Comparing Feeley and Garcia

lost in the ongoing mcnabb/feeley debate is what appears to be another good personnel decision by eagles management -- choosing to keep aj feeley over jeff garcia.

when donovan went down last season, the eagles completely changed their offense and became a run first offense centered around brian westbrook, i believe, based on limitations in garcia's arm strength and inclination. with feeley at the helm, andy seems to have kept his pass first philosophy in place. while aj doesn't have donovan's arm strength, he does seem to be able to make most of the throws and doesn't seem shy about sticking the ball into tight places.

jeff is not a gunslinger by nature and checks down to running backs more than any worst coast offense qb i've seen. from what i've read, garcia's reluctance to pull the trigger on downfield balls was one of the primary issues me-o had with garcia.

it's hard to tell since i wasn't at the game (and it's only one game), but aj doesn't seem to leave as many plays on the field as jeff did. one thing is for sure, he's certainly a lot more aggressive than the careful kid we saw in his first go round with the birds.

last season, feeley was an afterthought among eagles fans, who were too glad to have a real, live professional backup qb in jeff garcia after years of neckbeard playing the role. grateful at his decent performance in the second half of last season, eagles nation clamored for the team to resign him. the eagles, on the other hand, showed little, if any, interest in bringing him back. conspiracy theorists and angelo cataldi's of the world claimed it had something to do with mcnabb. as it turns out, it may have had a lot to do with feeley just being the better qb. in fact i wonder, given just how little interest the birds had in resigning jeff this season (remember he was publicly begging the eagles to make him any sort of contract offer), if they'd have even looked at him at all last season if they knew that feeley was going to be cut by the chargers.

QB Question Irrelevant

i'm starting to think the question of who should start at qb is irrelevant. the anti-mcnabb crowd is riled up to the point where they would root against him if he got back on the field. unless feeley does a nose-dive and uncorks a few stinkers, i fear they wouldn't accept mcnabb back. even then. sheesh.

the virulence on the radio is ridiculous. you'd never guess this guy has gone to five pro-bowls while QB'ing our team. you'd never guess this guy played with a broken leg for us. you'd never guess that this guy led the team to the playoffs 5 years in a row.

he's sucking right now, but he came back from a knee injury probably earlier than he should have. aren't you people going to be sorry when he's leading some other team into the playoffs and we're stuck with aj feeley (a guy who's been CUT by two teams)?

i have issues with his personality and over-sensitivity, but come on, the guy wins games when he is healthy and you're talking about dumping him because of a game the backup had during which he threw 3 interceptions. 3 interceptions!

i keep hearing on the radio that people hate how mcnabb throws the ball into the ground. i thought a lot about this "ball into the ground" thing as i was watching the eagles-pats game. see, the thing is, *every* qb has balls fall short of the receiver. both brady and feeley threw short balls a few times. it happens. the problem is that not every qb throws a ball as hard and with as low a trajectory as mcnabb does. when a qb lobs a ball and it falls short, it's just an inaccurate pass. when don throws a ball short, it literally looks like he threw it into the ground because it has no trajectory and it's flying at 100 mph. still, why does that matter so much? why do people get so pissed about that?

you know what the sad part about this is? for the ringleader (yes you, angelo cataldi, embodiment of all that is evil in sports radio), it has been more of a personal axe than anything else. cataldi has been out to get mcnabb ever since mcnabb refused to forgive him for that stupid stunt he pulled at the draft with his idiot cronies. cataldi loves jumping on anything negative involving mcnabb as a way to get back at mcnabb for shunning him during his career, you can hear it in his voice. that glee he gets anytime he gets a chance to rip mcnabb. you'll note that mcnabb only recently started to do guest spots on cataldi's show (once he realized the only way to rehabilitate his image in the city is to make peace with the embodiment of all that is evil in sports radio). too little too late unfortunately. cataldi is definitely petty enough to carry a grudge.

i wish it was a referendum on who should be the morning sports radio host and not whether the qb should be the guy who got cut by two teams vs. the guy who is the best qb to ever play for the eagles. isn't this the same lynch mob that was bitching about charles barkley, only to whine afterwards when we were left watching tim perry, andrew lang, and jeff hornacek?

