*Official* Philadelphia E-A-G-L-E-S Thread (2007-2008)

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2002- Eagles went 7-3 with McNabb. They then went 5-1 without McNabb(and the loss was in week 17 which may have been meaningless...I'm not sure)

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But there's a problem with your analysis: you're only focusing on win/loss records. Remember our discussion about Brad Johnson leading into 2006? You can't just look at win/loss records.

In 2002, the Eagles were 5-1 with AJ Feeley against bad competition.

Defeated 7-9 STL 10-3.
Defeated 7-9 SEA 27-20.
Defeated 7-9 WAS 34-21.
Defeated 5-11 DAL 27-3.
Lost to 10-6 NYG 10-7 (OT). This game mattered in the standings.

So yeah, that's nice and all for a backup QB, but still all those wins were against losing teams.

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2003- McNabb played every game and went 12-4

2004- McNabb played 15 games and went 13-2. They lost the one game he didn't play.

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Let's throw out the last two games of 2004, making them 13-1 with McNabb and 0-0 without him.

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2005- McNabb played 9 games and went 4-5. They went 2-5 without him.

2006- McNabb played 10 games and went 5-5. They went 5-1 wihtout him.

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But as we've gone over ad infinitum, the Eagles were historically unlucky during that 5-5 run. They were WAY better than 5-5. A lot of that luck evened out over the second half, paving the way for Garcia's run.

And once again, the super backup faced an easy schedule.

Lost to 12-4 IND 45-21.
Defeated 8-8 CAR 27-24.
Defeated 5-11 WAS 21-19.
Defeated 8-8 NYG 36-22.
Defeated 9-7 DAL 23-7.

Mostly .500 competition, but as we all know, .500 in the NFC last year didn't mean much.

We can also throw out the last game of 2006 since that didn't matter either.

You're also throwing out some great seasons by McNabb since he played the whole year - that's not really fair imo. So overall since 2001, throwing out the last two games of 2004 and the last of 2006 since they didn't matter:

With McNabb: 52-23 (.693) - ~11 wins for a season
W/O McNabb: 11-7 (.611) - ~9.7 wins for a season

So on the surface, your point has some validity: the Eagles have not shown a big regression without McNabb. But dig deeper and you realize the Eagles have won exactly one game against a winning team without McNabb: the stomping of Dallas last year. (The two games they won under McMahon were against 4-12 GB and 6-10 STL.)

So there is a bigger gap there than meets the eye.