This is for all the people who say this loss was the Defense's fault. I pose each of you a question: What would you have done differently to stop Fitz from catching the ball and torching us? I have heard thousands of people blaming Jim Johnson, but from what I have seen, NOBODY has been able to stop Fitz since the Cardinals Offense started clicking late in the season. You jam fitzgerald, he is 6'4 220.... your CB ends up flat on his ass and fitz gets 6. You play off of fitz, warner throws a short ball high up in the air, and fitz outjumps your CBs by 6 inches and makes the catch. You try and jar the ball loose (BDawk had two nasty hits on Fitz), he holds onto the ball and gets right back up. And if you start doubling him or playing only to him, you got two other 1,000 yd receivers on the field in Boldin and Breaston.
Johnson's strategy may not have been perfect, but it was the only possible solution in my opinion. You aren't going to cover that trio of receivers, therefore you have to go after the weak link, Warner, a QB who is known to get rattled when the blitz starts coming and who gets even more rattled when he gets sacked. The Defense was on the field way too much in the 1st half b/c of McNabb's inconsistent throws, which in turn tired out our blitzers and gave Warner that extra second to release the ball. That is what killed us... look how the D played in the 2nd half when they had time to rest in between drives.
Now to the reason I blame McNabb. First off, let me tell you I am a diehard Eagles fan, and I was one of the rare fans who cheered for the McNabb pick on draft day. I think he is a great guy, and there is nothing I would like more than to see him win a Superbowl here in Philly. With that out of the way, I have to tell you, I am disgusted by his play in NFC Championship games and Superbowls, and really the way he played during the entire 2008-2009 playoffs. McNabb is the face of the franchise, one of the highest paid QBs in the league... he makes upwards of 12 million dollars. Considering all of that, and his somewhat cocky attitude/demeanor (phone pickup on Giants sideline), always with that grin on his face, etc., I expect him to come out everyday and play like one of the top 5 QBs, but he continually disappoints.
Now I know everyone can point to McNabb's 375 yds and say he had a great day, blah blah blah, but stats don't tell the entire story. THe bottom line is that this game against the Cards was going to be a shootout... everyone knew it. You simply cannot stop Fitz Quan, Breaston and Warner... cannot be done. And the defense was the main reason we got by the Vikings and the Giants... McNabb had two bad/OK games. So this game, against a low ranked defense, especially against the pass, I expected McNabb to have a great and consistent game. But again, he didn't show up... at least not for the first half. He missed WRs all over the place, threw the ball to GLew's wrong shoulder (and btw... watch the GLew catch, for everyone who says he should've made that play, he had the ball punched out by the dback who was allowed to catch up to him b/c of McNabb's errant throw... that was not Lewis's fault). That Glew play would've been for 6. Then that same drive he under threw Baskett, who made the catch, but would've been able to run after the catch for a TD cause he was WIDE OPEN. He missed a couple more which would've put us in FG range on a couple drives that we ended up punting on. The bottom line is that Donovan left alot more than 7 points out on that field, points that could've won us the game. Not only did Donovan leave points out there, he also forced the D to go back out there on short rest to play against the top passing attack in the league. Donovan's errant throws gave the Cardinals more offensive possesions and more time to score, so we probably gave up a good 7-10 points more in the 1st half then we would have had Donovan made a couple more throws. That right there is a 17-20 point swing at least... that is why playing 1 stellar half of football doesn't make up for one crappy one. And I haven't even mentioned the fact that Donovan was missing these throws in a DOME. That's right... a Stadium with ZERO WIND, NOTHING to affect his throws. You can defend Donovan, and put this game on other people (I agree, its not solely his fault), but Donovan had a chance to be that star, a chance to lead this team to victory, a chance to earn his pay, and he failed.
