Morning After Pill: Quarterback Controversy in Philly

Two words about summed up my Sunday: Quarterback Controversy.

So I guess the Kevin Kolb Era has got itself off with a bit of a hitch. A Michael Vick-sized hitch. It’s never a good sign for your new starting quarterback when his back-up oh-so-thoroughly out-plays him. I think Dan Patrick put Kolb’s performance in the proper perspective when he said on his radio show that Kolb showed pre-concussion symptoms before Clay Matthews ended his day with a mouthful of Lincoln Financial Field.

While Kolb faded to black, Vick turned back the clock to 2004 and looked like the best player on the field. Those breathtaking runs when the pocket collapsed, those accurate throws when it didn’t collapse; Vick brought back the pre-ACL injury McNabb Era to South Philadelphia. There’s no doubt in my mind that the Eagles would’ve either led or tied the Packers in the fourth quarter if he had started that game. So forgive him for being uncharacteristically honest for a football player when he said that during his postgame press conference.

Now, I’m not advocating that Vick is now the Eagles starting quarterback. The Eagles brass didn’t draft Brent Celek, Desean Jackson and Jeremy Maclin or trade Donovan McNabb in the offseason to replace him with Vick as the centerpiece. They wanted an accurate passer, like Kolb, to man the controls, and they’ll give him every opportunity to get it right. Plus who’s to say that the Eagles inspired play in the second half was completely a product of Vick? I’m sure the coaching staff made some adjustments, and they had to have some effect on the resurgent offensive performance.

(Alright, those last two sentences were complete bullshit. Vick took Reid’s sputtering gameplan, his young offensive stars and put them all on his back during the second half. If Kolb were still in, he’d have spent a lot of time getting to know the Linc turf with that performance from the offensive line. Without Vick’s speed and elusiveness to break the pocket with multiple Packers bearing down on him, he’d have been sacked or picked several more times. In short, Vick was the only quarterback on the roster that could have even made it a game.)

Unfortunately, these are all the things that happen when you are in a quarterback controversy. Everyone has an opinion — fans, media, players, coaches — and no one really ends up winning. Quarterback controversies rarely end with playoff berths and Super Bowl Championships. Instead, quarterback controversies get coaches fired.

It’s been a good decade since the last time the Eagles have stared down a quarterback controversy. Let’s look back to 1997 when Ty Detmer and Rodney Peete opened the season as the 1a and 1b quarterbacks in Philadelphia:

• Head coach Ray Rhodes was a master-motivator coming off back-to-back playoff berths after leading the Eagles to a 10-6 record in each of his first two seasons in Philly.
• Jon Gruden was the Eagles young and talented offensive coordinator.
• Bill Clinton was in his second term of office and began to feel the heat for “having sexual relations with that woman.”
• I was in 8th grade and couldn’t even shave yet, though I wanted to grow facial hair badly.

As it turned out, Detmer and Peete were really 2a and 2b, as a darkhorse — second-year man Bobby Hoying, out of THE Ohio State University — eventually earned the job midway through the season during Monday Night Football. Hoying looked really good too, going undefeated in his first three starts (a tie with the Ravens and back-to-back wins over the Steelers and Bengals) to bring the Eagles back into the playoff hunt. Unfortunately, the wheels soon fell off the Hoying bandwagon and the Eagles lost three straight to finish 6-9-1.

In ‘98, the Rhodes Era hit an abyss with a 3-13 record after Gruden left to become the head coach in Oakland. The ensuing quarterback carousel — between a suddenly horrible Hoying, a has-been in Peete, and a never-was in Koy Detmer — was really a minor footnote for one of the worst Eagles teams in franchise history. Plus it’s hard to have any controversy over the starting quarterback for a football that finished 10 games under .500.

Ironically, it was the quarterback controversy of ‘97 that ultimately gave way to stability. The team’s 3-13 record got Rhodes fired, Green Bay Quarterbacks Coach Andy Reid hired, and brought the Eagles the second pick in the ‘99 draft — a draft that experts were touting as the greatest collection of first round quarterback talent since the famed ‘83 class of John Elway, Jim Kelly, and Dan Marino (amongst others). Talk about luck! Not only that, the Eagles selected the only quarterback in that first round that’s still playing in the NFL today.

And yet here we are again, though a lot has changed:

• Rhodes is now a defensive assistant with the Texans — a franchise that didn’t even exist until the 2002 season.
• Gruden is now the third man in the Monday Night Football booth.
• The current president, Barack Obama, gets his bad press for federal spending and not federal jobbing.
• I wish I didn’t have to shave now.

I know that this storm began swirling last season, after Kolb played well in two starts and Vick began to find his legs to create the rare three-way quarterback controversy. But a few half-hearted calls for the untested backup or a few whispers for the disgraced and freakishly talented former number one pick to take the job of a five-time (now six-time) Pro Bowl quarterback are nothing compared to a fan-base divided into Team Kolb and Team Vick.

For those interested in the glass-half-full perspective, think about this: the last time we had a full-fledged quarterback controversy in Philadelphia, it was between Peete and Detmer. With all due respect to those two undersized signal callers, neither are in the same league as Kolb and Vick. And thank goodness for that. (I’ll save the Kolb-Hoying comparisons until his next start. He deserves at least that from me.)

Another glass-half-full thought: Wow, Vick looked good. Over 100 yards rushing in a little over a half behind center? Check. Efficient but unspectacular passing that resulted in a passer rating of over 100? Check. Getting the players to buy in and believe in him? Check. Sure he had his share of errors — who’d have thought we’d be asking him to run more, like say on third and goal from the five when all he had to beat to the pylon was a linebacker — and yes, he’s definitely capable of throwing together a McNabb-sized clunker on any given Sunday. Just on this Sunday, Vick looked like the Eagles starting quarterback.

(Quick tangent to really get glass-half-full here: Imagine if Vick did for the Eagles what Steve Young did for the 49ers. When Bill Walsh rescued him from football purgatory in Tampa, Young was every bit the wild young stallion behind center that Vick was early in his career. Look at the similarities, Young was a left-handed quarterback who could make defenders look silly in the open field. Walsh broke him in during the late 80s and had him learn from Joe Montana. Vick didn’t have that kind of time to learn from McNabb, but the possibility is there. As for those who think Vick is too old, his 30 years don’t include two full seasons of contact football. Now let’s move on before I pour too much water into this glass.)

Ironically, the sizable group of Team McNabbers are finally getting their just due. It just goes to show you how dependable Five was to the Eagles because the previous 10 and half seasons were almost devoid of this type of quarterback controversy. Sure there were a few flare-ups — Jeff Garcia’s run in ‘06 and McNabb’s benching for Kolb against the Ravens in ‘08 — but nothing that coach Reid couldn’t squash with a simple, “McNabb’s my quarterback.”

Maybe that’s it. Maybe this controversy is much ado about nothing. If we’ve learned anything in the Andy Reid Era, it’s that Big Red does what he wants. He doesn’t cater to popular opinion, no matter how foolish he looks, and he sticks with his guys. In this case, prevailing opinion is that Vick should start in Detroit on Sunday. While this may be what he ultimately decides, I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes with Kolb, provided he gains the requisite medical clearance. Reid didn’t hesitate to reaffirm Kolb when asked if the 2007 second round pick was still his quarterback.

Two atrocious quarters were not enough to change Big Red’s mind, but what will the next two quarters bring us in the star-crossed Kevin Kolb Era? Luckily for almost everyone involved, Kolb’s concussion will likely give us another week of the Michael Vick Experience. All things considered, I’ll gladly take it.