Super Bowl: McNabb Must Run

donovan mcnabb Congratulations to the New England Patriots football team on winning their 3rd Lombardi trophy in 4 seasons. I'm not going to say too much on the details of the game itself because truthfully, neither team played their best game. But it was McNabb's lame game that was the real story behind the Eagles unsuccessful title shot. It's ironic in a way, but it is conceivable that Owens' presence in that game and perhaps on that team overall may have hindered McNabb's big-game development. Notice I'm saying 'big-game development', I'm certainly not suggesting McNabb isn't a winner, he is. But McNabb's rushing totals this season were the worst of his career and his Super Bowl performance just extended this bad trend even further.

Don't get me wrong, I'm with all of you who think Owens deserves his due credit for gutting out a 9-catch game six weeks after surgery. But can Owens be a difference-maker in a Super Bowl game without a sidekick like an Isaac Bruce, John Taylor or Ed McCaffrey to keep safeties from rolling coverage his way and taking away the deep ball? Owens performance while admirable, played out exactly as the Patriots had hoped. All of his catches were short-intermediate routes and even at 100% health, I have serious doubts that a guy like Owens can dent a Super Bowl defense deep without someone taking some heat off his back. The Eagles do not currently have a wide receiver on their roster who has the talent and pedigree to do this job. This should be their biggest off-season priority.

Did I mention McNabb was a big disppointment? He sure was and here's why; where were his feet? He rushed the ball 1 time for 0 yards. I think it's funny how guys like Michael Vick and Donovan McNabb are consistently being coached-up to be West Coast pocket-passers, when they should be running their asses off whenever they see daylight in front of them, and you can multiply the importance of that point the bigger the game is. These guys got to where they are in their careers by being dual-threat quarterbacks. Yet, Vick ran the ball only 4 times for 26 yards in his losing playoff effort against the Eagles, while McNabb ran the ball 10 times to help attain that victory. If Peyton Manning, Marvin Harrison & Co. couldn't beat the Patriots through the air, how did Andy Reid figure McNabb throwing to a damaged Owens would be able to fare better? I understand the dangers of running your stud quarterback in the regular season. Run him too much and sooner or later he's going to get dinged. But when you're in the Super Bowl, the kid-gloves should come off.

The bottom line is this, if guys like McNabb or Vick are ever going to win a Super Bowl title, they're going to have to run for it. It's the best club in their bag of talents, and both of them are guilty of leaving that club in the bag for their biggest games of the year. Sure Andy Reid deserves to shoulder some blame for producing a losing gameplan, but ultimately the buck stops with McNabb. Great players save their best games, and their best plays for the biggest moments. McNabb failed to deliver and there is no getting around that reality if you're an Eagles supporter.

Eagles fans will find some solace in progressing past the NFC Championship barrier that had stymied them in three previous seasons, but the inescapable truth of a wasted and fleeting opportunity to win a world title is the prevailing fly in their ointment as it should be. Are the Patriots a dynasty? By every definition I'm aware of, they certainly should qualify. But they are beatable. And I wholeheartedly believe that had McNabb played the game of his life, the Eagles could've walked away champions on February 6th. Of course all of these post-game 'what-ifs' amount to nothing more than a useless 'after the fact' diatribe. But it was McNabb who was quoted after the game saying;

I want what Tom Brady has." - Donovan McNabb

Yes he was referring to the 3 Super Bowl rings he possesses, but I would suggest it is Tom Brady's ability to play within himself, to instinctively play to his strengths when the stakes are highest that puts Brady in a class of his own right now. I'm not attempting to devalue McNabb or begrudge him should he never get there. Brady's run of excellence is rarified air reserved for the best of the best. But if McNabb is ever going to fulfill his promise and bring a world championship to the city of Philadelphia, he's going to have to use his feet just as much if not more than his head or his arm to get him there. He's a running quarterback. That's who he is. The sooner he gets comfortable with that, the closer he'll get to tasting some of Brady's success.

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Super Bowl: McNabb Must Run

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