Steve McNair or Rich Gannon? Pick your poison.
They are the AFC’s last quarterbacks standing. Either would be a handful for an Eagles defense still living with the rap that Jim Johnson’s SWAT team can’t lick a top-tier quarterback.
I’m not sure it’s an accurate assumption, however.
Maybe it’s not the quarterback at all.
Maybe the AFC is just a little better than the NFC right now. But that’s why they play The Supe, right? Weren’t we all shocked and amazed last February when the New England Patriots, of all people, vanquished the lordly St. Louis Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI?
Should we be overly concerned as Sunday’s day of NFC jubilo rushes at us that three of the Eagles’ four losses came to AFC teams with highly regarded quarterbacks? The Titans’ McNair whipped the Birds, 27-24, with a stirring comeback in the heat of early September.
Jacksonville and Mark Brunell led the Eagles, 28-10, in the fourth before the Eagles scored 15 garbage-time points to make the 28-25 score sound respectable. That was the brutally hot afternoon when Donovan McNabb was sacked five times and displayed the secret ingredients of Chunky Soup in an unscheduled infomercial. It was the high-water mark for the Jaguars, who failed to make the playoffs and got coach Tom Coughlin dumped.
The Colts and Peyton Manning inflicted the unkindest hooves of all, however. Manning lit up the Eagles for 319 yards and three TDs in a stunning 35-13 pratfall on the Birds’ inviolate home turf. Indianapolis DID make the playoffs but the Jets made quick work of Manning’s no-huddle offense with an embarrassing 41-0 destructo.
Some NFL folks insist Brad Johnson would have been the league’s MVP if he had not gone down with a back injury that put Jon Gruden’s season in the hands of his brilliant defense and scarily inept backups Shaun King and Rob Johnson. Derrick Brooks & Co. became to Gruden what Koy Detmer and A.J. Feeley were to Andy Reid – quality bridges over troubled waters.
So, if you were impressed by the progression of Gruden’s version of the West Coast offense with Brad Johnson at the controls, you can hang a warning flag on his right arm, as well. Even though he passed for just 124 yards with five sacks, a pick and a QB rating of 56.4 in the 20-10 loss at the Vet on Oct. 20. We are told that Brad’s grasp of the offense has improved incrementally since then.
Whoever makes the journey from the Vet’s frozen NeXturf to the passers’ heaven of windless Qualcomm Stadium for Super Bowl XXXVII will have to beat a seriously good QB.
As much as I respect McNair – Earl Campbell with John Elway’s arm – I can’t see the Titans bouncing back from Saturday’s brutal, controversial, OT war of attrition with the Steelers to beat the Raiders in the Black Hole. It is simply asking too much, particularly after Eddie George was a concussed non-factor in one of the hardest-hitting games I have seen in the parity NFL.
That could leave Reid or Gruden preparing for the devil they know least. The Eagles used Jim Johnson’s pressure-him-to-pass onslaught Saturday night to expose the brilliantly athletic Michael Vick as a work in progress. You would hate to have faced the 22-year-old southpaw if he had Jerry Rice, Tim Brown and Charlie Garner on his side.
The toughest survivor figures to be the late-blooming Gannon, who in another life was a sprint-out quarterback in Tubby Raymond’s Delaware Wing-T. Now, he is 37 with the legs of a 27-year-old and the judgment to know when to throw it and know when to tuck it. Gannon has become the best West Coast quarterback since Joe Montana. So you can puzzle along with me exactly why Bill Callahan tried so hard to establish the run against the Jets. Herm Edwards’ defense pretty much stuffed the run, but when Callahan finally unleashed the guy who shattered the single-season completion record with 418, a 10-10 tie quickly became a 30-10 rout.
The Eagles seem destined to hook up once again with the lineal descendants of the wild-card Raiders team that ended their lonely Super Bowl quest in New Orleans nearly a generation ago. Whatever happened to Jim Plunkett?