Intelligence, strength, honor, heart, and intensity
"If revolution had a movie, I'd be theme music..."
Common - The 6th Sense
Donovan McNabb is the second coming of Randall Cunningham. So much so, that its ironic that he plays for the Philadelphia Eagles, and has developed a thick skin to shield himself from the media and fans alike.
I used to work for the Eagles, and in my time with the 'birds had an opportunity to befriend several people on the team and sidelines. My supervisor was Harold Carmichael who is a legend in his own right. Nevertheless, he used to call McNabb "Fluffy" because of his big afro. I would never call him "Fluffy" to his face, only with my boss. Whenever I would see Donovan, I just called him 5. Most of the offense go by their number, and not their name. Its interesting, and often times I felt more like a member of the team, than an office worker.
I attended the game yesterday against the St. Louis Rams, and not only did the Eagles click in every facet, they made an example of the Rams, making a statement to the NFC East and the rest of the league.
Below are the press conference quotes directly from Donovan McNabb to you:
On getting going early and starting off well on the first few drives:
“Well, I think it was important for us to start that way. You know, coming off of a good preseason, and obviously a great training camp, to start out early was very important to be able to set the tone early and in previous years we weren’t able to do that. We had big plays and the drive and also being able to run the ball and pick up some yards to capitalize on the touchdown obviously does well for the confidence factor. But we were able to bounce back again on the second drive and pretty much do the same thing and do it consistently throughout the whole game.”
On tempering the expectations of WR DeSean Jackson after his solid performance this game:
“Same thing, he’s still a rookie. And I think, like I’ve always said, just be patient. We haven’t hit the bump in the road yet and we’re gonna do that and I just try to prepare him for that and you know through my duration of being here, I’ve seen it happen. And you know, you just don’t want him to hang his head when it does happen. You want him to continue to stay strong and be confident with it. But that goes for all of us. You know, we all have to continue to battle. You know, watch the mistakes we made this game and be able to bounce back against the Dallas team that’s pretty experienced. It’s not going to be pretty much as easy as it was today.”
On not being sacked this game and being healthy going into the season:
“Well it’s always big when you don’t get touched too much. But I think a lot if it is getting the ball out and letting the guys outside work. They did a great job creating a little bit of separation where I could just put the ball out and let them compete. The offensive line did a wonderful job today. You know, I reward them and commend them but we gotta come back out there and keep doing the same thing.”
On Jackson’s first game and if he’s ever seen a rookie have a game as good as that:
“It’s just one game. I mean he played well, he played well. Don’t discredit that. But I’ve seen a lot of rookies play well throughout the season in one game. He’s a guy that’s willing to work and willing to get better and that’s an important factor that you have to have playing this game. Have a short term memory, put that behind you know matter how well you played or how bad you played. Move on to the next week and hopefully have a great game.”
On whether he thought the Eagles were trying to trick the Rams on the drive with two straight handoffs backed up deep and then the play action pass to Hank Baskett:
“Not necessarily. They brought the pressure, which [RB Brian] Westbrook had to come inside and block and I kept my eyes downfield and on the coverage and the pre-snap reads that I had. And once they blitzed I was able to get my eyes back out. Jason did a good job of grabbing the safety which led to Hank being wide open down the side line, and I took the air out of the ball and tried to put it in a position where he could catch it and protect himself in case the safety fell off on him. He ran through the tackle and picked up big yards for us.”
On his initial reaction to that play call and whether he was surprised they weren’t running down the clock:
“Well, you gotta be aggressive and we’ve been doing it all through the whole game and there’s no reason to stop now. I thought it was a great job on [Eagles Offensive coordinator] Marty [Mornhinweg] and [Eagles Head coach] Andy’s [Reid] part of just taking a shot and it paid off. But we’re gonna have to do that this year. You know, we’re gonna have to keep defenses on their heels wondering what we’re gonna do because we just can’t keep running, running, running the ball and not giving the guys on the outside the opportunity to make plays for us and they did that throughout the whole course of the day and good things happened for us today.”
