is that McNabb lacked what Al Campanis called the "necessities"to do what the situation demanded. Given the occasional moronic quotesMcNabb has made, such as not knowing that NFL games can end in ties, and his self-pitying whines about how tough black QBs have it, I can understand why many ofthe Philly DWFshad beenready for a new QB for a number of years. McNabb has had a very good career but lacks consistency and mental toughness, andapparently even basic comprehension skills at critical times.
Edited by: Don Wassall