Time to Move On

It was the first game all season where the Eagles showed life. The biggest underdog ever in NFL history held the undefeated, unstoppable, best team ever New England Patriots to their lowest scoring total all season and to their closest margin of victory in falling just short 31-28 in Foxboro last night.
For the second time in as many years, the offense played better without the franchise player. Receivers were catching balls in stride and making plays. It's much easier for Kevin Curtis and L.J Smith to get involved in the offense when the ball is on mark. Even the deep balls, supposedly backup A.J Feeley's weakness, were getting caught by Greg Lewis and well.....Greg Lewis. This is how the West Coast offense is supposed to be run.
There will be a quarterback controversy on the sports stations and in the papers, but Andy Reid said it after the game, that his first ever draft pick will start next week, if he is healthy.
The truth of the matter is that Reid built a system which Donovan McNabb simply doesn't fit into and never has. There is no denying the fact that the offense now runs better without the player that the coach picked to run it.
The story of McNabb's career in Philadelphia is this; when he was a younger player, the defense was one of the top in the league and McNabb was able to make enough plays to win games. As he matured into one of the top quarterbacks in the league he relied more on running the offense with his arm and less on his legs.
There can be no denying the fact that Number Five has not been the same player since that Super Bowl loss against the Pats in 2005. Whether its because of physical or mental reasons is moot at this point.
Last week against the Dolphins the team ran the ball and Feeley made enough throws to win the game. The question was raised then that if the team can run with Brian Westbrook like that and win, what is the point of the million dollar quarterback.
This week the team threw the ball, controlled the clock and moved up and down the field against the league's top team - again without Donovan. The answer is simple: Donovan must go.
This is not to be an indictment against Donovan McNabb. His number's don't lie. He has been the most successful signal caller in Eagles history and over the past decade, only Brett Favre and Tom Brady have winning percentages that compare with his. Both of them, though, have won Super Bowl rings. Donovan has not and will not with this franchise.
McNabb will start next week at Lincoln Financial Field against Reid's mentor Mike Holmgren and the 7-4 Seattle Seahawks. He'll start the next week against the New York Giants and probably will start in Dallas the week after that.
Anything short of a Super Bowl victory will end the McNabb era in Philadelphia. He will be playing somewhere else next season and the Kevin Kolb era in this city will have begun. McNabb will be another year removed from the ACL injury and there is no doubt in this writer's mind he will be successful. He has too much talent to not be.
It's a shame that McNabb and Reid didn't win a title together. McNabb has been a class act his entire career and true role model in the NFL duriing these days of dog fighting and cheating. They had their chances but injuries to key players like Correll Buckhalter and Troy Vincent in '01, Donovan in '02 and Westbrook in '03 held them back. Anyone who has watched this team over the past decade knows that the play calling has always been average, at best.
Here's hoping that Donovan comes out next week and sets the world on fire, igniting this team down the stretch and sending them into the playoffs with a chance to make a deep run. The safe money says that this won't happen - that the franchise player and the franchise will part ways after the season and a new era will begin. We'll find out Sunday at 1:oo.