Coaching or Talent or Time

topic for discussion today:

now that we've seen that this team *can* play at a high level do you think that this answers the questions about andy reid and drafting/team talent level?

i think that andy is a good evaluator of talent, and the inital analysis (i know i haven't done any other teams, but still intend to at some point) shows that premise isn't too far off-base. people have been blaming the team's poor performance on poor coaching and/or lack of talent and/or poor qb play and/or this morning i heard team cheapness (of all things). given the overall success level this team has had under andy reid, not all of those things can be true.

so which ones are the real reasons why this team has been underachieving?

to me, the single biggest reason the birds competed against the patriots was that the coaches did a better job of gameplanning than in previous games. jj did some creative things we haven't seen before (not the least of which was using a 3-4 look with more zone blitzing rather than overload blitzing). andy found a specific flaw in the patriots defense and attacked it repeatedly. player after player in the post game interviews praised the gameplan, specifically, which i haven't noticed in the past. sometimes, there is veiled grumbling about not running the ball enough after wins, while there was none on sunday even though they lost.

QB Controversy

others weighing in on the brewing qb controversy

- phil sheridan votes for feeley

Feeley wasn't perfect. Spotting the Patriots a seven-point lead with that early interception made the hill the Eagles tried to climb that much steeper. And the two late interceptions were killers.

"I take this on my back," Feeley said. "We put ourselves in a chance to win and basically I lost it for us."

That's harsh, but you do have to wonder how fans and the media would have reacted if McNabb played exactly the same game. Three picks. Three touchdowns. Feeley slipped and fell on the first play after the Eagles recovered that surprise onside kick, squandering an important early opportunity. He made some great throws and missed some open receivers.

Actually, McNabb has played exactly that game a number of times. You may remember a three-point loss to the Patriots in a game in Jacksonville a few years back. Three picks. Three touchdowns. As always, when the Eagles lose, McNabb got roasted for it.

But fair is fair. In between the interceptions, Feeley played a terrific game against an outstanding team. He moved the Eagles up and down the field. He read and reacted to blitzes. He threw for touchdowns instead of settling for field goals.

- john smallwood is also pro-feeley

There shouldn't even be a debate.

McNabb has had 10 games to figure things out, knock off the rust, recover from injury, regain his form. For whatever reason, it hasn't happened. The Eagles were lucky to be 5-5 in those starts.

Except for that spectacular game against the Detroit Lions and some flashes here and there, McNabb has rarely looked like an upper-echelon quarterback, much less the one who made five Pro Bowls in his first seven seasons.

I even surprise myself to say this, but the guy at quarterback at this particular moment is Feeley.

This really is as much about what McNabb hasn't done as it is about what Feeley has done in the last two games.

There's no doubt that Feeley's three interceptions - the first resulted in the game's first score, the second came when the Eagles were in range of a game-tying field goal attempt and the third came with 11 seconds left - were costly, but no more so than McNabb's numerous miscues this season.

Still, Feeley did tons more to almost get the Birds a victory than he did to prevent one. There were times when I believed the same thing about McNabb, but now isn't one of them.

I'm not savvy enough to know if McNabb is done for good or just needs more time to get things back together.

The good things McNabb has done in the past are irrelevant to the situation at hand.

This isn't about loyalty or protecting some guy's ego. It's about making the playoffs.

- rich hoffman thinks mcnabb has earned the right to try

After the game, Eagles coach Andy Reid made it as clear as he possibly could: that he expected McNabb to continue to make progress with his ankle and thumb injuries, and that he expects him to practice at some point this week - but maybe not Wednesday - and that if McNabb is healthy, it will be his job again. Period.

It is how a real team acts.

There is a protocol here and it is simple: No man should lose his job because of an injury, and especially not this man - the very face of your franchise for the last 9 years. It is simply how you treat people. It is bedrock. Reid is absolutely correct.

This is not to diminish Feeley or what he did last night, nearly shocking the world. With the whole country watching, anticipating slaughter, Feeley played dynamically. To start the game, he threw an interception that Asante Samuel returned for a touchdown, but then managed to pull himself together. His final numbers: 27-for-42 for 345 yards.

