I wanted to repost and add my own comments to an argument that is taking place in Iggle-land over the past few weeks as the Eagles have been sparked to a season-reviving three-game win streak with Jeff Garcia at the helm (with Donovan out for the year). The numbers comments in blue are the points made by Slammalot on the Philly.com Eagles board.
1) The first point I'd like to make in the McNabb/Garcia debate is the fact that the offense has fundamentally changed with the insertion of Jeff as McNabb's injury replacement. I do not think that Donovan was used properly by Andy. He was hung out to dry doing all of Andy's trick play / 70% passing crap and expected to bail Andy out when it didn't work.
2) Westbrook wasn't used properly by Andy, because of #1.
3) When a team is constantly in passing mode, it put an extraordinary amount of pressure on 5 to execute, and if I recall correctly the Eagles were plagued with drops earlier in the season. The drops have been a lot less common the past fews games. From what I've seen, I cannot credit this solely to Garcia's accuracy. Yes, he does throw a different ball, but a lot of D-Macs' drops were "hit them in the hands" kind, so I'd like to credit the Wide Receivers with improving their concentration and stepping up their play since they KNOW they gotta make all their catches because the Eagles have toned down the big-play mentality they labored under with 5. Donovan was in a constant hurry up mode, because defenses KNEW that Andy was going to pass 70% of the time and they brought the farm every single time. This wore out the O-Line and made a true running game hard to pull off.
4) IMO (and mine too) if you gave Donovan the same balanced attack that Garcia is getting right now, you would get the same positive result. I think Donovan is expected to do too many things that he is unable to do on a consistent basis. Personally I think that AR's 70/30 scheme requires almost absolute PERFECT execution, series-in, series-out...McNabb is a streaker, he can get really cold, and then red-hot in the course of a single series....
5) Final analysis: its the Eagles commitment to BALANCE that has enabled Garcia showcase for us his talents and ability to execute the offense effectively.
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