Garcia? Feely? Who Cares
So now the debate is whether the Eagles are making a bad move by not resigning Garcia. I say - who cares, let him walk. I'll actually go so far as to say that Garcia gets too much credit for the second half run of 2006. Sure he was good. Sure he only threw two picks. Sure his record says he was better than Donovan. But Garcia's run also happened to coincide with the best defense the birds played all year. In fact, the Garcia lead Eagles only played two bad defensive games, against Indy and against New Orleans, both losses. I give substantially more credit to the defense for the six wins than I do Garcia. I'll even go out on a limb and say A) Feely may (and I stress "may") have been able to get us just as far and B) Donovan absolutely would have gotten us just as far....and would have guided us to a win over New Orleans (and quite possibly that could have been us losing to Indy in the Super Bowl!).
Don't get me wrong, I'd be happy to see Garcia back in Eagle green, but the Eagle's 2007 success has nothing to do with Garcia. Or Feely for that matter. It is, always has been, and always will be about Donovan and how far he can take us.
Now that being said, come on team Banner/Lurie/Reid, go sign Stallworth already. PLEASE. I'm beggin' ya.
Mudd
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Not sure I agree with you there, bro. No, not about Garcia's perceived value, but rather about the defense being being the reason the Eagles thrived in '06. The Eagles have played great defense before. I'd have to say that the 2nd half of '04 saw a much better defensive effort. No, the reason the Eagles were able to turn it around is very simply because they ran the ball more. Up until McNabb's last throw in the week 11 game vs Tennessee, the Eagles threw 58% of the time. Only 3 times in those 9 1/2 games did they run 46% of the time or more. Once Garcia stepped in (excluding the week 17 Atlanta game where the 3rd string was on display) the Eagles split it right down the middle 50/50. Only once in the 5 1/2 games Garcia took the majority of the snaps did they run less than 46% of the time.
The best thing that can happen to the Eagles in '07 is for Marty Mornhinweg to continue to call the plays. Scratch that, the best thing that can happen to the Eagles in '07 is for Mornhinweg to continue to call the plays as he sees fit, not how Andy Reid sees fit. Maybe if the Eagles get a running game going that they can rely on late in the game, they can actually work to run out the clock. Maybe if McNabb isn't asked to throw the ball 60% of the time, he'll stop forcing some of those passes at everyone's kneecaps.