Rich Hofmann | McNabb’s injuries piling on
The knee is better, thanks. But the ankle is sprained. And the thumb is jammed. And the water is deeper and darker.
The knee is better, thanks.
But the ankle is sprained.
And the thumb is jammed.
And the water is deeper and darker.
Things have not been neat or clean, not for McNabb, not for a while, and now this. Last week against the Redskins, he threw for four touchdowns and had a quarterback rating of 138.5. This week against the Miami Dolphins, he was 3-for-11 for 34 yards with two interceptions and had a quarterback rating of 0.4; that is, zero point four. There is no explaining it and there is no explaining it away. It is not the knee.
And just when you say that, now he has a couple of more injuries: a sprained right ankle that knocked him out of yesterday's 17-7 win over the Dolphins in the second quarter and a jammed thumb on his throwing hand that he really did not seem to want to talk about, thank you very much.
It is never easy. It is always something. Wherever you stand on this whole business, about if this is the end for McNabb or just a painful pause, it is impossible not to shake your head at the way in which No. 5 has accumulated misfortune. Every November, it seems, both the leaves and McNabb fall.
"I don't believe in curses - it's just a little bit of bad luck," said tight end L.J. Smith, who contributed to McNabb's awful day by committing a holding penalty on what should have been a sweet touchdown pass to wide receiver Reggie Brown in the first quarter.
Backup quarterback A.J. Feeley came in and played well enough in McNabb's absence, supported greatly by running back Brian Westbrook (32 carries, 148 yards). Thus have second-guessers been provided with a Thanksgiving cornucopia. The ones who blame McNabb for the current state of the world can point to Feeley's success yesterday, and to the touchdown throw to Jason Avant that he fit into an itty-bitty space. The ones who blame Eagles coach Andy Reid can point to the run-oriented playcalling that he seems to offer to every quarterback who has ever worked for him, except for McNabb. And happy holidays to all.
Meanwhile, amid all of this, the Eagles are 5-5 and scheduled for a game this Sunday night at New England . . .
"I am going to make sure I am going to get right to get back out there and make sure I'm capable of doing what I can do," McNabb said, in that spectacularly circular way of his. "We'll see how the week goes."
Translation: maybe.
Andy?
"If Donovan's healthy, he's the quarterback," Reid said, and that is what he should have said. But it all just gets murkier and murkier. As McNabb's knee has grown stronger this season, his throwing has somehow grown more erratic. The pendulum swings from successful to dreadful, from half to half, sometimes from minute to minute.
McNabb offered no defense for yesterday. He said, "Some things you want back, but that happens in every game. In this situation, there were a lot of miscues, there were a lot of miscommunications . . . "
The first interception was just a bad throw, although Brown didn't exactly contest the pass to the death or anything. The second interception was an obvious miscommunication between McNabb and wide receiver Kevin Curtis. Without going into details, McNabb said he would take the blame. And, well, whatever.
He spent the second half standing on the sideline, standing on the bum ankle, watching the game beneath a parka. This is not out of the manual for treating sprained ankles, but there it was. Reid said, "You're not going to keep him inside. He wanted to be out there." McNabb said, "I am going to go out there and support my team."
He said he couldn't run - that was the reason he did not play after the X-rays came back negative. He said, "I couldn't really run or drop back. For me to go out there and be a sitting duck takes away from us as an offense . . . "
Which is sound and wise and mature and nothing like the guy who played a game on a broken ankle in 2002. What was stupid back then is also legendary. That it was a long time ago goes without saying.
Just know this: McNabb needs to get his ankle and his thumb and his whole self healthy, both for his benefit and for the Eagles' benefit - and that is true if the team's intention is to keep McNabb next year or try to trade him. The only way this ends badly for all of them is if he is carried out again on his shield. *
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