Because it is obvious what last night pointed out - the same thing that the end of last season pointed out with Garcia; the same thing people who root for McNabb have feared for a while. That is, that time and the injuries have robbed him of . . . something. We can debate what that is, that missing ingredient, but there seems little doubt that it is missing. After a night like this one, it is really hard to argue the other side.

But McNabb needs to play again. He needs to be given that opportunity when he is healthy. If the leash is short in this next game, so be it - but he needs to be out there again. He needs that chance. He deserves that chance. If it goes badly, they can then make the hard call - a historic call for this franchise. But they owe him that chance.

- footballoutsiders thoughts are generally pro-mcnabb

Aaron Schatz: Well, this game is 14-14 right now because of the Eagles offense, not the Eagles defense. Which is very strange with A.J. Feeley at quarterback.

Mike Tanier: Haven’t you heard? Feeley is better than Donovan McNabb. Jeff Garcia is better than Donovan McNabb. Kevin Kolb is better than Donovan McNabb. Andy Reid has only started McNabb for the last seven years because he is trying to cover for the high draft choice he wasted on him. I know it is true because I heard it on the radio.

Vince Verhei: My dad also says McNabb is no good, because he has no passion. So now it’s confirmed by a reliable source.

Mike Tanier: He has no passion. He’s also a coward who is sandbagging it with minor injuries so he can skip this game because he doesn’t want to look bad against the Patriots.

Ben Riley: And yet, J.R. Reed seems to be having a good game. The real story here is the Eagles quarterback. What’s gotten in to A.J. Feeley?

Bill Barnwell: Not really Feeley. It’s more the scheme. The Patriots are much better vertically than they are horizontally defensively. They’re a very slow team horizontally, but a great team when you try to stretch them vertically. The Eagles are a team that does a great job of stretching defenses horizontally with Brian Westbrook.

Aaron Schatz: Yeah, but this isn’t a lot of Westbrook. This is a lot of finding holes in zones downfield, particularly with those in routes. This is by far the worst defensive game the Pats have played this year. Nothing else even comes close.

Ben Riley: All that may be true, but Westbrook has 25 receiving yards. Feeley is reading the blitz and finding the hot route, which, tonight, seems to be the property of Greg Lewis. The Patriots secondary is looking very human tonight, and this game is generating game film a-plenty.

Mike Tanier: The Eagles’ blitz pickup has also been good all game. That’s been a big part of Feeley’s success.

Bill Moore: As Aaron points out, Feeley is doing well picking holes in the zone, but they have also found New England’s secret defensive weakness: Randall Gay. He has made a number of bad plays this year, and is getting toasted tonight.

Bill Barnwell: Nah. Feeley’s nowhere near out of his head. The two interceptions aside, he’s been off on a few other throws high, he’s forced a couple of throws that have fortunately worked out well… Again, this just seems a total schematic match to me.

Aaron Schatz: Clearly, you did not watch San Diego play Baltimore.

If my ears don’t deceive me, Madden and Michaels are criticizing Andy Reid’s clock management. And all around the world, Eagles fans beat their heads against the closest table, wall, or cement block.

I feel really bad for the Eagles fans. Man, they must be so damn frustrated. I can’t believe this is the same team that came out so flat when Tanier and I were at the Linc for Sunday Night Football three weeks ago. This team has so much talent and plays so well at times, but also has some huge holes. The coaching staff makes some great decisions and some stupid ones. Cris Collinsworth is right, what the hell are the Eagles doing running a slant-and-go in field goal range, with three minutes left to keep working towards the goal line?

How obnoxious is the quarterback controversy talk going to be on Philly radio this week? Bad enough to make you want to kill yourself after listening to it, or bad enough to make you want to kill yourself and every single person in a five-mile radius after listening to it?

Stuart Fraser: I was wondering if we were going to have to put Tanier on suicide watch if the Eagles won. Now that they have lost, Feeley is clearly not clutch, doesn’t know what it takes to win, etc. With regards to feeling for Eagles fans, that horrible, horrible, throw did kind of give me Neil O’Donnell/Super Bowl XXX flashbacks for a couple of seconds there.

