Paul Domowitch: Eagles' McNabb has struggled like this before - and righted himself

EVERY NOW and then in his career, Donovan McNabb has gone through these mutt-ugly periods when you scratch your head and wonder how in the world he ever managed to get invited to one Pro Bowl, let alone five.

He's going through one of those periods now, and it couldn't have come at a worse time for the Eagles, who pretty much need to win five of their final six games to have any chance of making the playoffs. Yeah, their short-yardage offense stinks, and yeah, the defense has had some problems stopping the run, and yeah, it often appears as if the offensive-playcalling has been outsourced to India. But if McNabb just played better, a 5-1 finish might look slightly more doable.

After a solid six-game start that included a .640 completion percentage, a 7.5-yards-per-attempt average, eight touchdowns and only three interceptions, McNabb's game started going south in late October. In the Eagles' previous four games, he has a .538 completion percentage, a 6.6-yards-per-attempt average and six TDs and five interceptions, including three in Sunday's ugly, 13-13 tie against the Bengals. He's completed only six of 27 passes in the first quarters of those four games.

Is there any way he can get his act together in time to help save this season for the Eagles? Well, as unlikely as it might seem right now, there is precedent to make you believe it can happen.

Remember the rocky start to the '03 season when the Eagles opened the Linc with losses to the Bucs and Patriots? For six games, McNabb was terrible. I mean, really, really terrible. A .479 completion percentage. A 4.5-yards-per-attempt average. Two touchdowns. Six interceptions. Fans were starting to remember Doug Pederson with fondness.

Everybody wanted McNabb benched. But Andy Reid kept telling us that McNabb was "doing a lot of good things'' and stuck with him. Finally, McNabb just snapped out of it and went on a tear.

In the Eagles' final 10 regular-season games that season, he completed 64 percent of his passes, averaged 8.2 yards per attempt and threw 14 TDs to only five interceptions. Oh, yeah. The Eagles won nine of those 10 games and ended up going to the NFC Championship Game for the third straight year. And, yes, losing for the third straight year when McNabb threw three interceptions in the infamous why-did-we-give-up-on-the-run, 14-3 loss to Carolina.