Randall Cunningham Returns to the Champion Philadelphia Eagles
AP - Last year the Philadelphia Eagles had a perfect season that ended in a Super Bowl victory. Randall Cunningham ended up throwing the final touchdown pass to wide receiver Fred Barnett, 41 yards with no time left in the game to make it, 28-24 Eagles victory.
However in the opening few weeks of the 1991 season the Philadelphia Eagles are struggling as returning NFL champions. Mainly because quarterback Randall Cunningham was injured during the pre-season, and ended up missing the first two games of the regular season. In those two games the Philadelphia Eagles stumbled to an 0-2 start, loosing Week 1 13-10 to the Los Angeles Raiders and then in week 2 loosing 10 to 34 to the Washington Redskins. A seemingly unbreakable 10 point glass ceiling preventing the Eagles offense from truly taking off. However it wasn't necessarily due to the short comings at quarterback.
The Philadelphia Eagles backup quarterback is the now 10 year veteran Jim McMahon. McMahon is certainly no new comer when it comes to championship teams as he was the leader of the 1985 champion Chicago Bears team. So far throughout his career Jim McMahon has 13,777 yards with 79 touchdowns and 68 interceptions. He is certainly a capable quarterback, but at his 32 years of age he might be slowing down as the game speeds up around him. McMahon struggled in the first two games of the season for the Eagles and as a result the Eagles are starting off with a loosing record. However luckily for them their true leader, Randall Cunningham, is now fully healed and ready to get on the football field.
"It's just part of the game. No team can call themselves a great team if they rely on a single man. I'm grateful that everybody thinks I'm such an integral part of the Eagle's offense. But at the same time I along with the rest of my team thought we should have easily had a victory in these two weeks. Either way I'm just happy to be on the field and contribute myself. I feel re-invigorated, and anxious after watching from the sidelines to get back in there and hopefully bring a back-to-back championship to this city. People always ask me why I think that I can fly, and I always just tell them, it's because I'm an Eagle."Randall Cunningham, Philadelphia Quarterback
Last year with the Philadelphia Eagles Randall Cunningham had 2,844 yards on 294 of 482 passes. His 60% completion percentage along with his 20 touchdown to 13 interceptions left him with an 80.1 quarterback rating on the season. Not to mention he showed his ability to run the football with 505 yards and 2 touchdowns added to his totals. The Philadelphia Eagles may not have been missing stellar Montana-like numbers from Cunningham these past two games, but what they did miss was the apprehension of the opposing defense. The ability to befuddle some of the best players around the league with the sheer duality of Cunningham's nature. Unfortunately for McMahon his lack of this duality meant a much easier game plan for opposing defenses, but with Cunningham returning for next weeks game against the Kansas City Chiefs the Chiefs better start changing their defensive plans or else this Eagle will soar to the end zone, either by foot, or by air.
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