Mike Tanier: The worst thing is that I will hear it in my classroom. I will hear it in the lunch room. My mom, who gets her information from the doctors in the office she works at and believes everyone else’s opinion over mine, will tell me about it while trying to make chit-chat.

All that stuff I said earlier about McNabb: That’s real talk radio fodder. People are actually saying that McNabb was scared and ducked the Patriots this week. The McNabb haters apply every negative in the world to him: indifferent, lacks leadership, selfish. Cowardly is just the latest and most inane. And the McNabb Haters are legion, because the casual fans who don’t really follow the game just feed off the barstool logic.

Back in 2002, when Feeley replaced McNabb and won three or four games, people actually claimed Feeley was better than McNabb. OK, you want to argue that now, after McNabb has missed parts of three seasons with injuries, go for it. It’s stupid, but go for it. In 2002? You seriously heard the talk back then. Then, last year we had Garcia. The funniest thing was Mike McMahon in 2005. He came into that first game and completed three or four passes. Swear to God, sitting in the bar, I heard a couple of guys start saying, “this kid is good, really finds those open receivers, we might be better off with him in there.” That lasted about a half-hour, but it was amazing how fast they wanted to lay the groundwork. I think if my dog came off the bench and replaced McNabb and somehow tossed a one-yard pass to Westbrook with her mouth, the Haters would start talking about her leadership and guts and intangibles and intelligence and accuracy.

Aaron Schatz: I will say one other thing about “the game plan for beating the Patriots.” Offensively, sure, but the Eagles’ defensive game plan was not as good as it looked. If you blitz the Patriots, you simply can’t count on their receivers dropping this many passes next time. That’s not an excuse, but it is an explanation, or at least a partial one.

Ned Macey: To me, it seemed that the Pats assumed that 95 percent of the offense would go through Westbrook and were going to take that away from them. Then, the Eagles start throwing the ball down the field where the middle has been vacated worrying about Westbrook. Throw in the aforementioned blitz pick-up (which also empties the middle of the field), and we have an explanation for the oft-noticed open middle of the field.

As for Feeley, he obviously played great for him, but were he McNabb, he would have been considered the goat of the game. You lose by 3 points, and you throw an interception returned for a touchdown and an interception into your own end zone when driving for, at least, the game-tying interception? I didn’t think that play call was horrendous. Everyone assumed the Eagles would be methodical, so you see if you can slip one in. If the Patriots don’t bite, you have Samuel and a safety covering what amounts to a decoy. It appeared on a replay that someone (L.J. Smith?) was running free underneath for a short gain that would have gotten a first down. Of course, your quarterback cannot make that monumental mistake.

I know the Eagles defense didn’t exactly shut the Patriots down, but they did only allow seven (should have been 10) second half points. Sure there were drops, but they basically made the Pats a receiver screen and quick dumpoff offense. Brady had nothing down the field. If the Eagles still had Rod Hood or some third cornerback who had a prayer of staying with Welker, then they may have won.

Mike Tanier: Rocky went the distance with Apollo. Feeley played very well, but it wasn’t some other-worldly performance. He had three touchdowns and three interceptions, including one in desperation. Weren’t those McNabb’s Super Bowl numbers? In the end, you have to be more careful when you throw to Asante Samuel’s side of the field.

As an Eagles fan, I am a little happy to see the effort, particularly on offense. But I am also ticked. This offense would have beaten the Packers and the Redskins in the first meeting. It would have taken the ball out of the Bears’ hands. It would have made those fumbled punts irrelevant against the Packers. This was the offense of a seven- or eight-win team. Where has it been?

McNabb haters know who they will blame, but it’s not just about the quarterbacking. Where have these receivers been all year? Where has this offensive line been? Saw ‘em against the Lions and a little bit against the Redskins. DVOA has seen them much of the year, and I guess they have been there when the team has been between the 20s, but I haven’t seen it in the red zone, and I didn’t see it against beatable opponents early in the season, when the Eagles could have made this game more meaningful.

