The Eagles eye?

By now, you’ve heard plenty of reference to the 2001 Patriots, 1990 New York Giants, 2000 St. Louis Rams, teams that lost their starting quarterback to injury only to watch a backup lead them to Super Bowl glory. But Jonathan Comey over at Cold, Hard, Football Facts presents a few you might not have thought of.

First, the 1993 Dolphins.

They were fresh off an AFC title game loss and were built around Dan Marino. When Marino went down for the season after five games, the 4-1 Dolphins turned to Scott Mitchell (who had done absolutely nothing in his career). Mitchell played well (84.6 rating) to keep the Dolphins alive, but in the end the defense fell apart and they closed with five losses in a row. (Mitchell, for his part, parlayed his 84.6 passer rating into a big contract in Detroit; so Brady replacement Cassel certainly has financial incentive to play well.)

OK, not great. How about the 1999 San Francisco 49ers?

The 1999 season looked to be another chapter in San Francisco's amazing run. All was well at 2-1 until Steve Young went down for the year and they could manage only a 2-11 record without him, mostly behind former CFL star QB Jeff Garcia.

Yeah, let’s stay away from that one. Last call, the 1991 Philadelphia Eagles:

This team might provide the best comparison to the 2008 Patriots. In 1990, QB Randall Cunningham put up MVP-caliber numbers, completing 271 of 465 passes (58.3%) for 3,466 yards, 7.45 YPA, 30 TD, 13 INT and a 91.6 passer rating. With a solid defense to go along with him, the sky was the limit for 1991.

Then, in the first quarter of the first game, Cunningham (who had never been hurt) went down for the season and it was a brand-new ball game. The Eagles did have an experienced backup in Jim McMahon, a Super Bowl champion with the 1985 Bears. But this was a McMahon far removed from his glory days. He had thrown a total of 33 TD passes in the five years since his crowning win.

The Eagles shifted gears. They went from an explosive squad with a great passing game to a team that employed a four-way running back committee, kept McMahon from doing too much, and played stingy defense. And, after a rough start, it nearly worked. The Eagles won seven of their last eight games to end the year at 10-6, the same record they had in 1990, but with an entirely different type of ball club.

The 1991 Eagles just missed out on the playoffs. But the story has an amazing twist: The Eagles were led by Rich Kotite, in his first year as an NFL coach. So the 2008 Patriots clearly have an advantage over the 1991 Eagles in the head-coaching area. Bill Belichick is considered one of the best coaches in history. Kotite is a poster boy for ineffective NFL leadership.

The 2008 Patriots, facing the same situation, may shift gears in a similar way as the 1991 Eagles, turning to the ground game and taking some of the air our of their spectacular passing game.

Not bad. But here’s the big wild card. All these guys had at least started some semblance of a game at some point since their senior year Homecoming. Clearly, with Matt Cassel, the Patriots are chartering a sea with an uncertain forecast at best.