On what it says about the receivers, since there were three players with at least 100 yards today:
“Well they work hard. Like I said in the offseason, like I said in interviews that I’ve had, in order for the guys to be successful and guys to make plays for you, you have to call plays for them. We called plays for each and every one of those guys and they made plays for us and throughout the whole game we were able to spread the ball around and get everybody involved. [TE] L.J. [Smith] had a good day today. Westbrook had a good day, [WR] Jason Avant played well, [WR] Hank Baskett, you know, DeSean Jackson. When things are rolling like that, when you spread the ball around and getting everybody involved, it does wonders for your offense.”
On what he expects about the atmosphere on Monday night in Dallas:
“Well, I’ve been watching Hard Knock life. Who hasn’t been? It’s been on. They’re a confident bunch. They’re an experienced bunch. There’s a reason why they won 13 games or whatever last year. So we know that it’s going to be a battle. Every time we play in goes to the wire somehow. So we have to prepare ourselves to go out and give up a good fight. We know what their defense kind of entails with [LB] DeMarcus Ware and [LB] Bradie James and know you’re talking about adding Pacman [Adam Jones] involved in the secondary. You know, it’s going to be a challenge for us. The same goes for the offensive side, there’s a reason [QB Tony] Romo had a great year last year.”
On the red zone being an issue last year and how L.J. Smith’s is making his presence felt this year:
“Well, I think it was important for us to start that way. You know, coming off of a good preseason, and obviously a great training camp, to start out early was very important to be able to set the tone early and in previous years we weren’t able to do that. We had big plays and the drive and also being able to run the ball and pick up some yards to capitalize on the touchdown obviously does well for the confidence factor. But we were able to bounce back again on the second drive and pretty much do the same thing and do it consistently throughout the whole game.”
On tempering the expectations of WR DeSean Jackson after his solid performance this game:
“Same thing, he’s still a rookie. And I think, like I’ve always said, just be patient. We haven’t hit the bump in the road yet and we’re gonna do that and I just try to prepare him for that and you know through my duration of being here, I’ve seen it happen. And you know, you just don’t want him to hang his head when it does happen. You want him to continue to stay strong and be confident with it. But that goes for all of us. You know, we all have to continue to battle. You know, watch the mistakes we made this game and be able to bounce back against the Dallas team that’s pretty experienced. It’s not going to be pretty much as easy as it was today.”
On not being sacked this game and being healthy going into the season:
“Well it’s always big when you don’t get touched too much. But I think a lot if it is getting the ball out and letting the guys outside work. They did a great job creating a little bit of separation where I could just put the ball out and let them compete. The offensive line did a wonderful job today. You know, I reward them and commend them but we gotta come back out there and keep doing the same thing.”
On Jackson’s first game and if he’s ever seen a rookie have a game as good as that:
“It’s just one game. I mean he played well, he played well. Don’t discredit that. But I’ve seen a lot of rookies play well throughout the season in one game. He’s a guy that’s willing to work and willing to get better and that’s an important factor that you have to have playing this game. Have a short term memory, put that behind you know matter how well you played or how bad you played. Move on to the next week and hopefully have a great game.”
On whether he thought the Eagles were trying to trick the Rams on the drive with two straight handoffs backed up deep and then the play action pass to Hank Baskett:
“Not necessarily. They brought the pressure, which [RB Brian] Westbrook had to come inside and block and I kept my eyes downfield and on the coverage and the pre-snap reads that I had. And once they blitzed I was able to get my eyes back out. Jason did a good job of grabbing the safety which led to Hank being wide open down the side line, and I took the air out of the ball and tried to put it in a position where he could catch it and protect himself in case the safety fell off on him. He ran through the tackle and picked up big yards for us.”
On his initial reaction to that play call and whether he was surprised they weren’t running down the clock:
“Well, you gotta be aggressive and we’ve been doing it all through the whole game and there’s no reason to stop now. I thought it was a great job on [Eagles Offensive coordinator] Marty [Mornhinweg] and [Eagles Head coach] Andy’s [Reid] part of just taking a shot and it paid off. But we’re gonna have to do that this year. You know, we’re gonna have to keep defenses on their heels wondering what we’re gonna do because we just can’t keep running, running, running the ball and not giving the guys on the outside the opportunity to make plays for us and they did that throughout the whole course of the day and good things happened for us today.”
