black sunday

I guess we should be used to this by now.

For the third time in the past five years, Donovan McNabb will miss at least the final six games of the regular season after tearing his ACL in Sunday’s 31-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans at Lincoln Financial Field.

The injury occurred on a seemingly harmless play early in the second quarter, when McNabb rolled to his right and attempted to complete a pass as it went out of bounds along the Tennessee sideline.

McNabb, unable to put any weight on his right knee, was kicked off the field and is expected to miss 8-12 months, eliminating not only the remainder of the 2006 season, but also leaving his 2007 season in doubt.

In other words, Eagles fans’ worst nightmare has come true. Again. The one player the Eagles couldn’t afford to lose is missing for the rest of the season.

It’s a bit unpleasant of deja vu.

In 2002, McNabb missed the final six games of that season after breaking his foot against the Arizona Cardinals on a wet, rainy day at the Vet. In 2005, McNabb struggled all year with a hernia until he was finally forced to sit out the rest of the season after being injured to the point that he could no longer play against the Cowboys in Week 10.

Now this. Oh, and let’s not forget his injury against the Carolina Panthers in the first half of the Birds’ 2003 NFC Championship Game, which eliminated him from that contest.

What makes losing McNabb so difficult is that there is absolutely no backup plan. Donovan is being asked to do more for his team than any other quarterback in the NFL. He doesn’t have the talent that the Peyton Mannings and Carson Palmers of the world have and he doesn’t have a coaching staff that understands the importance of establishing a running game.

The Eagles expect Donovan McNabb to be their everything and everything. They put all their eggs in his basket, gave him marginally talented receivers and continually failed to establish an identity to run the ball. And that philosophy works, as long as Donovan is healthy and throws the ball around the Line like he’s capable of.

Unfortunately, that plan backfires terribly when everything for the year is lost.

Because the Eagles have refused to pay attention to the running game, have no Pro Bowlers at wide receiver and sport a defense that’s as reliant as an Anna Nicole Smith babysitter, they’ve screwed themselves.

The only way the Philadelphia Eagles can succeed is if Donovan McNabb is at the helm. And now, he won’t be. Maybe not for long.

The answer in backup QB? Jeff Garcia, who went 26-48 (48 pass attempts???) for 189 yards and a touchdown, but had serious trouble moving the Eagles anywhere on Sunday.

Did anyone else think Garcia hadn’t seen the practice field this entire season? He’s been practicing with the team all season, hasn’t he? Is it too much to ask your backup QB to step in and be at least marginally competent against a 2-7 defense?

As for the Birds and their prospects here in 2006, they can kiss the playoffs goodbye. He was asking a lot of the Birds to go 6-2 in the second half with his killer schedule and a healthy Donovan McNabb. But now they’ve lost to the Titans previously 2-7 at home, and are being asked to go 5-1 in their last six (@Indy, CAR, @Wash, @NY Giants, @Dal., ATL) with a back -Up QB, no running game, bad defense and horrible plays are just idiotic.

It can not be done. Not with Jeff Garcia or AJ Feely at QB. Not with a receiving body that releases passes as if the ball had cancer. Not with a defense that misses too many tackles and allows Travis Henry to rush for 143 yards. Not with a coaching staff that keeps asking for play-action passes at third and goal from the 1/2 yard. And not with a special teams unit that allows a 90-yard punt return for a touchdown to PacMan Jones.

It’s not happening, folks.

So, another season is wasted. The Birds’ 4-1 start, a distant memory. At 5-5, it would take a real miracle for the Eagles to go 5-1 in their last six, facing a killer schedule with a weak backup quarterback, players who seem to have given up and a coaching staff . who can’t seem to get out of his own way.

With McNabb, maybe it could have been done. Without it, no luck.

Perhaps the worst thing about McNabb’s injury is the label with which we must now put #5…

“Injury prone.”

You can’t miss that many games for that many years in a row without being labeled “injury-prone” or “brittle.” You just can’t count on Donovan McNabb to once again give you a full 16-game season.

He’s a fantastic player, perhaps the best quarterback in Philadelphia Eagles history. He is a man greatly underappreciated by the citizens of Philadelphia, but one must wonder how much longer he can hold out against his body.

Maybe it’s time to invest a second or third round pick in this year’s NFL Draft in a quarterback. Not someone to replace McNabb, because he should be the starter on this team until he retires or can no longer play, but someone who can be groomed to be a viable backup.

Because at the rate he’s going, who knows how many years Donnie Mac has left? A torn ACL is no joke. While Carson Palmer recovered from his torn ACL in the span of about eight months, Daunte Culpepper still has knee pain and will likely be out of action for the rest of the year. It is unknown how long it will take #5 to heal from this.

We may not see a fully healthy Donovan McNabb again until the start of the 2008 season, if ever.

A terrifying thought in the midst of another lost season.