And the next morning, when Mr. Tanier heads back to school…

Mike Tanier: The custodian stopped me at 7:30 to talk up Feeley. My homeroom aide is talking up Feeley. They aren’t saying: Well, if McNabb is banged up, we can win a game or two with Feeley. It’s: Feeley is better, reads the field better, more accurate. I guess not only is Andy Reid an idiot, but the front offices of the Chargers and Dolphins are idiots for letting a potential franchise quarterback like Feeley slip through their mitts.

Game 11 Thoughts

i'm not a big believer in moral victories, but against this opponent and with the way the team played i think it's possible this might qualify. we'll know this time next week. will this game be a springboard to get the team and coaches out of their funk or will this be like the 4th and 1/"load left" game (where the birds didn't win again for the rest of the year)?

- the biggest thing that's going to come out of this game is that people are going to want to manufacture a QB controversy. feeley played a great game, probably the best possible game he can play... and yet his stat line is pretty much the same as mcnabb's was in the superbowl. feeley played a "great" game tonight. mcnabb played a "horrible" game in the superbowl. feeley got great protection tonight. mcnabb had horrible protection in the superbowl. feeley makes an ill-advised pass that results in an interception yet "he's not the reason the eagles lost the game" (as some talking head is saying now). mcnabb throws an ill-advised pass in the superbowl and he's a terrible qb. i'm not trying to be a mcnabb apologist and i'm not trying to downplay how well feeley played tonight, but if mcnabb got the protection in the superbowl that feeley got tonight, the birds win that game easily. i know don's been playing like ass this season, but if there's a chance he can get back to being the player he once was, he's our best chance to win a superbowl.

- o-line played terrific tonight. this was the best and most complete game they've played in a long time. richard seymour made zero impact on tonight's game. i can't remember the last time i watched the patriots play and seymour didn't appear to be the second coming of reggie white. the inside trio played exceptionally well, i thought. it was like night and day compared to the superbowl. none of the three was getting picked up and thrown into the backfield like hank fraley and artis hicks were. great game by the fat guys.

- kudos to the coaches for their gameplan tonight. they had a good plan and made no game management blunders. i don't even have a problem with trying the double move on asante samuel (even though the birds really should have been trying to run down the clock). at least they were being aggressive. love going for it on 4th down. love qb sneaks on 3rd and 1. love the 3-4 look by jj with gocong moving around as a pass rusher (where the heck was this all season)?

- sometime earlier this season, someone mentioned they didn't understand why jj wasn't using gocong to rush the passer (bumble possibly?). tonight, it appeared to me that gocong was the best pass rusher on the field.

- greg lewis sighting! how can we get him to believe he's playing the patriots every week?

- best game by any crew of eagles linebackers probably since the trotter/emmons/caldwell days. spikes was dynamic, gaither was solid in pass coverage, and gocong made an impact rushing the passer.

- jj is looking awfully old. those of us who have been criticizing him may get our wish. i got the feeling tonight that he has the look of someone who's ready to hang 'em up.

- good job by the offense to get back to business after that awful interception return td that spotted the patriots 7 points at the start of the game.

- brian dawkins is a shadow of his former self. he can't keep up in deep coverage anymore. it's probably why jj tried to use him down in the box last season, directly leading to michael lewis' departure once everyone figured out he was horrible in coverage. a younger dawkins would have had at least one and possibly two picks tonight (endzone play where he cut in front of receiver crossing in back of zone and possibly at a couple of deep ball he got his hands on). this is a big, big problem. jr reed was supposed to be the heir apparent, but he can't run like he used to either (though he played a decent game tonight and made a few big hits). sean considine was drafted in response to jr's injury and he's shown that he can't play... or that he at least can't play strong safety. big concern for me.

- patterson and bunkley were getting lots of penetration early in the game, but wore down as the game went on. still lacking depth at d-tackle.

all-in-all, this is the least upset i've ever been after an eagles loss. i'm not happy about it, but at least my week isn't going to be miserable.

