Offense's limitations paint bleak picture for McNabb

Osi Umenyiora will not be the only the defensive lineman Donovan McNabb will get up close and personal with this year if his teammates don't get open a bit faster. AP

MAILBAG Dr. Z will answer select user questions each week in his NFL mailbag. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Sarah Dion of Seattle, our E-mailer of the Week, asks a question that goes right to the heart of a major problem on the Eagles: Donovan McNabb's upcoming health, as relative to his protection.

"Why didn't Andy Reid give Winston Justice any help against Osi Umenyiora in Sunday night's Eagles-Gaints game? Is there any explanation for when coaches fail to make an obvious adjustment?"

This is what it looked like to me. When it became obvious that there was a dangerous overmatch, the Eagles started sliding LG Todd Herremans over to cut off OU's inside rush. He was too slow. Osi was hitting the gap, when he chose to go inside, before Herremans could get into position, and sometimes the guard would check his own area first and then move over, which, of course, gave him no chance at all. Besides, inside help was only part of the issue. Osi was beating Justice on outside moves and bull rushes, too.

OK, now that it was obvious that the scheme wasn't working, some adjustment should have been made; a tight end or a big back, such as fullback Thomas Tapeh, doing what they call chipping on the DE, which means giving him a bump before departing into their pattern. Chipping wouldn't have helped because Osi was stoked and breathing fire. Someone would have had to make helping Justice a full-time job.

But that would have taken the helper out of his pattern, which would have disrupted the way the attack had been set up. It looked to me as though the Eagles figured that if they sent enough receivers out, McNabb, on a short drop, could find one of them quickly. He couldn't, though, because they weren't getting free or the rush was fouling up his reads.

OK, the next question would be, why didn't they go to max protection, keep seven, even eight people in to block and send only two or so receivers out? Because, and I'm only guessing here, they hadn't worked on it much during the week. And even so, maximum protection is great for a team such as the Patriots, who have receivers such as Randy Moss, who get free no matter how many people they have to beat, but those Eagle receivers would get swallowed up downfield by multiple defenders, and that's when the interceptions come.

Final point to be made on this sorry subject. When your quarterback is getting annihilated, don't you have to do something, ANYTHING, to stop the bleeding? Yes. Watching that game was like watching a guy getting run over by a bus, in slow motion. Philly's OL coach, Juan Castillo, is a good guy and a sound coach. I had some nice talks with him during Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl week. Maybe it wasn't his call. I'd have to phone him to find out, but if it was Andy who wanted to keep the offensive plan as devised, I'm sure Castillo wouldn't tell me, out of loyalty. You know when I'll find out for sure? At the league meetings in March.

Here's my Almost E-mailer of the Week because I looked forward so much to answering this question: Lance Coffee of Norcross, Ga. He said that I mentioned zany stunts the writers would pull in the old days. What stunts? Let's hear one.

When I was a Jets beat man, Weeb Ewbank had a routine for his Wednesday press conferences. The first thing he would do would be to step up to the podium, adjust his glasses and read the injury report, as given to him by Jeff Snedeker, the trainer. One day we managed to shortstop it and substitute one of our own. So up stepped Weeb, with the mikes turned on and the cameras rolling. He adjusted his glasses and began:

"John Ebersole -- pulled eye. Mark Lomas -- worms." Pause. "What the hell is this thing?"

By the way, I really appreciated what you wrote.

Anthony B., an English teacher from San Antonio, writes, "I am standing by an open window, getting ready to say goodbye to this screwed up world. I am not even going to finish watching the game that's on TV. I just heard a commercial, which I think was from NFL.com ... its logo ran underneath it ... in which a character said, and then another one repeated, 'There's eleven leaders on this defense ...' Has literacy in this country really regressed so far?"

Yeah, me heard it, too. There is leaders. Aren't that right? I don't think the English, to NFL.com, make difference too much. Pretty soon language people, thems what makes the rules, will says it's OK since everyone say it anyways.

Memory question from Memory Lane, where Z strolls idly, looking at the rooftops, bumping into trees. Since you ranked Otto Graham so high as a QB, why did John Sample kill him in his book, Confessions of a Dirty Ballplayer, which I just finished reading? And how accurate is his portrayal? Name of E-mailer, William of New York by way of Budapest (it's always getting in the way).

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