Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008
NFL Week 9: With the Eagles in disarray, who's good enough to win the NFC?
Nov 4, 2005 | Half a season ago, the Philadelphia Eagles looked like a slam-dunk lock to run away with the NFC -- kind of like how the San Antonio Spurs look like a lock to win the NBA title as the season starts.
Hmm. Who else looks good in the NBA? Because the Eagles are looking at the moment like a slam-dunk lock to miss the playoffs. They've been routed two of the last three weeks, with the win in between coming on a crazy-lucky bounce that allowed them to run a blocked kick back for the winning touchdown against the San Diego Chargers.
Quarterback Donovan McNabb has a bunch of nagging injuries, the worst of them a painful sports hernia that's going to require surgery and seems to be limiting him severely. Meanwhile, his pal and best receiver Terrell Owens has a bum ankle again, and T.O.'s latest gambit is to say the Eagles would be undefeated if Brett Favre had been playing quarterback for them.
That's the Brett Favre who's not entirely to blame, but not blameless, for the Green Bay Packers being 1-6. Owens has also been whining that the Eagles didn't stop the game to build him a statue when he scored his 100th touchdown. The real issue here is that he wants a new contract and the Eagles don't want to give him one.
Meanwhile, the Eagles can't run. Or rather, they won't run. Though Philly trails the league by a lot in rushes and yards, there are eight teams, including the Cowboys, Panthers and Patriots, who are equal to or worse than the Eagles in yards per carry.
You can win without a running game, as the New England Patriots taught us a couple of years ago, but with no running game, an injured quarterback and the only decent receiver on the team hurt and pouting? And did I mention the defense, the cornerstone of the Eagles' success these last few years? They're not much better at stopping the run than they are at running.
So all of a sudden, the NFC is wide open. The reason the Eagles looked like such a lock is that nobody else looked like much at all. And that's still sorta true. There are a bunch of teams at or near 5-2, but you look at each of them and can't help saying: Eh.
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