Staff Blog
McNabb to World: It’s like 2001 All Over Again
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Donovan McNabb, writing on his blog, addresses the possibility that the Eagles might take the Cardinals team lightly:
This week is eerily reminiscent of our first trip to the NFC Championship Game in 2001.. In order to get there then, we had to beat Chicago on the road in very frigid conditions. This time, we had to go to NY and defeat the Giants in very cold weather. Like the last time, this week we will be playing on the road, in a dome, against Kurt Warner and his high-powered offense.
Make no mistake, the Cardinals are a solid football team in all three phases. I know our supporters want to discount their abilities based on the Thanksgiving Day game but they shouldn’t — the Cardinals had to travel here on a short week. I believe we have what it takes to match up with them but we will have to play our best football. If we learned anything from our previous playoff runs it’s that we cannot let up and must play at a higher level each and every week.
Donovan is being smart about this, it’s one thing to harp on the “they’re an improved team” cliche, but it’s quite another to put the opponent’s talents into a bit of context.
Look, no one is mistaking this Cardinals team for those Greatest Show on Turf Rams teams (or Warner of 2009 for Warner of his MVP days) but planting the image of a team that needs to be respected can do nothing but good.
