A Kiss to Build a Dream On

Give me a kiss to build a dream on

And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss.

Sweetheart, I ask no more than this

A kiss to build a dream on.

Give me a kiss before you leave me

And my imagination will feed my hungry heart

Leave me one thing before we part

A kiss to build a dream on.

So says Louis Armstrong to the one he loves, and who are we to disagree? After the Eagles beat the Viking horde, I had some trouble deciding what it meant. Watching McNabb dance on the sidelines, rejoicing in this, his most redemptive performance of his entire career, I felt like I needed to go back to my little personal drawing board, redraw my criteria, reconsider the wheels and pulleys that now define my feelings towards the birdmen, and come to terms with this win.

My feeling, I have determined, may best be diagnosed as a crisis of commitment. Naturally, in sports as in love, one protects oneself. We've been burned by this team so many times before. Every season they come knocking, telling us that they've changed, a new flirtation ensues, they get us TO (as opposed to flowers), then Curtis, and ask us to come back. And we do. We come back. But we have doubts lurking within us, bad memories, questions holding us back, and we protect ourselves. A friend of mine is reading a book called Better Single than Sorry. I totally divested my heart from the Eagles after the 'Skins game. And now this. What do we do with it? It's a good sign, certainly, but do we go all in, now, and risk our hearts anew?

There is, as I said, a part of myself that delighted in watching McNabb jumping around after the game, Andy Reid looking relieved, and the local scribes falling all over themselves to say they told us so, that this was a wonderful moment for the franchise. There is also a part of myself that feels that this is deja vu all over again, with echoes of the Superdome in January of 2007. Remember that? Jeff Garcia pulling rabbits out of his ass to get us on his back and carry the team to the playoffs after 5 went down (again) and coming so close to knocking off the Saints? It was, while it lasted, one hell of a ride. Garcia was fabulous down that stretch. He was the first really talented quarterback whose approach to the position matched Reid's approach to moving the football. Garcia made the West Coast sing.

As much as we liked Garcia, we knew that he was not without flaws. He ran the offense like a swiss watch, but he lacked the sheer athleticism to change the game, to get the ball downfield. In the playoffs, he was maxed out. Sheldon hit Bush, Reid mismanaged the clock, we lost, we felt burned but not surprised, angry maybe, and went home. I remember ending the night throwing up PBR into a trash bag outside my girlfriend's room, cussing about how we needed to make a frankenquarterback out of McNabb's arm, athleticism and physique, and Garcia's poise and resourcefulness. It was a bad night. 

For all of his devotion to becoming a pocket passer, McNabb, who is a far better player than Garcia can even dream of being, remains an athletic gunner in the Brett Favre mold, trapped and shackled within an overcautious offense that too seldom makes use of his rocket arm, which remains his greatest strength. I have always assumed that the central problem of the ReidNabb era lay somewhere therein. We had enough of a quarterback to thrill us, but not enough of a quarterback to overcome a relatively weak supporting cast. As of the end of the Vikings' game, I still felt that I hadn't seen enough to feel like we were outside the GarciaNabb trap. McNabb remained the nearly-great QB as ever, surrounded by Westbrook, a great defense, and wide receivers that Reid met at a Mormon Church group, if such things exist. But then, a funny thing happened.

  Looking around at the rest of the league, I had the sudden realization that, on any given Sunday, the Eagles have a more than fair shot of taking down any of the other seven teams that are still alive. Right now, of course, come the Giants. This game is huge. Absolutely apocalyptic. But, having split the regular season with the Giants, watched them fall from an unstoppable force into a controversy-riddled team that limped into the postseason, we know we can beat them. We need to play well, better than we did against the Vikings, but there is no reason to think that we don't have a very good shot at this team. Aside from this matchup, the Eagles are looking at two teams they have already beaten soundly, (Arizona and Pittsburgh) a paper tiger that just lost to Kansas City, (Tennessee) a team no one seems sold on that will struggle to move the ball against the Eagles (Sand Diego) and a pair of teams that are scary, but could be beaten in Baltimore and Carolina. The '07 Pats ain't walking through that door.

Arizona was our Thanksgiving turkey, and is not a threat at all, even if they get past Carolina. Carolina is the scary team from the NFC, but if we can stop the run and Steve Smith, they are completely beatable. As well as the defense is playing, with the secondary that is just suffocating and the front seven that almost completely collared Adrian Peterson, that doesn't sound so far out. Don't look now, but if things break the Eagles' way, they could be headed to the Super Bowl.

Should they get that far, they will probably face Baltimore, Tennessee or Pittsburgh. I don't believe that the Chargers, without a healthy LDT, will get through the Steelers. The Baltimore-Tennessee game will be great, but I like Tennessee with the Ravens starting a rookie QB on the road. The Eagles have beaten Pittsburgh already, and the Titans remain a team that peaked in week 10 or thereabouts. Should the Eagles play the Ravens, can't you picture McNabb salivating at the chance for a rematch? Wouldn't that be an awesome game?

Let me be clear. I am not at all predicting a championship. This year's team is probably not as strong as the 2004 team, as they lack a big-time receiver, the linebacking corps is not as strong, and Dawkins' recent discovery of the fountain of youth should not obscure the fact that he is close to the end. Having said that, I am saying that this postseason represents a tremendous opportunity. This year is a window of sorts.

The Eagles might not need to surpass greatness to win it all this year. There is not a world-beater among the teams left standing. The Giants proved last year that if you peak at the right time, anything is possible. The 2006 World Series Champions were the 83-win Cardinals, who were not nearly the squad they had been as recently as 2004, when they ran into the white-hot Red Sox and were swept in the World Series. I remember Mike Kryzewski explaining how Duke had been knocked out of March Madness short of the Sweet 16, saying that, of the 64 teams, 30 or so could, on any given night, beat any team in the field, but that only five or so teams could do so five times in a row. The margin of error for even very good teams was so small. The NFL, in the present era of parity, is that way right now. No one is untouchble. The Eagles have what amounts to a good shot here, a rare and precious moment in the history of this franchise where they will not be confronted by a clearly superior team on the path to a Championship. Like the Phillies ad on the SEPTA buses say, Dreams Do Come True. Could this be the moment?

The truth is that we just don't know yet. But we have our kiss, we have plenty to build a dream on. I always wondered about that song, though: is the kiss really enough to heal Louis' hungry heart? As any Eagles fan can tell you, you take what you can get.