Their franchise player stepped up, ours had another small time performance in a big time game. Deja Vu.
Which player on defense do you consider our franchise player?
I was referring to McNabb, but to answer the question I'd have to go with Dawk.
I know you were referring to McNabb. That was my point. On the "people who came up small" list, those are the first 11 guys I'd look at. After that you can examine the QB who had 375 passing yards, completed 60% of his passes, and averaged 8 yards per attempt. Yeah, he missed some throws. He was far from the reason we lost this game.
I never read too much into McNabb's completion % since a vast majority of his passes come from little uncontested side-outs. He had two nice long completions (which had a huge impact on his yards per attempt), one of which Desean Jackson bailed him out of with a phenomenal catch on a pass that was underthrown. Outside of that, he threw some balls that you just can't throw in a game of this magnitude. It's been a trademark of his career to throw behind on short passes and slants, overthrow receivers on short slants, or throw it at his receiver's feet. I understand that the blame on this one can be passed around from top to bottom on both sides of the ball, but these are plays that you have to make, so I have trouble shrugging it off and saying 'yeah, he missed some throws,' when those throws should be gimme's.... especially when the season is on the line. Although I will also say that there were a few gimme's that our receivers blew as well.
I probably let my frustration towards McNabb dictate my first post, but I was just as disgusted with the defense. I don't know how many times they made us pay on the blitz by flipping it over the defense and moving the chains with ease. Besides our pitiful attempts to stop Fitzgerald, nobody was wrapping their man up... there were too many plays where guys were just going for a loud hit and in turn allowed their running backs to bounce right off us and pick up extra yards that we normally wouldn't allow. Our linebackers were also missing assignments left and right. All in all, the whole team was committing boneheaded plays all game... whether it be Rocca holding the ball laces in, or Demps committing stupid penalties.
The play calling was also a pretty major determinant. I thought we tried too hard to get Westbrook involved when he's obviously not at full strength and came into this game averaging a dismal 1.9 yards per carry in the postseason... they probably shouldn't have used Buckhalter so sparingly considering he was able to pick up yards on ever touch... not to mention he was the one practicing with the team all week.