On what it says about the receivers, since there were three players with at least 100 yards today:
“Well they work hard. Like I said in the offseason, like I said in interviews that I’ve had, in order for the guys to be successful and guys to make plays for you, you have to call plays for them. We called plays for each and every one of those guys and they made plays for us and throughout the whole game we were able to spread the ball around and get everybody involved. [TE] L.J. [Smith] had a good day today. Westbrook had a good day, [WR] Jason Avant played well, [WR] Hank Baskett, you know, DeSean Jackson. When things are rolling like that, when you spread the ball around and getting everybody involved, it does wonders for your offense.”
On what he expects about the atmosphere on Monday night in Dallas:
“Well, I’ve been watching Hard Knock life. Who hasn’t been? It’s been on. They’re a confident bunch. They’re an experienced bunch. There’s a reason why they won 13 games or whatever last year. So we know that it’s going to be a battle. Every time we play in goes to the wire somehow. So we have to prepare ourselves to go out and give up a good fight. We know what their defense kind of entails with [LB] DeMarcus Ware and [LB] Bradie James and know you’re talking about adding Pacman [Adam Jones] involved in the secondary. You know, it’s going to be a challenge for us. The same goes for the offensive side, there’s a reason [QB Tony] Romo had a great year last year.”
On the red zone being an issue last year and how L.J. Smith’s is making his presence felt this year:
“I said that...I said that last year. Good ends do a lot more. Teams have to focus in on the tight end position and when you have a guy like L.J. where you can do different things with him, spread him out, run him from the down position, put him in motion to try and create a mismatch. Now they have to focus in not just on Westbrook and just playing a base coverage, but there are other guys that have to get involved. But again it’s just one game. We gotta continue to focus in on our red zone, you know, play and do that and be consistent on the field.”
On whether he thinks next week will be a challenge against Dallas in prime time:
“We’re looking forward to it. We’re gonna look at it as a test to see where we’re at because no one knows how they played against Cleveland. So I mean, in this particular time of the season it’s important that we try to master the fundamentals, make sure the chemistry is where it needs to be and the timing and the run game and the pass game and the same on defense. And just being able to execute if there’s opportunities there and take full advantage of it. And you know in this game I thought we did that and we need to do that next week and the same the following week so it’s a growing process for all of us.”
On having success on opening weekend:
“You know, for an opener or whenever, it’s hard to get wins in this game. People can look at other teams records and say, well, they weren’t that good last year but things could be different this year. So you have to take full advantage of the wins that you do have and be able to feed off of that. I thought we did that later in the year last year. So to start out the season the way we did this year, it’s important that we feed off of that and continue to push yourself, to challenge yourself in practice to do better. No matter how good you played or if you played bad. You have to do better and get better each week.”
On the receivers’ play:
“I think they played great. I think they played great and we’re going to continue to work together.”
On whether he thinks next week will be a challenge against Dallas in prime time:
“We’re looking forward to it. We’re gonna look at it as a test to see where we’re at because no one knows how they played against Cleveland. So I mean, in this particular time of the season it’s important that we try to master the fundamentals, make sure the chemistry is where it needs to be and the timing and the run game and the pass game and the same on defense. And just being able to execute if there’s opportunities there and take full advantage of it. And you know in this game I thought we did that and we need to do that next week and the same the following week so it’s a growing process for all of us.”
On having success on opening weekend:
“You know, for an opener or whenever, it’s hard to get wins in this game. People can look at other teams records and say, well, they weren’t that good last year but things could be different this year. So you have to take full advantage of the wins that you do have and be able to feed off of that. I thought we did that later in the year last year. So to start out the season the way we did this year, it’s important that we feed off of that and continue to push yourself, to challenge yourself in practice to do better. No matter how good you played or if you played bad. You have to do better and get better each week.”
On the receivers’ play:
“I think they played great. I think they played great and we’re going to continue to work together.”
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1 comment:
The Eagles looked good yesterday, and I've telling people about DeSean Jackson. I know what I'm talking about, because I watch college football.
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