Wednesday Links

- congrats to jimmy rollins for his mvp season

- phil sheridan says the eagles need "swagger" to beat the patriots. one bill belichick would disagree:

The Patriots gave their defense six concepts to remember entering the week of preparation. "Don't ever make the mistake of thinking [Marshall] Faulk is staying home to block,'' the Pats' game plan that week said. "That's either a screen or he's going to have a delayed release out of the backfield.'' And: "Remember, no matter what your eyes tell you, you'll never see the same play twice. It may look like the same play, but it's not. Don't play the actual play. Play whatever your assigned concept is.'' And "Be physical with them at all times. They don't like that.''

Belichick told Holley: "We're not going to say, 'Watch out for these 50 things.' It's too overwhelming. The concepts will get it done the majority of the time, as long as we don't give up the big play ... [If] they hit an out for 10 yards, life goes on. Let's take away something and then we'll try to scramble to handle the things that we know we're not quite as solid on.'' Faulk gained 130 yards in the game, but never hit a home run. Neither did the Rams. New England won 20-17 in one of the great upsets in Super Bowl history.

Football is a brutal business. Belichick is brutally frank with his players. In front of his team after a 28-10 loss to the Packers in 2002, Belichick said: "We have a lot of smart guys in this room, but on the football field we play like a bunch of f------- morons.'' Holley writes: "If you are one of the players flinching at the harshness of these words, you might as well begin packing. There is no way you are going to last as a New England Patriot. This is one of the reasons the Patriots' college scouts are asked by their bosses, 'Can this player handle tough coaching?' ''

Belichick doesn't buy the canned and cliché stuff you hear in the press all the time. As the Patriots struggled trying to repeat as champs in 2002, he read in the paper one day that one of players said the team had to get its "swagger'' back. That day, in the team meeting, he said: "You know what? We didn't have a 'swagger' last year. What we had was a sense of urgency about playing well, being smart, and capitalizing on every opportunity and situation that came our way ... It wasn't about a f------- swagger. You can take that swagger and shove it right up your a--, OK?''

what's the single biggest difference between bill belichick and andy reid -- tough coaching. reid believes in individual responsibility and empowerment. he's the barney of NFL coaches, "everyone is special", "we're all winners". you'll note the patriots only give their players 6 things to think about for an entire gameplan. the worst coast offense gives players 30 things to think about on every play.

- david aldridge asks the anti-iverson crowd whether they're happy with the "team" now that they're fully into rebuilding mode and losing by 30 every night. for those of you eager to turn the page on the reid/mcnabb era, this is what we're looking at when the eagles go into rebuilding mode. does anyone seriously think that billy king has the foresight and wherewithal to trade andre miller? he should have traded him last season, f-ing billy king.

Game 10 Thought

i only have one thought (a question really) about game 10. why is it that the offense runs the ball whenever there is a QB not wearing a "mcnabb" on his jersey?

does mcnabb have more control over the playcalling that we've been led to believe? can we institute the aj feeley/jeff garcia offense no matter who the QB is? please?

Amusing Video

not sports related, but i get a big kick out of this video


i'd love to run around the eagles sideline and punch andy every time he:
- tries to call something other than QB sneak on 3rd and less than 1
- tries to calls a pass on 3rd and 2
- tries to call for play action on 3rd and longer than 8

Game 9 Thoughts

- if the team can turn this around and miraculously make the playoffs, the goal line stand will absolutely be the turning point of the season (akin to the westbrook punt return). the body language, emotion, and effort of the defense changed dramatically during that stand, like watching boys growing into men.

- that stand was based on talent and effort, not scheme. the very first thing i'd like to change on the eagles is jim johnson and his defensive scheme. i'm tired of his small, quick, "attacking" defense. what i'd really like to see is a nice smash mouth 3-4, but that's unrealistic as this team has few defensive linemen that fit the 3-4 mold. how about "mangenius" after he gets canned by the jets. maybe he can coach up andy on the secrets he learned at the feet of belicheat.

- why does jim johnson insist on being on the sidelines during the game. shouldn't he be up in the box trying to see how teams are attacking and shredding his defense?

