Thoughts on the Eagles

1. You can win with Donovan McNabb as your QB...but he won't win it for you by himself. We love listening to Troy Aikman do Eagles games. You can tell he watches McNabb and wants so badly to say, "How can an NFL starting QB throw a pass like that or make such stupid decisions?!?" Of course, Aikman is too smart to be so blunt. But the fact is McNabb can look awesome one play and on the very next play look like some loser from the Pop Warner team. He is good enough to win with -- one of the top 10 QBS, but he can't do it by himself. The fact that Fat Andy and Loser Laurie simply refuse to surround him with talent gives #5 the smallest of margins for error. Throw in often abysmal play calling and you're in a tough spot.

2. The defense was disappointing yesterday. From Jim Johnson's poor blitz schemes in the first half to the unit's inability to stop the run, that was the worst the D has played in six weeks. After the Eagles took the lead in the fourth, all they needed was one stop. Instead, the Cardinals shoved the ball up the Eagles' ass and violated them Big Time. The linebackers were invisible and DBs Quentin Mikell, Quintin Demps and Sheldon Brown were over-matched all day. (Hopefully, that will be the last we see of Brown in an Eagles' uniform.)

3. As we look to the off-season, a few ideas:

-Do NOT resign Tra Thomas. He was once a very good left tackle. Now he is old with a bad back. And for his lack of effort going after a McNabb fumble yesterday, he should have been punched in the face.

-DO resign Jon Runyan and Brian Dawkins. B-Dawk will probably go for a one year deal before retiring. Age has taken away his skills in the passing game, but he is still effective against the run. And you can't put a dollar amount on his leadership. Runyan will probably want a two year deal. If the numbers are reasonable, it would be wise to bring him back.

- Use every one of the draft picks on offense! They have no fullback. Their O-line needs to be overhauled. And, of course, they still need receivers. Kevin Curtis and DeSean Jackson are fine, and often quite good. But if Jason Avant is your third receiver, you've got problems. Line us up with Avant and Hank Baskett for a foot race and we win and win easily.