Housekeeping Thursday

McNabb vs. Garcia

I know, it's too early to have this discussion.  Save it for after the season.

But if I had a dollar for every time I've heard some cockamamie theory over the last two months for why Jeff Garcia is a better quarterback than Donovan McNabb, I'd be able to move up to the big-money tables in Vegas this weekend, rather than wandering all over creation trying to find some $5 blackjack on a Friday night. 

Evidently Rick Reilly was on Dan Patrick's radio show today and said that the Eagles "had" to re-sign Garcia for next season and they should try to move McNabb because he's got a lot of trade value.  I can't verify his exact words, since I'm not an ESPN "Insider" and don't plan to become one any time soon, but OF COURSE Donovan McNabb has great trade value since he's a TOP FIVE @#$%! quarterback, you ninny.

Anyway, let's just take a quick look at the stats.  The shaded lines are the average numbers compiled by the two quarterbacks in the games they started this season (not counting Atlanta, since Garcia came out after the first series).  The other numbers are Garcia's game-by-game results:

	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Int
McNabb	19.3	33.7	57.4%	285.4	2.0	0.6
Garcia	17.7	27.8	63.5%	207.3	1.7	0.3
	19.0	23.0	82.6%	140.0	2.0	0.0
	21.0	39.0	53.8%	312.0	3.0	0.0
	15.0	23.0	65.2%	164.0	2.0	0.0
	19.0	28.0	67.9%	237.0	1.0	1.0
	15.0	23.0	65.2%	238.0	1.0	1.0
	17.0	31.0	54.8%	153.0	1.0	0.0

Yes, I understand the Eagles changed the offensive balance after McNabb went down.  I'm all for leaning more heavily on the running game.  But look at the difference between McNabb's average game and all of Garcia's performances.  In six games, Garcia arguably had one performance that was better than McNabb's average game this season.

One.

I'm glad Garcia has stepped in and grabbed the reins this season in relief of McNabb.  He's done a great job and of course I'm rooting for him to keep it up as long as possible.  But there's no quarterback controversy here.

An Outsider's Look at the Eagles

Football Outsiders is absolutely the best site for funky NFL statistics.  In an attempt to control for outside factors, they make up all kinds of scoring mechanisms and measuring systems.  Sometimes it all feels a bit "on the fly," but there's no denying they've got some interesting insights.

At any rate, in their ratings formula, Philadelphia is the best team in the NFC, although they still have them behind all four AFC teams.

They also have regular season rankings, which suggest that John Harbaugh has some work to do in the off-season.

The "defense vs. types of receiver" numbers (scroll down) are very interesting as a way to gauge every team's cornerback tandem.  It's not particularly surprising, for example, that Denver is the best in the league at shutting down an opposing team's #1 threat, given the presence of Champ Bailey.  Interestingly, the Saints are the worst in the league in that stat...

And for those who think Reggie Bush is going to be the key in this game, notice that the Eagles are #2 defending pass-catching running backs.

The defensive rushing rankings (again, scroll down) are pretty hard on the Eagles for runs to every point but right end.  The Saints are stronger on their left side (the offense's right), so look for Westbrook to be following a pulling Big Kid to the left this weekend.

Self-Inflicted Wounds

Guess which team led the league in penalty yards this season?  Hint: it wasn't the Raiders.

That's an absurd figure for a team that's gotten this far into the playoffs.  We will certainly remember some of the more damaging penalties this year for a long time, won't we?

But here's something else.  You think I'm crazy for suggesting that NFL refs have dramatically cut down on the number of flags they've thrown this year?  Take a look at this chart:

Is anyone out there reporting on this?  It seems like a pretty major story.