- the two schools of thought on mcnabb's performance today are going to be: a) mcnabb played horrible today, i don't care what the numbers say, westbrook should get credit for the winning touchdown and mcnabb made some inaccurate throws and b) the numbers are what the numbers are, i don't see manning getting docked for addai taking a screen 90 yards or brady getting points taken off for moss catching balls 4 feet away from him. i'm still in evaluation mode. the mcnabb i'm seeing still is not the mcnabb he once was.

- my brother called me and pointed out the thing that gets his goat. mcnabb throws an incomplete pass for the 2 pt conversion that could tie the game. instead of getting fired up or disappointed, his reaction is to laugh and joke. what the f*ck is that? are you trying to win the f*cking game or what? my read on that is that it's all fake. it's his defense mechanism to detach his emotionally weak psyche from the result of the game or the play, but who knows. all i know is that it gets my goat too.

- reggie brown made a great adjustment on his td. fluke or turning point?

Reinforcing My Relatively Low Regard for Doctors

had to watch the eagles game on a small hospital tv today as i've been cooped up since late last week with no clear picture of when i'll get out.

-begin rant-

this has been and incredibly frustrating experience and continues to reinforce for me that too many doctors are self-important script followers lacking the ability or courage to think critically. most of them could be replaced more effectively by expert systems at least for initial diagnoses.

i've been here since friday pm and they still have no idea what i have.

thursday - i go to my primary doctor because on wednesday night i noticed a painful little bump on my elbow around midnight. by 2 AM and have a high fever with chills and the bump is growing. by thursday morning, it's the size of a golf ball and a black dot has appeared on the center of the bump. my primary doctor, nice guy who i like thinks i have bursitis and asks if i've been resting on my elbows. i ask if bursitis usually causes fever and chills. hmm, he says, it must be an infection, maybe MRSA. i say i'd guess a bug bite, possibly a spider bite? he goes on and on to explain how what everyone believes are spider bites are in fact never spider bites (no spiders in the northeast are venomous enough to hurt people) and that usually it was really MRSA. he says it's probably an infection and asks me if there has been anything leaking out. yes i say, but it's been clear. he thinks he needs to drain fluid to see if it's bursitis. i point out that something black is embedded in my elbow, but he ignores it and tries to drain fluid, getting nothing. he prescribes me some oral antibiotics.

friday - the antibiotics have helped my fever but the swelling continues to increase and is spreading up my arm toward my torso. i call my doctor because he made me promise to call him to follow up. i call at 9 AM as soon as the office opens. no return call. at 12:30 i call to follow up to learn they have closed for the week. what?!? i call his answering service and ask them to page him because he asked me to call him today. at 2 pm i get a call and tell him what is going on. i ask him if i should go to the hospital, he says yes i should go. crap, i'm supposed to be going to the inspection of the house we're trying to buy at 3 pm. i go to the emergency room and wait for 2 hours before getting into the exam room to tell them what happened. i show them the black thing and they ignore it. they think it's probably an infection and treat me with clindasomething. they don't take a culture of the fluid seeping out of my arm. i wait. they decide i have to stay overnight so they take me upstairs to admit me. they tell me they're going to put me on vancosomething instead to cover more types of infections. both doctors i meet in the ER think nothing of the black spot in my arm. the nurse tells me i'm supposed to get it every 12 hours so my next dose is due at 10 am, around the time the infectious disease specialist will be around to check me out. my fever goes down and the swelling subsides a little.

