Befuddling Hall of Fame Coaches

What a joyous Christmas! Add Bill Parcells to Joe Gibbs- Hall of Fame coaches utterly befuddled by Jeff Garcia. The Eagles’ glorious win over the sorry Dallas Cowboys (see the Dallas Morning News Report Card left) puts them solidly in control of the NFC East. Gosh, it feels just like old times around here. NFC East teams come in, get their butt kicked, and go home wondering just how the Eagles got so much better than them. I’m so glad I never allowed pessimism to keep me from sending in my play-off ticket deposit. Yo! Section 204! I hope you did not make plans for the weekend of January 6th. Apparently, you’ll be needed at the Linc.

I recently got a note crediting me for “never losing faith”. Now, I’m not sure if that is true. First of all, I never thought Philadelphia would be in a position in to win NFC East. Pre-season, I predicted this was a nine-win team that, if lucky or some things went right, could make the wild card. Maybe I never lost faith in that; that Philadelphia was not terrible, that they could salvage a decent .500 plus campaign in this year of rebuilding from a disappointing 2005.

But here the Eagles are- a chance to put a darn fine season together, win a play-off game, win a couple. Some of the causation of said resurgence is pretty obvious: after swinging and missing badly at the back-up quarterback in 2005, they connected with Jeff Garcia, the NFC is not very good (perhaps not as bad as advertised though), and the NFC East came back more than a little (the Giants in particular).

Some people point to the “damn it, run the ball Andy” argument. As usual, I’m dubious. Clearly, Philadelphia is running the ball more. And, if my first argument for lots of passing is that every running play takes the ball out of Donovan McNabb’s, the best player, hands- then the important corollary is now every pass potentially takes the ball out of Brian Westbrook’s hands. But come on. The run-pass mix is exactly 50-50 over the past three games. Factor in Garcia’s dozen scrambles, a handful of kneel downs to run the clock out, and Garcia is leaving the huddle with a lot closer to 60% passes than 50% for the plays that count. The Eagles have moved the clock running the ball, shortened some games, squeezed some late minutes off the clock. And successful rushing does that. But the Eagles are also not scoring more points now than before.

I would actually use the recent success running the football to point out another reason for the Eagles’ recent success. The offensive line is so much better than last year. In the line’s interior, Jackson and Herremans might not be better than the guys they replaced- but they are younger- and probably consequently healthier. Add that to the miraculously healthy year the rest of the line has had- Runyan and Thomas were immobile or out most of last year, now they are playing darn well. Healthy tackles playing well, plus healthy interior playing competently, with a Pro-Bowl bound Andrews, means an offensive line improving as the guys across from them are being grinded down by the NFL season.

That extends to the defense too. When you introduce a plethora of first contract guys into your front seven, you trade experience for health. And the Eagles have a healthy front seven. The Eagles defensive tackles aren’t better now than they were in, say, week six. But they are healthy, they are out there playing, as the ravages of the NFL season deplete the guys across from them too. Or, for another example, Omar Gaither isn’t a good outside LB- but he’s fresh and healthy- and that moves him up a notch.

In fact, the Eagles are collecting the dividend of playing a lot of young guys last year. They moved a lot of banged up veterans who weren’t out there at 100%, or at all, for less established talent that actually get out there. The Eagles have entered December a lot fresher and healthier than the teams that elected to not play lots of young guys (again, see the Giants in particular). Other than Kearse and McNabb, two big subtractions, the Eagles are totally whole on both sides of the ball. And in December, a big part of who wins, who improves off October/November, is a function of who you can and can’t dress.