Phil Sheridan: Kolb earns his stripes

You didn't hear much about Kevin Kolb on the endless network pregame shows today. You didn't see his picture on the national sports Web sites, either.

All the buzz was about that other Eagles quarterback, the dogman-turned-Wildcatter. The earnest young Texan, making the second start of his career, didn't get enough attention to qualify as an afterthought.

The actual game between the Eagles and the woe-woe-woeful Kansas City Chiefs was another matter. Kolb turned in a fine performance at quarterback, throwing for 327 yards and two touchdowns in a 34-14 victory. With his 391-yard performance last week, Kolb became the first quarterback in NFL history - as in not Montana or Elway, Marino or Manning - to throw for more than 300 yards in each of his first two starts.

There has to be an asterisk attached to any analysis of this game, of course. A red asterisk. Those Chiefs are a truly wretched NFL team. So it would be a mistake to canonize Kolb or to dismiss the ho-hum performance of Michael Vick in Andy Reid's thrill-a-minute football sideshow. It's clear Reid was offering future opponents a little glimpse of Vick while withholding the more inventive Wildcat/spread/whatever-you-call-it plays.

It is breathtaking, really, to be able to win a game this handily with a cast of young understudies while devoting 11 offensive plays to "knock the rust" off Vick. Even Kolb had to grade himself on a curve.

"We saw the film" on the Chiefs, he said. "We knew there were going to be some holes there."

But there's no getting around the fundamental conclusion that Kolb was the most effective quarterback on the field - better than the comebacking Vick and better than the Chiefs' $60 million Matt Cassell. Finally, in his third season since being drafted as heir to Donovan McNabb's kingdom, we can say with reasonable certainty that Kolb can be a legitimate NFL starter.

"Although you believe it," Kolb said, "nobody truly knows. That's why there's so much doubt in the air with a young player. Hopefully, I'll put the past behind me with the mistakes I made before."

It is significant that Kolb made all his big plays out of the Eagles' standard offensive formations - which were already varied and complex before Reid's newfangled obsession with direct snaps to running backs and receivers.