saturday - i wake up and ask the new nurse (shift change) where my vancosomething is. she says i'm only supposed to get it every 24 hours. i say the overnight nurse told me every 12 hours. she says "no, the label says every 24 hours". i say i'm sure i was told every 12 hours to no avail. i wait. the infectious disease specialist i was told would come at 10 am doesn't show until 4 pm. by then, swelling has increased, area is hot, and my fever has spiked again. he comes in, basically shrugs his shoulders, yeah, it looks like an infection. i won't be able to tell you what kind until i see the results of the culture. i say they didn't take a culture, he's surprised. i tell him that i was too, but they took blood. he says it would only show up in the blood if it had infected the blood, but then i'd have a bigger problem. he turns to leave. before he gets to the door, i finally ask someone directly "aren't you going to take this black thing out of my elbow?!?!" he tells me he thinks it's a scab. i note that it has skin covering it, and ask him if skin grows over scabs. he comes over to take a closer look. he starts poking at it and then it pops and fluid starts leaking out. he takes a culture and pries out a little oblong black object and (i'm not kidding) turns to my wife and me and asks us if we can see what it is because he doesn't have his contact lenses in. i say i have no idea what it is, it looks like a little oblong black thing. he tells me he's going to send it to pathology and decides that he's going to prescribe me doxysomething in case it was a tick. i ask him why the vancosomething was set up for every 24 hours when it seemed to be working to decrease the swelling. he says it should be every 12 hours and says he'll change the orders. my fever is spiking so i ask for motrin. 2 hours later the motrin, doxysomething, and vancosomething arrive.

sunday - the infectious disease guy comes in to tell me nothing grew from the culture. i ask if they'd typically expect something to grow from the culture since i'd already been on antibiotic? shouldn't someone have taken a culture when i first got here? he says that he's going to send in the orthopedic surgeon to drain fluid from my elbow as that should promote healing. i'm thinking healing from what? you guys have no idea what i have. the orthopedic surgeon comes checks me out and immediately says "looks like a tick bite". he's not sure there's any fluid in there, that it looks like it just might me tissue swelling, but sticks a needle in my arm anyway because that's what the infectious disease guy asked for. he roots around for a while and gets nothing. finally at the last second before he's about to give up, he finds some pus. he thinks they may be able to get a culture of this. now my arm is swollen, red, itchy, hot, and hurts like heck. and they still have no idea what i have. and i had to prompt them to do something about the thing that led directly to 50% of my treatment right now. idiots.

NOTE: i fully recognize how hard their jobs are and the amount of training they've had to go through or the various pressures they face and how they're held to such a high standard (though a lot of that they bring upon themselves by doing self important things like insisting that everyone refer to them as "doctor" so and so instead of "mister" so and so). there are plenty of doctors who i respect and i think are smart, but the fact that these guys have taken a completely empirical approach to treating me and have shown little, if any, interest in actually figuring out what is causing it illustrates a fundamental problem with western medicine -- it's designed to treat symptoms and not cure diseases. not a bad business model i guess. if they actually cured people, they'd lose most of their recurring customers.

-end rant-

at least the eagles won. wasn't elegant, but it was exciting at the end.

Next Steps

from captain:

No posts in almost 2 days ?? Where's the interest ? The venom, the anger, the rage ???!!!!! You guys are killing me !!!

i'm not sure exactly what to be angry about. disappointed, definitely, but i'm not mad. i suppose you could be mad at andy if you thought he was holding back something, but i don't think that's the case. you could be mad at donovan if you thought he wasn't trying his best, but i think he is... he's just not nearly effective if he can't buy time with his legs. you could be mad at the o-line for sucking, but thomas, runyan, and herremans have been hurt all year.

i guess i'm mad at andy for making me believe this team was deeper than it really is. with the salary cap teams don't have any real depth anymore, but i thought this team did.

i'm in a wait and see mode because there is only one real decision to be made -- keep mcnabb or trade him. it depends a lot on whether the eagles think mcnabb can get healthy and/or back to the player he once was. if they believe he's going to get healthy, do they try to retool the team on the fly like green bay did with favre or do they start over with the new guy next season? it's interesting to note that green bay has been begging favre to retire for 3 seasons so they can move on.

i'm not sure if mcnabb can ever be the same player he once was. while he's a good enough passer and i think that issues about his "inaccuracy" are overblown, he's not good enough to be only a pocket qb.

regardless, the decision really can't be made until the end of the season, so, no venom from me right now. i need to see how the team progresses this year.

Bottom Line

i'm frustrated as heck with andy reid too, but here's what i can't reconcile.

if his overall record is 83-52, he can't be a bad evaluator of talent AND a bad game day coach AND a horrible play caller AND a horrible motivator. somewhere one or more of those premises have to be wrong because the equation does not add up.